I can scarcely believe it myself. I won't fully believe it until the official results are posted or I get the official email. I'm refreshing the page every few seconds, getting impatient. By my watch? 19:30. Another twelve seconds off my PB? Cannon Hill parkrun have a quick course, but Brueton is clearly quicker still.
On a really gorgeous sunny morning masses of runners, joggers, call them what you will, turned out - many sporting the red and white of England and St George (myself included) some in Easter costumes, a few in fancy dress (even a few in orange - that's next week chaps!)
I spotted Derek there as I jogged in from Solihull, though from a distance I thought he was wearing a Scotland top to be awkward! To my knowledge, he has no Scottish blood in him - I suspect he's Brummie through and through. It was just a blue and white top over his Tamworth vest.
Chris was there too, with his girlfriend and dogs.
With the extra announcements about St George's Day, Easter and chocolate bunnies for all, my watch lost track of the satellites before the start so I was desperately trying to re-set it as Nick prepared to send us off. It was more important to have a time than be able to track my pace, though, so in the end I set it to stopwatch (or 'Indoor') mode.
It was nice to see a small group of Sparkhill Harriers near me so I exchanged greetings and good wishes with my ex club mates, then we were off!
I started with a mix of abandonment and restraint, if that's possible - I wanted to get a good start (and leave my mates behind!) but didn't want to blow it.
I had a couple of good dices along the way making and losing places as the race progressed, but unsure how I was doing. Passing the finish funnel on the first lap a glance at my watch suggested that I was well inside PB pace, but that just worried me that I'd set off too fast!
I'm still checking the results as I type, by the way - nothing yet. Cannon Hill parkrun had theirs up ages ago - another big record attendance of 164! Well done guys and girls - see you next week.
On the second lap a Knowle & Dorridge runner I'd been battling with managed to break away, and then with just a few hundred metres to go a young lad in a '10' parkrun shirt edged past but didn't break immediately - I stayed on his shoulder but when we both started sprinting his younger legs carried him away.
I was just a little disappointed that I'd let a couple past late in the race, but then they were rather younger than me!
That was forgotten anyway, when I checked my watch in the finish funnel.
I hung around to cheer Phil, Charles and Mick in, but missed Derek and Chris - they must have come through while I was busy recovering my breath! I caught up with Derek at the registration queue, sensibly getting some shade.
I jogged back to the car park with Derek then set off for home. I'd mapped out a route and made myself some guidance notes - it should have been around 6.44 miles... should, but what I took to be a footpath from the satellite image turned out not to be - either it never was or a fence has been erected since the aerial photos were taken. That threw me a bit, and I had to make a quick decision - left or right? I tossed a mental coin and went left, hoping to work round and back onto my route.
Unfortunately there was no obvious way back and I ended up way off course and pretty much lost! Keeping the sun more or less over my left shoulder I managed eventually to get onto familiar roads and to get on track, having added a couple of miles or so!
From there it was a relatively slow and uneventful jog home, though I was wilting somewhat in the increasing heat. I was glad to get home.
Still no results!
Well, another week, another race - in fact it's eight days to my next one - Centurion Running Club's Grand Prix 5 Mile, the one carried over from Christmas. I spoke to Nick at registration (briefly - he was kind of busy) and he'll be there again, no doubt in his parkrun Tee-shirt!
I'm just hanging on for the results before I finish off and post this... Is there an emoticon for 'thumb-twiddling'?! The footie will be on soon. I really shouldn't complain, after all I know very well that parkruns are run entirely by volunteers and are of course totally free (does that count as a plug?) I just want to see it in black and white! I'll put the kettle on.
Right. I'm trying to think of some clever way to relate what just happened to a well known phrase involving watched kettles. Never mind, I have my cup of tea and (fanfare) I have my results! The results page hasn't been updated yet, but I've received the email.
And as surprising as my result was, it's unsurprising really that they confirm my time, not as 19:30, but 19:31. Near enough? Oh yes, I'd say so!
And now the full results are up - 14th of 149 and 1st over-50 (from Derek - he'll be happy with a sub-20 minute PB). Hopefully York City will make me even happier - now I'm listening and waiting for that result - sounds positive so far!
The problem with knocking a substantial chunk off your PB is that it makes it that much harder to beat again! Looking on the bright side I guess I have my next parkrun target - to get my Cannon Hill time down to my Brueton PB!
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