I held off on writing this post, waiting for the official results. Having done so many parkruns I've gotten used to results being published within hours - spoilt in fact! As it turned out the results for this appeared after those for parkrun on Saturday, so I find myself writing up two race reports.
It's a while since I've been to Rowheath Pavilion, though I was quite familiar with it at one time. The building looks as though it's had a bit of work done and is the better for it. When I first decided to join a club I tried out Bournville Harriers, for whom the pavilion is home, and I only chose Sparkhill Harriers really because they were closer to home. Bournville is a great friendly club, though, and I have several pals there. I always give Bournville runners a cheer when I see them racing.
There were lots of friends present, from those and other clubs. The late evening start meant is was nice and cool when we set off down the hill, and I really hit it hard, then just tried to keep the pace up climbing the hill through the houses at the back of Woodlands park. I completed the first lap in 9:50, then despite the last 2½km feeling much harder clocked almost an identical second split to finish, by my watch at least, in 19:40.56. There was a splash of rain during the second lap but nothing of consequence.
At the finish funnel the timer called "forty-one" as I passed through - fair enough, but when the official results came out I got 19:42. Ah well, close enough. 31 seconds outside my PB, but I felt that was okay given the 'undulating' nature of the course.
I've since had plenty of time to analyse my result, and found that according to the Good Run Guide's age-graded results, which take into account not just age but the course profile, I had a new highest rating of 77.08%. My previous best was 76.78% at Roundhay parkrun last week, so I did score some sort of birthday PB after all, but then topped it just five days later!
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