Blackhill Parkrun

Following last weeks fiasco of missing my intended race I decided to run a parkrun by way of compensation.  Blackhill parkrun is held only about two miles from my home and Saturday was its first anniversary.  It was, however, the first time I had run this particular parkrun.

As it's name might suggest Blackhill Park is on the side of a hill and so I was expecting the course to be a little bit tougher and my time a little slower than those at the Newcastle parkrun.  Still not running to form and still bothered by this irksome hamstring problem I started off very steady as we headed uphill from the start for the first of three laps.

Conditions were very warm, bright and sunny as I settled into some sought of rhythm and tried to move up through the field as best I could.

Blackhill parkrun is not as well attended (with just over 100 runners) as that at Newcastle, where there are frequently around 400 runners at each event but I found it much more enjoyable  and there was also a bit of a party atmosphere as a number of runners turned up in fancy dress to celebrate the anniversary. Some photos can be found here

As expected my time was down on those of Newcastle but with a time of 22.05 I was disappointed to have not gone under 22 minutes.  Having said that among the wealth of statistics parkrun provide you with regarding each run I discovered that this is the fastest time by a M55 - M59 on this course.

Finishing in 10th place my time was age graded at 70.79%.

The race was won by Jordan Bell of Blackhill Bounders in 18.38.




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