My fastest time at Southampton parkrun since 2020

This week started with good intentions. My plan was to cycle to breakfast club with M and do some yoga every day. I did an hour of yoga and Sunday and cycled on Monday morning. On Monday lunchtime, I had a run with Kate. After that the weather was bad and M’s asthma has been playing up, so exercise went out of the window.

M’s still not breathing well, so she stayed at home with Stu this morning whilst I did parkrun. I arrived quite early and had a chance to chat with friends before the start.

Pete is struggling with an injury. I lined up with him and hoped that we would be able to run together and keep each other going. Frustratingly, about 750m in, my shoelace came undone, so I had to pull over to the side to do it up. I then sprinted to catch up with Pete. I tried to keep going with him. My legs felt tired and heavy, so I encouraged Pete to go on without me.

Being lapped

On the current route, my aim is to get to the crossroads without being lapped. Today, I was heading towards the crossroads when I heard a runner approaching. I started calling for people to keep right and it wasn’t long before someone passed me. I didn’t recognise him at the time, but it was local runner Aidan Lennon. He was on his way to a fantastic new PB and age group record of 15:10!

My legs were aching on the second lap. I was grateful that I was able to take part, so I kept pushing on. When I reached the top of the hill for the second time, I was relieved that the rest of the run would be downhill. By the time I reached the crossroads, I could see my neighbour Sarah. She was already on her way home (having finished as the fastest female in under 20 minutes!)

It wasn’t long before I could see the finish, so I pushed as hard as I could. I knew that my time would not be as fast as at Victoria Dock, but I was hopeful that it was better than my buggy run from last week.

How did I do?

Although my time was 1:35 slower than at Victoria Dock, I was pleasantly surprised to realise that it was my fastest time at Southampton since March 2020.

I was the female runner with the third-highest number of runs.

I’m now 5 runs away from my 250th parkrun and 4 runs away from my 200th run at Southampton. Hopefully, I’ll reach those milestones on 11th December