This weekend I had planned an easy 10 mile run today and 5 miles tomorrow. When I was running on Thursday I decided to do the Pollok parkrun instead of an easy run on the Braes.

I still wanted to clock 10 miles though so decided to park the car a couple of miles from the Burrell Centre and do an easy run before and after the parkrun.

It worked really well as the car park was packed so would have found it hard to park anyway! As I ran to the run I was thinking what would be a good time. I knew I wasn’t in sub 20mins shape but hoped that I could get under 21mins and maybe be closer to 20 than 21 …. ie under 20:30.

I decided to start fairly near the front as it can get a bit congested at the start but I wanted to start comfortably rather than having to run faster than I planned.

I was slowly catching runners over the first half mile or so and when we got to the first long hill the nearest runners ahead were about 10-15 yards in front and I couldn’t feel/hear anyone directly behind me.

I slowly caught them over the next mile or so and went past about 5-6 runners as we reached the point where the second lap starts.  One or two tried to stay with me but I could feel I was pulling away from them on the long hill.

I was happy with my pace and worked hard right to the end. I often get caught on the final downhill but not today! I pushed right to the line. I finished 21st out of almost 400 in 20mins 29secs so I achieved my goal of being nearer to 20mins than 21mins! Just!

I finished just ahead of the first female runner.

My splits ….

My HR …

I’m planning to do an easy 5 mile run tomorrow. It will be the first time this year I’ll have run 5 times in a week. I wanted to gradually build up again after my ‘enforced’ rest!