Saturday 20 November 2010

Glasgow Parkrun #98

Results | Photos | Activity on Garmin Connect

After Dublin and the recent cross country relays, I decided I might be in shape to challenge my PB at the Glasgow Parkrun.

It was cold and dry with no wind, and a fairly sparse field, so I hammered off as fast as possible at the start purely trying to time trial myself with no interest in what the other runners were doing. I hit the first avenue of trees after 400 metres well clear in the lead, with no footsteps behind, but also with my heart rate hitting 188 bpm. I knew this wasn't sustainable and backed off slightly, but then accelerated up the hill and the first long uphill drag. I was still well clear and couldn't work out why Bella Harrier Amanuel Zerezighi wasn't closing me down.

At this point I had no idea whether to keep pressing on, or whether to wait for Amanuel and hope he could pull me along. I had half a notion that I could win the race, but then lost confidence and waited for the inevitable. Amanuel caught me on the first uphill zig-zags and I tried to respond and latch onto him, but my feet wouldn't move quickly enough. I rallied a bit on the second lap, and tried to force myself to keep working to ensure the PB, but also half-thinking I might go sub 17 minutes.

Just before the final uphill climb I couldn't generate enough pace to catch Amanuel but kept working all the way to the line and recorded 17:13 for 2nd place, and a new PB, so I was pleased enough with that.

3 comments:

Davie said...

Think positive!
If you think you can you will! If you think you can't you won't!

Chris said...

Thanks Davie.
I'll try to believe a bit harder next time!

Unknown said...

Wow, fantastic effort!

I'm having a simliar battle with the 18 minute barrier at parkrun at the moment. Closed in by 30 seconds to 18:14 over the last few months, but can't see how I'm going to get near that again for a while.