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saturday is usually a rest day, but that honour goes to sunday this week – today i headed down to my local parkrun!

parkrun is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now, but with saturday being rest day, and sunday being my long run day, it always seemed as though it wasn’t meant to happen.

but where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I finally got my opportunity this week!

after a week of doing fairly hard speed work sessions, a run up king’s park, and a 10km PM last weekend, the thought the best approach would be to simply have fun, and as long as I completed the 5km loop in 30 minutes then that would be great.

that said, I awoke at 4am, and went through my usual race day routine!

I arrived at the location at around 7:20 – the run wasn’t scheduled to start until 8. I spotted a load of people in running gear, carrying bags and heading to a spot where some volunteers appeared to be already. I stood there for a while, as one of the guys started to do a bit of a talk. but when he started talking about the second half of the session including a chance for “all of you to train us” and the “harlem shuffle”, I started to wonder if Perth did parkrun differently.

I turned to the guy next to me and said “this isn’t parkrun, is it?”

once he confirmed that i had indeed followed the wrong crowd, i quickly made my escape from the HBF “live lighter” personal training session and headed to where parkrunners were assembling… oops!

as I waited, Michelle and Didi of the Rogue Runners rocked up, and we chatted for a bit. Adrian, one of the organisers, spotted we were new and had a quick chat, and before we knew it, we were heading to the start area.

a quick briefing from Adrian, and we slowly shuffled to the start line. with a 3-2-1 countdown we were off, I was doing my first ever parkrun!

As you can see from the stats, the first 3km went off at a cracking pace, totally unexpected and largely due to fellow Rogue Michelle not managing to stick to the 5:45 per km she said she was going to!

When I initially heard that 5:45 was her goal, I figured I’d try and stay with her, and score a sub-30 – a result I already said I would be happy with, given the speedwork etc. that I’ve done this week.

A combination of tiring legs and warm conditions caused a slowdown in the last couple of km – but still well below 6mins. If I’d managed to keep up the pace of the early stages, it would have been a solid PB.

As it was, it was a thoroughly enjoyable start to a Saturday, in a lovely park, a great course that had a good variety, and a good turnout as well.

Was great to share my first parkrun with 2 other members of the Rogue Runners Club Australia – Michelle and Didi.

A massive “well done” to the volunteers and sponsors who make the whole thing happen – was nice chatting to Adrian, one of the organisers/directors, and he made us “newbies” welcome.

All topped off with a decent coffee from the Canning River Cafe afterwards.

A top morning, thoroughly enjoyed it, and I will be back next week!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/412946302

http://www.strava.com/activities/98995502

04:15 – 1 berocca, 1 x multivit, 3 x fish oil capsules, 1 x glucosamine
04:30 – bowl of muesli, 2 slices toast with butter and honey, orange juice.
08:00 – parkrun (see above)
09:00 – recovery/energy drink. long macchiatto topped up
11:00 – powerade
12:30 – lunch (see diary)
15:00 – nap (about an hour)
17:30 – dinner (see diary)

some parkrun pics



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