My First Parkrun

 

On the 26th of February 2022, I did my first parkrun at citypark parkrun in Craigavon. Since then, I have done over 100 parkruns, got under sub-20 and have volunteered a couple of times. Let’s take a look at the origin story.  

It all started on Christmas of 2021 when I got my Apple watch. The Apple watch changed how I ran, because it allowed me to see how fast I was going. So, over the next couple of months I would do my run in the boxing club, then come home and annoy my mum about how fast I was going. 

Then one day my mum told me about this running event called parkrun. At first, I was a bit hesitant (mainly because I couldn’t be bothered with registering) but I decided to do it. I registered for parkrun and got my barcodes. 

 Then, I decided to train for it. On Monday I did two 800ms and 1mile. On Tuesday I did a 1.2km and a 400m. On Wednesday I did 2km. On Friday, I did 4.5km. Looking back I can’t remember the logic of my training back then. I remember my goal was to get under 20 minutes. 

However, it was cancelled probably because of ice. I can’t remember. 

Therefore, I continued to train for the next week. I did a 7:14 mile, then two 400m sprints and finished it off with 10:17 mile. Then 3.5km on a Wednesday. Finally, on Friday I did a 7:03 mile. Again, I still don’t know the logic to my training back then. I must’ve wanted to tire myself out before the parkrun by doing 7-minute miles.  

Finally, the day came, and I was nervous. I talked to one of the volunteers and they explained that the course was one loop and mostly flat. For the warmup, I didn’t do a warmup for some reason. I think I was worried about tiring myself out. Anyways, I was wearing a full track suit, so I wasn’t cold. It didn’t help with the aerodynamics though. At the starting line I was being humble and stood in the middle of the pack.  

Then the run started, and I quickly realised that I should've been less humble and went up to the front. So, I had to run slowly and pass people carefully. Then there was a massive hill that I got over with no problems. The rest of the run was quite relaxing, and there were no nasty surprises besides the hill at the 3km mark. 

Finally, I finished the parkrun with a time of 21:38 which I was pleased with. A lot has changed since my first parkrun. Firstly, my training schedule is a lot better, I also warmup before a parkrun, and I am also a lot more aerodynamic by running in vest and shorts. All the changes have paid off as I was able to get under 20 minutes. Initially, I was only going to do a parkrun every other week, but it somehow ended up every week. 

 






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