Parkrun PB

My Parkrun (5K) PB has been stuck at 19:57 for over 6 months now, since before I started training for Chester marathon. I had hoped that all the marathon training would improve my 5K time slightly but so far it hadn't. I felt stronger but not quicker.

Last Saturday I had another attempt on the hilly Woodbank course. My PB was set on the easier Bramhall course so surely I couldn't PB at Woodbank?

Conditions were perfect and I even had some supporters so there could be no excuses.

The first mile is flat and this was duly completed in 6:10. The second and third miles contain the hill and it is a nasty one at that - very steep to start with and rising almost 100 feet in all.

At the end of the first lap I had my support team cheering and I upped the pace to about 5:30 mins / mile - see below:

The second mile was completed in 6:30 - much faster than last time I did this course.

For the third mile I kept a similar pace and managed that in 6:30 as well.

Unfortunately for the last 0.1 mile I was pretty spent and couldn't stop the guy in the photo above coming past and pushing me down to 9th place.

However I was astounded by my time of 19:53. This was over 30 seconds faster than my time 2 weeks ago and an overall 5K PB on a hilly course.

Now I can't wait to see what I can do on the Bramhall course!