Today, I took part in the junior Parkrun at Pitshanger Park. I hadn’t run there for a few weeks because I’ve been focusing on athletics events instead. This weekend, though, there were no athletics races on, so I thought it would be a good chance to return to Parkrun and give the 2K run a go. My personal best at this course is 6 minutes and 58 seconds, and my target today was to finish somewhere around 7 minutes.
I started the run quite fast and quickly made my way to the front. At the top of the straight, I managed to take the lead. I felt strong and tried to keep up my speed as much as I could. When I reached the end of the first lap, I checked the time and saw that I had run it in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. That was actually about 10 seconds faster than I had planned, so I knew I was on for a good time if I could just keep going.
In the second lap, I kept pushing hard and stayed in first place. I was starting to feel a bit tired, but I didn’t want to let anyone catch me. In fact, I was starting to pull away even more from the runners behind me. Then I ran into some heavy traffic – lots of slower runners in front of me. It was tricky trying to get past them, and I lost a few seconds as I weaved my way through.
Even with the hold-up, I kept my focus and pushed to the finish line. I was still in the lead and finished the race in first place with a big gap between me and the next runner. I didn’t quite beat my personal best – I finished in 7 minutes and 5 seconds – but I was only a few seconds off. For my first time back at Pitshanger in a while, I think that’s a solid result.
It always takes me a few runs to get back to my best after a break, so I wasn’t too disappointed. The most important thing was that I gave it my all and stayed strong right to the end. I know that if I keep running here over the next few weeks, I’ll have a good chance of getting a new personal best soon.
Overall, I’m proud of how I ran today. I won the race, stayed focused, and ran a smart race even when it got tough. I’m looking forward to coming back again and trying to beat that 6:58 time next time I run at Pitshanger Park.
