Race Report - Bushy Parkrun

It has finally arrived, the first race test of the new training regime. As we’re down south, about to go on holiday, I thought I might have a go at the home of Parkrun. This is Bushy Park, the legendary Bushy Park just next do to Hampton Court Palace, west London. It’s a good 50 miles for were we are staying in Kent, but the draw was too great. The chance of a pancake-flat, one lap course was too good to miss.

Things didn’t get off to the most auspicious start. When I woke in the morning, the rain was pattering down outside. My heart sank slightly as I knew there are some grass sections of the course and the though of wading through a mud bath didn’t fill me with great expectations for a PB. Was feeling slightly tired, as we’d gone up to London the previous evening to watch a show in the West End and returning at Midnight. I’d thrown myself into bed as soon as we’d go back and set the alarm for as late as possible.

Steve, his mum and his dad had all offered to come and watch. I was grateful for the support, and yet at the same time kind of like to do these things on my own at times. I was as quiet as usual in the car over there, listening to the Parkrun podcast as a distraction to my thoughts.

We got there about 30 minutes before the start, having allowed plenty of time for traffic and the like. This was bang on schedule and I noticeably felt more relaxed as we entered the gates of the park. Bushy is beautiful, a truly lovely park and most importantly very, very flat. Having parked up the car, I said my goodbyes to Steve and his parents and went off to sort myself out, avoiding a mid-race visit from the Gingerbread Man was high on the list (sorry).

My coach had stressed the importance of a proper warm up before the race. This is something I ALWAYS neglect to do, and his words made sense. If you’re looking to race flat out for 5K, you don’t want to start with cold legs. I employed the strategy of one of my training runs and did a progression 6mins at recovery pace, 6mins and normal pace and finally a couple of minutes at Threshold. The truth is I felt a bit silly running Threshold pace through the park.

At a Parkrun event <faceplant>.

I feel ashamed typing it now, but that’s what I felt at the time. I can be so self-conscious at times. Next time, of course, I won’t be so silly. But still, as I wandered over to the start I was feeling the most prepared I think I’ve ever felt at a start line.

Bushy Parkrun is huge, there were 822 registered finishers on the day. There didn’t appear to be the sort of time segregation we get at Princes Park where the faster runners stake their claim at the front. The pre-race briefing was done via megaphone and soon we were off. Except, I couldn’t start straight away. One of the last things the briefing had mentioned was the importance of proper parking or parking tickets were being issued and a Policeman was patrolling the cark park. EEEK! We hadn’t seen any pay and display signs. I was frantically trying to find Steve, which I did after a few seconds, and ran over to ask him to go and check the car situation. I then properly got myself going.

Of course, at this point I was right in the middle of the throng of people and was dodging other runners trying to get a clear run ahead, almost impossible with the volumes of people there. I ran past a girl whose laces were undone. I felt slightly guilty about not saying anything but I knew I needed to keep focused on my race and my race alone. I had a race plan to execute. From my training, I knew that if I locked onto a threshold pace, I would be okay and my goal for the first half of the race was to do just that. Weaving around other runners was slightly distracting, but I found the “feel” I was looking for – slightly uncomfortable controlled effort. After about the first 1Km I realised I wasn’t passing as many people and so must have bee running around the people of similar ability.

At this point I ‘Locked In’ and began to enjoy the race. I’ve been teaching myself a number of ‘mantra’ phrases to keep calm when running with effort. I started repeating these to myself and they worked. I relaxed and felt completely in control.  I was still passing the odd runner and had my head up and felt great.

At half way it was time to push on, looking back I was enjoying the race so much, my ‘halfway’ was probably just over the 2 mile mark. My strategy now was to focus on the vest in front and overtake, own the race. I felt a surge of adrenaline as I went past the first person, I’d done it! I was on to the next runner, and, again, success. I realised I was now working harder, possibly a bit too hard. I locked in on my threshold pace again. There was a runner beside me who hadn’t taken to kindly to being overtaken. He stayed on my shoulder for a couple of hundred metres. Was quite exhilarating! I knew I had to block him out though and get on with my job.  I pushed on, but in hindsight probably wasn’t as focused on overtaking as I could have been. This is a new strategy for me and I’m glad I gave it a go and didn’t panic about it. However, I realise I need to train at this. It’s something that you don’t really get experience of with solo training.

We’d been warned at the brief that there was a very muddy section ahead. I’m like Bambi on Ice when it comes to mud and so could feel the nerves rise as it loomed into view. “Just don’t stop” I told myself so I briefly slowed and took a wide bend. It wasn’t too bad in the end and I built my speed back up.

Before long we were turning to head toward the finish. There was a cheeky curve around a statue before the final dash for the finish. I let rip with the fury at the end, again with hindsight, could do that sooner in future. The last 250m instead of the last 100 and crossed the line.

I was tired, I’d worked hard. The thought crossed my mind that that was a solid and controlled effort. In future maybe my 5K racing needs to be a bit harder than that, but compared to those Liverpool Parkruns a few weeks ago it was another world. I know I can go faster.

The final time was 20:21 a new 5K PB. At first I was gutted that I hadn’t done sub-20 which was my personal goal. My 3 mile splits were 6:43, 6:26, 6:23 - I think this shows the effect of the confusion/mess at the start. But the thing I will take away was the control which I had throughout the race, I had time and energy to think tactically throughout the race and make moves as and when I wanted. I’m actually quite pleased with that.

This is the first step on a long road. Hope you enjoy the ride.