Parkrun PB

Today was good day for me at my local parkrun, where I ran a PB for the course of 17:27. If you don’t know about parkrun it’s a free, timed 5km event across a few hundred locations in Australia, many more than that in the UK and a number of other countries around the world. Best thing is it’s inclusive and a great community event.

Over the past year and a half I’ve run 18 parkruns, all at my local home event in Port Macquarie and today I lowered my PB from 17:39 which I set just over a year ago to 17:27. Very happy with that because I didn’t expect to run quite that quick. I haven’t done any interval work since my marathon five weeks ago and didn’t expect to still have the pace in me.

One thing I’ve learnt from parkrun and running 5km events is pacing matters for all distances. When I first starting running parkruns I’d go out too hard and struggle over the last 1-2km. today I got my pacing as right as I ever have in a race. The 5km splits were 3:28, 3:33, 3:33, 3:33 and 3:32. Last kilometre I had slowed a little but when i new a PB was on offer I sprinted the last 200m which helped that split. Every time i’ve run a quick 5km has been when me pacing has been consistent. Pacing is possibly more important in shorter distances then longer because there is nowhere to hide if you get it wrong.

Another reason I was happy with todays race is because it was in Gladsoles sandals. It confirms what I already knew in that I can run just as fast in sandals as I can in shoes, maybe faster.

This year I have only managed to get along to three parkruns as I’ve preferred to train longer on the weekends. Earlier in the year I did incorporate a parkrun into a long run and two weeks ago I ran with my daughter and helped her achieve a PB. Today I ran to test myself and see how my fitness has held up after recovering from a marathon and was pleasantly surprised with where I’m at.

If you have a parkrun near you I’d recommend you get along and have a go. It won’t answer all your running questions but it will let you test your fitness and have fun start to the weekend.