Saturday 24 April 2010

Mileage AM: 10 (including 1 mile warm-up, 5k race, 6 miles easy running)

I woke up this morning feeling a little tired and sore in my left iliopsoas (upper front leg muscle), as well as tight in my right hamstring. After some um and ahhing I decided to run the Edinburgh Parkrun 5K race, which I had planned to do since last week, instead of the club's usual Saturday morning session. It's a free 5K race held every Saturday down at the shore near Silverknowes and usually has between 150-200 runners and always a few good runners too. 

It was a perfect Saturday morning, bright and sunny with a light breeze. I was struggling for time and needed to walk Jack (left) so as soon as I was dressed headed down to the shore. With the dog walked I put him back in the car and warmed up. 10 minutes of warming up with some strides made me feel quite a lot better and looser, so I was more confident about the race.

I set off and straight away a small group of us broke away from the rest of the pack. I must have got carried away with the excitment of it all as we passed through the first 1k in 3.10 seconds, way too quick!! By the 2nd km there was only 3 of us in the leading group when one guy moved clear, a Bellahouston Road Runner. I tried to go with him, but he was clearly quicker, so eased back slighty. 

The course is out and back with the turn at half way. As we turned round out of the breeze I stretched out my stride and tried to push my pace. It worked as the other runner that had been sat on my shoulder started to fall behind. I held some hope that I would catch the Bella boy, but he was holding his pace well. By the start of my 4th km I was pretty tired, probably as a result of a lot of hard training recently and the pretty quick start. I pushed as hard as I could and once I hit the 4km mark it was all about getting a good time. 

It was nice to cross the finish line in 2nd place (my best position in any race!) and in 16.36, a new PB for 5km, so despite not feeling brilliant it was a really good run. Went for a nice easy 6 miles with Kev and Jo from the club to finish off. Kev also ran the 5k finishing 7th, his best ever finish in a race, so a good race for him too! I then got Jack back out of the car and took him along the beach for another hour stopping off for a bottle of water and a giant chocolate chip muffin! Awesome Saturday morning.

You can see the results here.