Bristol Parkrun Number Two

I’m proud to say that this is my first post on Bristol Running Resource and I’d like to thank Mike for the opportunity.  To mark this occasion I’m going to write about my second Ashton Court Parkrun.  If like me you’re a fool and lining up at the start line for the Bristol 10k it’s a great chance to train and get a couple of 5ks under your belt before the big day.

For those of you who were not there (and therefore don’t know any different) I was limbering up with some light stretching and drills, looking like a toned and conditioned athlete.  Alert, ready and prepared, just call me Paula!  Did I just compare myself to Paula Radcliffe?  Yes I did.

For those of you who were present; I was  the one in the white Nike t-shirt moaning about how I shouldn’t have drank two pints the night before, that I was tired and questioning why I was doing this.  I think it’s fair to say that I am NOT a morning person.

The Ashton Court Parkrun is challenging (is that the polite way of saying it?), 2.5 to the top and then 2.5 back down.  Last  week was pretty tough, for some reason this week was worse.  I had been running for 5 minutes and saw that I’d travelled 1k; my legs were already tired, I was angry with the universe, I wanted to stop, sit down and have a packet of Beef Monster Munch.

Thankfully I didn’t.  I kept going to the top and was relieved to be on the downward segment, where for a few precious kilometers I was speeding down the route like an out-of-control train, only faster and wearing shorter shorts, and that’s when it hit me.  I was enjoying the run.  Yes the hill was hard, but worth it for the return journey.

I crossed the line with no idea of my time, I wasn’t expecting a great time until I receive the result by email: 23:40 a new PERSONAL BEST!  Not sure how I managed to blag it, but I’m definitely going to take it!

Parkrun is great, I see people from previous weeks and from Running Club, there’s a real sense of friendly community, with people of all abilities (and I mean all abilities) and best of all it’s free.  If you’re running the Bristol 10k (and dreading it)  I really recommend signing up to the Ashton Court event; you might moan about the hill (as I do) and you might sweat like a buffalo (as I ALWAYS do), but you won’t regret it.

Plus, because it starts at 9am you get to laugh at the people doing the Walk of Shame on your way to Ashton Court.  Now if that’s not worth it, then I don’t know what is.