Don't forget Parkrun require you to register on their website and get a barcode printed off so you can get an official time.

Andy

Thanks Andy! We do ask that runners (and joggers, walkers etc) register in advance and bring their personal barcode along, but if you forget, tell the volunteer at registration and we'll still do our best to accommodate you. You may appear in the results as 'Unknown Runner' though!

Good luck Keith, and to all parkrunners on Saturday. I'll be operating the timer at Cannon Hill parkrun in South Birmingham, and I'm also learning to work the results system, so good luck to me too!

Im sure you will do fine Keith. Sounds like good fun. Im off out again later for another 3.5m hopefully will improve again.

All eyes on the results of Crystal Palace Parkrun then (no pressure then Keith!) but seriously I belive its a good idea to get in an early benchmark as then its fun improving on that.

Don't muck up the Canon Hill results either Dave!

Good luck to all...and remember there is always another one next week!

Personally Due to injury i'll be watching the Surrey League..Go Ranelagh Harriers!

Andy

Well done Keith - a PB to shoot at!

Made two classic mistakes leading up to today's parkrun at Basingstoke which I will share with you guys.

No.1 Trained too hard during the week - result couldn't hit and maintain my pace; no energy flow at all. Felt hungry all week as I have recently upped my mileage so probably need to increase my carbohydrate intake.

No. 2 Wrong type of breakfast! A very milky porridge at 7.30am led me to peel of the circuit at 3k for a pit stop at the toilets (I won't elaborate further!). Anyway, stopped my watch for that episode then rejoined and completed the course. Official time will be dire (for me) but my watch time was 23:25 which is 2 mins off my best. 

As somebody else said - there's always next week! 

Moral of the story: if you want decent times in any race, then don't try a new breakfast on race day or train too hard in the week.  

Welldone Keith and Mike. Ive just joined up to my local park run and hopefully will take part next saturday. Its been a while since i ran a 5k race so will be interesting to see what time i can put in. Would be happy with 28mins.

Hi All

Just been out today a ran 4.6 miles, which is the longest run for a while now. Not the fastest time but good to put some miles in and it felt really good. 10K on Thursday i think.

John

The rain finally eased at about 6.15pm here so I set off on what my training programme said should be 7m (hilly) at steady pace. Where I live there are no street lights and lots of single track roads so I strap a flashing red cycle light to my yellow jacket and run under the ambient light bouncing off the clouds - its amazing how your eyes can adapt. For safety I carry a small white cycle light in my hand but only put in on if a car comes towards me. Tonight I didn't have to use it once.

My route took me up to the highest point in Berkshire 380 metres above my house over a total run of 8.25 miles. Overall pace was a tad under 9 miles/hr so I am pleased with that. Goes down as my longest run of the year and I'm on track to record my personal record monthly distance.

Why - I have a place in the Reading HM in March, my second at that distance and I would just hate it if I was slower than my last run at that distance. Its what gets me out in the dark! 

At last back on the running track again, not been at the stadium since early December (with the exception of a 5k race on the 27th Dec). As the XC season is nearing the end trackwork is back on the agenda in preparation for the road races.

So we done a hard 300m with 100 jog intervals, I could only complete 13 reps due to knee/IT band problem that surfaced last week, but the young 'uns went on to complete around 20 reps.

Nice to know that even with a hobble at the end my comparable performance this time last year had not gone down, so fully fit I should see a reasonable increase.

Well its surprising what a bit of effort can do. after 5 runs im finally getting back to the sorts of times before xmas. 10k last night and its wasn't the quickest but it felt great. Finished really strong. Looking forward to improving my distances and maybe get a few PB under my belt.

John