Conkers Parkrun

Yesterday morning, myself and 11 other hardy souls from UK Netrunner made the trip to Conkers Park in Derbyshire to take part in the Conkers Parkrun.

The weather was reasonably windy, and there was a good chance that we might get caught in the band of rain that was sweeping across the country during the mid to late morning.

It was certainly darkly overcast as we lined up for the 9.00 start. After a brief hold up for technical issues - I think the electronic timing was low on charge - we were sent off on our way.

It was hard initially to settle into any target pace as initially there was a little bit of a climb to deal with, but after this there is a gradual decline which meant that the whole field could settle into things. My first mile finished then in around 7.02 which was where I wanted to be if I was going to get near my PB of 22.41 set in November. The second mile was more of a struggle as we left the straight path that we were following, and made a loop by a canal which also took in another climb - the second mile then 7.24.

Going into the final mile, my breathing was hard and I was putting in a real effort - I made up three of four places here, but was hanging onto the shoulder of the lad in front of me for dear life ! Mile 3 completed in 7.26, meaning then I just had the sprint finish for the last 0.1 mile to negate - which I managed, to finish in a time of 22.25 - a 16 second PB for a 5km race.

I enjoyed this Parkrun, as the course was in much better state than my usual one, and the marshalls did a fantastic job ! It was also great to meet up with so many Netrunners !