Cracked it!

For many of us when we start running there is a magically goal we want to achieve.  To start with its just to run 5km without stopping.  Then the time to do this 5km comes into play.  For me that time has been to join the sub 30 minute for 5km club.  We'll as of today I'm a member of that club :)

This morning was an almost perfect morning for a run. It was slightly brisk but not that cold that your fingers are cold.  That being said I did have numb toes for the first kilometer or so and I still don't know why.

The start of parkrun has been moved to accommodate works being undertaken by the council and as such the start is very congested and has a couple of tight turns early on. Due to the width restrictions it takes about 30 seconds for me to even get to the start line.

A hundred or so meters in and I can start to do some dodging and by around the 500m mark the pack starts to thin out until the garden bed.  The poor pram runner in front of me got stuck in the garden bed and I couldn't pull up fast enough and I clipped his ankle as well.  Soon after this runkeeper lets me know that my average pace is 6:30 for the first 5 minutes and I think no PB today.

The field thins out a little more and I realise that things are feeling a little too easy and I up the pace.  I pick out my first target to chase down, and then another and another.  Before I know it I'm up to 15 minutes and I've run 2.44km.  Maybe, just maybe I can break that pram PB.  20 minutes is gone and that voice says something about 3.25km and it clicks that I've got this PB.

I pick a couple of more targets and go about passing them.  By now I'm actually concentrating on my breathing, which is something I haven't done for ages.  That little voice pipes up and says 25 minutes and 4.1km.  The first thing that comes to mind is I'm so close to a sub 30 but I'm going to miss it.  Then I decide to try and gun the last kilometer.  Literally 50m before the end that little voice pipes up again, 30 minutes and 4.99km.  Grrrrr 4.99km WTF. So friggin' close.

So now you ask how I cracked the 30 minute barrier.... that's the beauty of it, this course is 5.05km.  Sneaky me goes home and checks out the GPS download and low and behold if I remove the first 40 - 50m of the run during the slow, congested section I manage to get a 5km run out on 29:57 and I'M CLAIMING IT.

 Looking into my splits it shows that I had negative splits the entire way - got to be happy with that.


Prior to this run my fastest NON pram run was 31:04 and with a pram was 31:30.  Looks like I have to go for a run without the pram soon.