The latest instalment in the winning parkrun saga is finally here – almost a week late! Because it’s taken me so long to put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard), the weather today (March 7th) is distinctly better than it was when I ran parkrun last weekend (Feb 29th)… but believe me when I say that the 5k on that Saturday was more like a very cold swim than it was a run!
Mulling over running a 5k in wind, rain and hail!
So far I’ve done four parkruns and I’ve got slower each time, although I’m giving myself a bit of a break over run number four as the conditions were far from optimal, with hail, sideways rain and sleet a fun sight to wake up to on Saturday morning. They even had to change the course a little because there were so many lakes in the way!
There was no way I was going to beat my personal best on Saturday, so I thought I’d focus on pacing as much as possible… but, again, another tech fail! I’m really struggling with Map My Run – it’s supposed to tell me what pace I’m at per kilometre but the first time I used it, it didn’t say anything at all and the second time I used it, it just beeped at me and didn’t give me anything of use.
I also got a stitch immediately, as soon as I started running! I don’t know what stitches are or why I get them but they make it so hard to breathe, which makes it hard to run. I had my breakfast half an hour earlier than I did the last time but that didn’t seem to make any difference at all. What am I doing wrong, running coach Alex?
If any readers out there have any insights or tips for a novice runner, I’d love to hear them!
See you on the track!
Sarah
