Warming Up and Stretching Before the Run It was an auspicious day to attend my third South Manchester Parkrun at Platt Fields this morning, after the news yesterday that the Queen's Birthday Honours list included a CBE for Paul Sinton-Hewitt, Founder of the Parkrun scheme. It was also much better weather than last week so far more enjoyable from what I've heard! After a fairly gentle warm up by jogging in from Manchester city centre (about 2.5 miles I think) in around 20 minutes, I felt ready to take it a little stronger and felt good for the whole course. A similar cool down jog back to the Midland (my gym is in the basement) for a leisurely swim and before I knew it the morning was done and it was time to head off to work!
Today's Parkrun Results My primary motivation to attend Parkrun comes from the community spirit; the genuinely inclusive and infectious buzz that you get when you arrive on site. I know though that many, especially club runners, do set out to race and achieve personal best times. Though today wasn't technically a PB for me as it wasn't my fastest 5k, the Parkrun data base doesn't know that, so it was quite nice to recieve my results by email later in the day telling me that I had achieved one. You could look at it as a personal best for that course I suppose, so still something! according to the results email I "finished in 51st place and were the 4th female out of a field of 335 parkrunners and you came 1st in your age category." OK... for day 14 of Juneathon, I'll settle for that!
