I really look forward to every fortnight at Sandgate parkrun, when it's my turn to run (Dean & I alternate between being Event Director and running with the kids in the pram). It's really the only run where I really try and improve my times - usually during training, I'm not too concerned about my pace.
I have two sets of PBs - with pram and without. Since starting parkrun 3 months ago, my goal has been to one day break the 25 minute mark with the two kids in the pram. I've been close a couple of times, running about 25:15 on two separate occasions.
Well, today was the day!
I set out feeling pretty good - we had an attendance record of 152 today, so I did find the start a bit crowded, and I only really got into my own pace at about the 500m mark. I spotted a guy in a blue t-shirt and he became my pace-setter (and I managed to stick about 10metres behind him for the whole 5km).
I had my ismoothrun app going on my phone, but I fumbled with it at the start, so I knew that the distance & time being relayed to me wasn't quite accurate. I felt like I was running about 5 minutes/km, and was feeling pretty good. I'm a bit competitive, so I was enjoying overtaking a few people!
At the turnaround, I thought I was doing pretty well and realised there was a slight tail wind for the 2.5km stretch home - bonus! I was sticking pretty well behind blue shirt, and realised he was nearing one of our parkrun regulars - a lady who often finishes a couple of hundred metres ahead of me. That was a bit motivator to keep up the pace and pass her, having never beaten her while pushing the pram before!
One of the great things about Sandgate parkrun is all the encouragement I get from fellow runners after the turnaround! It really boosts me along to get so many encouraging words :-)
I was starting to get pretty tired and hot around the 4km mark, but knew I was too far in to drop my pace. So I stuck with blue shirt and tried to focus on the stretch home. A whining child in the pram wasn't really helping, but thankfully I managed to distract him with promises of seeing Daddy and playing at the playground soon!
Another female passed me along the stretch home - I was a bit annoyed, as I had been in third place and really wanted to hold onto that! She ended up beating me by 2 seconds - I just couldn't catch her at the end.
I finished and cooled down a bit, forgetting to look at my time on the app (why do I always do that?!?) - but I knew it wasn't spot on anyway. One benefit of being a parkrun ED is being able to see my result as soon as we get home! Dean loaded up the times & checked my result...
24:47!!!
I was so thrilled - I thought I'd given 25 minutes good crack, but I didn't expect to beat it by that much!
It just goes to show how helpful the hill runs have been in getting my speed up. All in all, a fantastic run today and it's so satisfying to tick a goal off the list. It was only about 4 months ago that I ran almost exactly that time with no pram at North Lakes parkrun - I can't believe my improvement since then and how running with the pram (all 40+kg of it including kids!), is becoming second nature.
Now to crack 24:00!
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