h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In June I passed into another age group in the ParkRun scheme of age grading. I was quite happy in the one I was in, but time rolls on and I didn’t seem to have much choice in the matter. Basically, all parkrunners are grouped into five year brackets and the top thousand runners are tabled for each age group at each venue. There is also a separate listing for men and women. This means that if you run the fastest time for a 65 year old at any of the parkrun courses you will go to the top of the 65 y/o list for that venue. And there you stay until someone else come along and runs a faster time on the same course which will push you down to second place and everyone else also moves down one.

Up to June I had run the 40th fastest time in my group at Bushy and the 10th fastest at Richmond. I had tinkered with the idea of trying to move up the ranking but the paddling practice took up most of my spare time and there wasn’t enough left to give it the attention it needed to improve. So I passed the magical marker and moved into the next age group. My times there will not be improved and can only go down the list as faster runners than me come along with better times.

But, my first runs at both Bushy and Richmond went into the new list in tenth place. Leaving the paddling aside for the last few months has given me more time to focus on putting on a better performance for the group that I now find myself in. The results are that I’m lying fourth at Richmond and fifth at Bushy. I was for a short while, all of two weeks, fourth at Bushy until another visiting runner pulled out a better time and pushed me back again to fifth. But I’m working on it.

In pursuance of this I’m completing three training sessions a week, about the minimum needed. On Sunday I ran the five mile race which included twice up a very stiff hill. This morning I took on a set of intervals. Two half miles at 5k pace, then four 880 yard times well in excess of the speed needed. Next Saturday it’s back to Bushy for a pace run. I don’t expect to get the sustained speed needed to move up another notch but the pacemakers are out on that day and if I can hang onto the 24 minute pacer long enough I might just manage a PB.

Wishing you all the best – I've not been within 90 seconds of my PB for a good couple of years (around the time my wife said 'you're spending too much time out running, you should spend more time at home with the family. Oh, and when are you going to run the marathon?)

Mind you ours is a grass course that this time of year becomes a mud course, so a PB attempt is out of the picture now until Spring even if I were fit.

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