This post is mainly for me to document some personally significant running milestones when, over the course of two weekends, I ran my fastest ever 5k, completed a parkrun in under 30 minutes, ran my fastest ever 10k and completed that in under an hour.
parkrun and my 5k PB
On 8 August I turned up at my local parkrun feeling guilty. It was one of those weeks when there were so few volunteers that the run was almost cancelled and I knew that the person who had stepped up at the last minute had really wanted to run. So had I, but on the Saturday morning I was tired and felt that it might all be a bit of a plod.
At the end of the first kilometer my time was under six minutes. The same with the second. And then the third and fourth. I was in with a good chance to complete the course in under 30 minutes for the first time. When I crossed the finish line I knew I had but by Garmin watch had only recorded a distance of 4.98km and I wanted to go by the official time anyway.
An hour or so later I knew. My previous parkrun PB of 30:32, set just a week earlier, had been soundly bettered and my new parkrun PB was 28:27… a whisker over two minutes faster. And it was also my fastest ever 5k. My previous best had been set in May at the Taunton Trail 10k but this was exactly 30 seconds faster.
It had taken nearly 18 months since I first put on a pair of running shoes and started Couch25K but I had finally completed a parkrun in under 30 minutes.
The Frome Running Festival 10k
The following weekend was the Frome Running Festival and I had signed up to run in the 10k race. I’d planned on taking it easy but, after a slow first kilometer where the pack started to spread out, I started running sub-6 minute kilometers again. Right up to the seventh kilometer which seemed to just be a long slog up an endless hill. And then it became a personal battle.
I was tired and knew I was slower than I had been but I also felt that a sub-60 minute 10k was possibly still within my grasp. I plodded on and just hoped I could keep going but then in the last kilometer I realised how close it would be and how much I wanted it and I somehow had enough left in the tank to make it my fastest kilometer. I crossed the line with a chip time of 00:59:44.
