Heaton Park Parkrun - 2018 NWFPAC Championship race 8
Having had our second child just four weeks ago, running (and sleeping) have taken a bit of a back seat, but I couldn’t miss the season finale of the infamous NWFPAC championship, especially as it was my ‘home’ parkrun.
Waking up in complete darkness to Heidi asking for milk wasn’t great preparation for the morning ahead but as the sun rose it felt like perfect running conditions!
Those who attended the last NWFPAC race here may have been surprised to see a change of startline with us running on the new (old) course, with only Byron, myself and a pair of David’s remembering the original route.
9 members turned up for the final chance to change the leaderboard. After a brief chat outside the lakeside cafe to get our early excuses in and after a relatively long run briefing, we were off with 687 others making Heaton Park the 7th most attended UK parkrun this weekend.
At the sharp end Tim Shaw really got his teeth into it with a PB (by 1 second!) to claim a top 10 finish and more importantly, beat Charlie by 7 seconds with 18:45 and 18:52 respectively; however that wasn’t enough to catch Byron with 17:42 in 6th place.
With significantly less volume over the past month (see opening sentence), I wasn’t sure where I’d be at, so rather than be reserved and pace it home I foolishly went out as hard as I could (getting ‘PRs’ on the first few Strava segments), struggling through the middle mile, with only the long decline in the 4th km saving me from having each mile slower than the previous. Afterwards, Jill pointed out that I was literally ‘steaming’, as Byron pointed out, it was because I was trying; the results show that’s my third fastest time here this year, 23:09 and Garmin says my max HR was 196 so maybe he’s right, just bringing it home ahead of David.
Jill herself crossed the line in 26:00, in 255th (45th female), to mark her debut on the course...clearly the early London marathon training is paying off!
Completing the results were John with a new PB in 21st with 19:45, Alan too with a PB in 32nd with 20:32, David S in 43rd, 20:48 and David A in 132nd with 23:16.
On the way for coffee there was a debate over who had done the most parkruns at Heaton park, the top three being Byron 126 out of 184, David Avery with 146 out of 212, me 144 out of 209, and for completeness: Dave 51/68, Charlie 9/339, John 3/180, Tim 2/39, Alan 2/130 and Jill 1/69
I had to dash off back to #DaddyDayCare so missed out on the offer of a full English at the Stables cafe.
Another well organised event, on a quick course. Anyway, I’m back here this afternoon for a very dry cross country! Until next season...!