It’s such a beautiful day today: sunny, a cloudless blue sky, and no wind. Almost perfect for running, except even by 8.30am it was getting hot. I jogged up to the local parkrun course, at Manor Top. Like most of this area - and unlike Abingdon - flat it isn’t. The run director in his course briefing described it as ‘undulating’; I prefer my friend Matthew’s description, ‘ostentatiously hilly’. It turns out it’s a lovely course.

It’s a three lap course, which I know many people aren’t keen on, but I find it easier to pace over three laps. Still, I started off far too fast - somebody took the pace up right from the start, and when we went through the first lap at 5:58 on a hilly course I knew I’d have to slow down. The second lap was 6:35, showing how much too fast the first lap had been. I finished in about 19:15 (still waiting for the official parkrun time), in 5th place. Definitely need to up the training volume - although I think I’m happier with that run than with the Abingdon one. Not happy with the pacing though - positive splits like this don’t usually make for a successful run!

km time
1 3:16
2 4:08
3 3:52
4 4:25
5 3:38 (but this one was only 900 m, as the course is short by my watch)

lap time
1 5:58
2 6:35
3 6:42

Update: official parkrun finishing time: 19:12