Race Report - Harrogate Parkrun

Overall, a good race. 12^th Home out of 160ish runners - Time 20:16

I was feeling a bit sore in the quads when on the start line. Had got there early and warmed up as per plan and I lined myself up nicely near the front. Your advice to take it steady for the first bit was a big help as I was relaxed about it all. The course was 3 laps of “The Stray” in Harrogate, a big square of parkland. Two sides of the square were run on grass and two sides were tarmac. We were warned at the start about the muddy state of the course, in reality it wasn’t too bad.  We set off and people went off VERY fast. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what Threshold feels like so I kept to that feeling, and quite a few flew past me. There was a little boxing in, but only for about 50m. The guy who was supposed to be pacing a 7 minute mile shot off in front of me, but I ignored it and kept to my own race plan. Sure enough, after 100-200m, people’s adrenaline calmed down and I was passing runners. The grass sections of the course were formed by little avenues of trees, and were quite narrow so you found yourself going up a bank in order to overtake other runners. Getting onto the Tarmac paths was a big relief because it felt easier to push the pace slightly.

At about halfway, I overtook a group of three runners and found myself with about a 200m to the next vest. Remembering what had happened at Welsh Castles, I set about reeling them in. I pushed on the tarmac slightly and kept it steady on the grass. All the way through I was using all the mental techniques I’ve used in the past few weeks to keep relaxed – Mentally running “handbrake on”, telling myself “relax and attack” and most importantly “No More Drama”! It was a big confidence boost, as I can say that I ran ‘within myself’ for a lot of the race, but kept a reasonable pace without panicking. When lapping the slower runners, I just treated them as competitors to be overtaken and I found it meant I wasn’t worried about being too fast.

As we turned onto the tarmac for the last time with about 750m to go, the next competitor (and 1^st Lady home) was 20m ahead, I went for my push for home. She notices me alongside and responded, there was a guy 20m in front again and the three of us formed a pack going for the line. The final 100m was back on the grass in a little runway to the finish line. Going onto the grass I was in the lead in our little pack. I could feel the two of them kick for the line, I was already running a pretty much max at this point so had nothing to respond with. The two of them passed me on the finish straight and we all somewhat gasped on the line. The 1^st lady thanked me for the push for the finish – I said likewise! So it was quite an exciting finish and I was almost Top 10!

I’m really happy with most aspects of the way I raced. It was a good way to get some confidence back so I can push it a little more next time. To run ‘within myself’, steady and still end up with one of my fastest times is a big lift.

I’ll have to call it a PB as they have never published the official Halewood times – the time from that race of (20:15) was a Garmin time.

But my coach is totally right, concentrating on racing rather than times is much more rewarding.