My youngest son Lee wanted to do the Tralee parkrun this morning, so I dragged myself out of bed to join him. In the event, Lee decided that he was going to have a lazy morning, and refused to get ready, so I decided to do it myself.
On my way in to Tralee, it started snowing, and I realised that a light running top and shorts were probably not the smartest way to go. Too late to worry about it now though.
It had stopped snowing by the time I lined up at the start, but it was very cold. This didn’t seem to deter the runners though, and there was a good crowd at the start line.
We set off after the usual preliminaries, and I almost ended my race before it began, as a lady at the front of the starting group decided to stop dead in the middle of the path after 3 or 4 paces to fiddle with her watch, causing a bit of a pileup – I had to jump sideways to avoid her, and had a sudden twinge in my ankle. It soon went thankfully, and I did a fast first lap by channeling my rage at her into running! If you are going to stop to play with your watch, enjoy the scenery, check Facebook etc. PLEASE don’t start at the very front of the line!
The second lap went a bit more uneventfully, and I soon felt my lack of fast running of late as I slowed quite a bit. It was great to see the amount of kids running with their parents, a great sign for the future of Tralee parkrun. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a few people I would know who would never have run before giving it their all – I would love to know how many people have taken up running because of parkrun, I’d imagine it has to be quite a number.
I started the last lap fairly slowly, and was definitely feeling the pace, but halfway around I decided to push it a bit to the finish, and found I had a bit left in the tank. I finished quite strongly, coming in at 27:37 according to my Garmin (I forgot my barcode!), which I’m happy enough with, considering I have no speedwork done this year. I think the core work I’m doing in Strength and Conditioning with Nisus Fitness is helping offset my lack of fast running.
Another enjoyable mornings running with Tralee parkrun, thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who made it possible.
RandRuns 