A struggle, but I Prest-on regardless

Another Saturday morning parkrun (which I was surprised to find out today is parkrun, not Parkrun or Park Run), another PB of sorts, and one I worked for!

As part of our quiz team exploring new runs, Patrick and Kerry went all the way to Swindon in Wiltshire, 130 miles/210km away. Claire and I took the short trip across Brighton to Preston Park instead. Rather than our usual jaunt up and down Hove Promenade, we did a convoluted P shaped route around a park incorporating an out-and-back and two loops. It was also a stinking hot 17 degree morning.

Due to a gap of 45 minutes between services from Hove to Preston Park station I arrived shortly after 8am for a 9am start. After sitting watching the dogs playing I made myself useful by helping set up the finish tunnel and start signs. Claire arrived and we warmed up together, catching up on things since Wednesday. Claire mentioned giving blood on Thursday evening and I brought up my work shifts while we shifted into a position on the starting line and suddenly we were off!

The start caught us all by surprise and there was much bleeping of tracking apps as we shuffled over the start line. I realised how spoiled we are with the wide expanse of Hove Prom as the start was congested and tightly funnelled. A lot of darting about and slower pace as I fought to keep an eye on Claire, who had sped off ahead. I realised that I had no idea how far I'd run and where each km was until I hit the first u-turn and realised I'd done just over a km in 6 and a half minutes - almost a minute slower than last week! I lost sight of Claire but stuck to my holistic pacing method - finding someone who looked like they were going a good pace and follow close behind. 

This saw me slowly reeling Claire in and keeping to a good pace, running the 3rd km in 5 minutes 27 seconds - only 2 seconds slower than my fastest km last week. This took a toll on me with a lap and a half left and I revised my goal to a sub-30 minute time. The heat was really laying down and I whipped off my headband again - for the second week running it's been too hot wearing it, so next week I'll leave the fabric one for a plastic hairclip. Round the final u-turn and with one kilometre to go I noticed that Claire was still in sight, maybe this would be the first time I beat her without her giving me a five minute head start?

I was grateful of the slight coolness of the intermittent shade, upping my pace slightly so that with 250m to go I pulled alongside, as Claire gasped that she was feeling a bit peaky. All thoughts of a competitive sprint finish were flung to the wayside as I gave up the rest of my by now warm drink and matched her pace to get her to the shade at the end. We struggled over the line in 29:47, nearly four minutes faster than my last run here but just glad it was over! A sit down in the shade with some cups of water from the nearby cafe definitely helped with the recovery. But that makes it four PBs in my last three runs, and if I can beat 34 minutes 28 seconds next week on the mountains of Bevendean, I can keep this run going!