Having returned to ParkRun on 4th May with a stonking PB, followed by another PB a week later and, after a week off due to a Jaguar event down south, the pressure was on for a hatrick of personal bests. I had set myself an optimistic run goal of 30 minutes.

Up and about at 7am, my Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) was alerting my Brooks running shoes to the fact they were to be called into action in less than two hours!

The clock tower ahead as I walked from the car park. The sun shining as I joined the ever growing group of eager ParkRunners awaiting their starting orders – an incredible 292 of us starting today.

And at 9.03am we were off! Once again, two laps of the circuit around Stanley Park. I positioned myself in the first half of the pack to try avoid congestion but found myself stuck behind a few people.

Whilst it’s relatively easy to overtake in the open stretches, it can be difficult during the woodland section, and I did find myself stuck behind slower runners on both times through the woods. Once through the woods we do find ourselves running uphill slightly which makes it a bit trickier to pick up the pace to make up for any perceived deficit in the woods.

Despite a slight calf pull during training yesterday which led to me being a little bit more cautious this week it was another 5K which I ran from start to finish and my Garmin had me crossing the finish line in 31 minutes dead. Ok, I wasn’t actually “dead” but I am now certainly pushing. I had to wait until I had returned back home for official times to be updated on the website.

I finished 149th out of 292. Happy with that. Even happier with my official time…

30mins 58secs – 42 seconds stripped from my previous PB last week and nearly 27 minutes quicker than my first ParkRun last October!

The heatmap gps trace shows my relative speed… this week v previous two weeks…