The Best Valentine's Present: a 5k PB

Sunday 15th February
Run #45
Bushy parkrun Valentines Day 5k PB

Like probably a lot of great runs, this one didn't herald itself ahead of arrival. I did feel like I'd been running pretty well this week. And the paces on the 2Bridges run feeling as comfortable as it did had lifted my confidence a bit, but I hadn't particularly felt this would carry over to this week's parkrun.

M chose Bushy as he was keen to tack on another run home to hit his distance target for the day. I was happy to go along with the plan, having had a good run there in the snow a few weeks back, and happy to avoid the undulations of Richmond for another week.

M had elected to pick up his pace and not run with me so we said goodbye in the start funnel with agreements of where to meet at the finish. The milder day had upped the attendance numbers since our last visit and we were both further back in the funnel than we'd like.

But that did mean that, from the off, I was overtaking other runners consistently. M has always suggested picking someone ahead, slowly reeling them in, picking them off at the pass before picking the next target ahead.

I'd never been as good as M at this. Internally I'm very competitive but less so with others; always convinced they must be better. But today I managed to set a fast pace from almost the off, just needing to break out of the congestion at the start. Running a parkrun with low attendance numbers and I often find myself in a gap, running alone. With over 1000 runners there's never a danger of that at Bushy. Slowly but surely I picked off runner after runner. Over the whole 5k I was only overtaken 4 times, but must have passed almost 100 people myself.





Moving into the second half of the 4th k, I started to wind up the pace. I did wonder as I hit the worst of the mud, whether I'd kicked too early. But realising I may be on for a good time I dug in and held on.

Had it not been quite so slippy in the last k I think I could have done even better, but  I did my best to sprint the finish and came in under 26min for the first time ever. In the end my time was not just a PB but almost half a minute faster than my previous. So I felt extra justified in fully enjoying the carb-laden Valentines supper and bottle or two of my favourite Sauvignon Blanc.