It’s commonly known that you can always get by with a little help from your friends, so firstly I’d like to start this post by thanking my friends for encouraging me to head to Upton Park Run. A few months ago I openly admitted that I’d fallen out of love with running, as a matter of fact, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to continue running at all.
Of course, sometimes life has a way of pushing us back in the right direction, even though the prospect of enjoying running again seemed an impossibility, I said yes to becoming a Park Run Tourist. Okay, that’s a complete lie but it sounded good! Truth be told Upton Park Run was a newly launched Park Run location in my hometown of Northampton and I was keen to explore.
It started with a gloriously chatty 34minute run with Caroline and Lorraine for company, which was a great opportunity to explore the super flat two lap course. Then a few weeks later a friend of ours said that she wanted to start running and would we be interested in joining her and her husband on her first ever Park Run? Keen to oblige I said yes. Much to my surprise, we made it around in a comfortable 31.32 and therefore the obvious choice was to go again the following week.
With a little encouragement, Kim and I decided to try for sub 30, which previously would have been very comfortable for me but actually, the reality was, it felt further away than I cared to admit. As we walked to the start point I was feeling apprehensive, there was a part of me which really wanted to plod and completely disregard aiming for a certain time. Yet my competitive side wanted to push a little harder and we finished in 29.33 – Sub 30? Accomplished!
Encouraged by my success with returning to Park Run, I decided to ease myself back into more regular training by including a 5mile run into my weekly routine. The following week, with the unfriendly addition of a significant amount of soreness as a result of my Friday AM leg day, I was sure that my new found gains would be reversed. The guys were aiming for 25mins, therefore Kim and I let them speed ahead. We set a comfortable pace for the first lap, chatting about our week and the fact we thought the warm weather would work against us. During the second lap, without realizing we pushed the pace and fell into conversation with a Park Run Tourist, which worked as a perfect distraction for the last mile. The end result? 28.47 – Much more like it!
So, I guess I’m getting my running mojo back and I couldn’t be happier!
Katie
x