Owls Count

I was heading up north for a weekend of orienteering. On Saturday the races were in Leeds and they started late enough in the day that I could go and run the local parkrun first.

We stayed on the outskirts of Leeds and woke early enough for me to eat breakfast before travelling in to the park. After a initial attempt at going completely the wrong way we found the park. Getting out of the car I could see an impressively large team of florescent jacket wearing people walking around the park putting all the signs out. I had plenty of time and did a comfortable warm up with plenty of stretching to loosen the legs.

As there was a reasonably large field, 120+ people, I lined up a couple of rows back with the intention of not starting too quickly. Off from the start the first section is downhill and I found myself dodging past a few people and speeding up. A few corners turned and the first km is complete in a far too quick 3:44.

At this point a quick calculation says that 4:15 a km from here on will lead to a PB, which sounded so simple! I try to keep the pace going and only a few people go past as I complete the next km in 4:13. However, the small hill is really noticeable now and I am feeling hungry. The third km is tough going and takes 4:17.

The final two kms are all about hanging on. Only a few more people have gone past me and each time someone has I try to hang onto them for as long as possible. I never see the 4km marker and my body seems to be moving ever more slowly. Then the finish comes into sight. I can tell that someone is closing quickly and decide that I have enough left for a sprint finish and hold the person off. I fail to stop my watch and have no idea if I have managed to PB or not – I just know it will be close.

Several hours later I manage to borrow a laptop and internet connection for a few minutes. A quick check reveals I finished in 20:47 – a one second PB. Pleasing and it suggests that, if can get the pacing right, I can take a good chunk more off this time.