Brigg Poppy Run 10k

Today was a return to 10k running, and my first standalone 10k of the year following my previous adventures with Team Newham over the summer.

I certainly picked a right old windy day for it too - with 21mph winds during the day leading up to the gale force winds expected overnight.

I rocked up at Brigg early enough to sit in my car for 20 mins, just so I could benefit from the 2 hours free parking, before making my way to registration to collect my race number of 398 for the day. There was a military challenge taking place at the same time where participants carried a heavy rucksack and wore boots throughout their 10k challenge. They were set off at 10.45am and it allowed me a further 15mins to warm up and estimate my place in the pack - there was no chip timing so I wanted to get as close to the front as possible.

There was a brief countdown before we were set off at 11.00 ! For the first mile I wanted to run a pace close to my usual parkrun first mile one, but as soon as we turned right out of the car park, it was apparent that the first half of the race would be run into a strong headwind - indeed I had to pull my visor down as far as I could so that it didn't blow off ! the first mile was hard work into the wind but I was satisfied enough to see 7.18 flash up on the Garmin at the end of it. Strangely, the field at this point had already strung out and I had plenty of room around me. the second mile slowed to 7.30 as expected, and in the third mile it was just a case of continuing to battle the wind, up a slight incline and down a farm lane to the turnaround cone. I've no idea how fast the third mile was but seem to thing I was averaging 7.31m/m at the halfway point which is only a few seconds outside my Parkrun PB !

As soon as I turned the cone, I felt the benefit of the backwind, however because of the battle with the wind I had no real energy left and tried to make the most out of it. Mile 4 was 7.37 and mile five a little slower at 7.51. As I had aimed to keep an average of 7.50m/miles before the race, I was happy to see that it was 5 miles before I even hit this benchmark. About 250 metres into the last mile though I got struck with really bad stitch and had to slow right down to a trot in an effort to reduce my breathing and to lighten the pain. This was annoying as I saw people coming past and must have looked like I'd badly blown up, but little by little I recovered and got back into Brigg with a 8.09 last mile. Now it was a strong run to the finish and crossing the line with a time of 48.18 which is my fastest 10k for 18 months.

Sheffield Hillsborough Parkrun

It was back to Sheffield this morning to pick up my bike from Planet X and having chanced Sheffield Castle Parkrun a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd pick a faster flatter Parkrun and opted for Hillsborough - you know what comes next......

That's right, it's Sheffield and it's built on hills, therefore nothing is entirely flat !

Got there pretty much on time in any case, and we made our way to the centre of the Park. My aim for the morning was to break 23 minutes and when we set off at 9.00 am I very quickly found myself congested and had to take a route diversion along the grass. The first part of the lap is a nice gradual slide down towards Sheffield Wednesday FC's Hillsborough stadium before taking in a tour of some tennis courts and then a long slog of a rise to the highest part of the course before a downhill to the start.

First lap clocked 7.17 but it was hard as I really pushed up the hill and I think I paid for it on the rest of the lap. Second lap 7.30 - slower as I paced the climb better, and on the third lap, by the time I got to the top of the climb I was truly wasted and my speed dropped off a cliff. I hit 3 miles at 7.38 and I ambled over the line finally in a total time of 23.09 - a whole 9 seconds outside of my time a couple of weeks ago on that roller coaster of a course at Sheffield Castle.....mmmm.... somethings are not always what they seem.....flat indeed !!!

Sheffield Castle Parkrun

Blimey !

We rocked up to this one this morning as we were in Sheffield for other business - there were 4 to choose from but this one was closest to where we needed to be.

When I got to Manor Park, I noticed immediately that there was a bloody great big climb, and hadn't figured on the course having 250 feet of overall climb. After an enthusiastic briefing, we were on our way and heading around the park for undulating first half - I saw 6.40 on the Garmin at one point, but that soon settled when I hit the mid way climb. From there it was a steady descent, before turning left for the main climb to end the lap. First circuit done in 7.28 and I thought that would be the start of a steady decline, but the next couple of laps ticked by in a similar pace and at the end my average pace was 7.31m/m which I am delighted with given that this course is the Wimbleball of all Parkruns !

Finished 9th on the day having been overtaken up the last hill, and closet yet to a first sub 23 min 5k run of the year !