After two weeks away, some serious soul searching, some words of wisdom from Coach Ken, gait analysis, new running shoes and treadmill sessions… it’s good to be back at Stanley Park, walking the same route from the car park to the Clock Tower ParkRun assembly point.

Dry, mild, blue skies – a lovely day for a ParkRun and the perfect day to return. After three good treadmill sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I went to Stanley Park with high hopes. Both calves supported with compression sleeves, just to be on the ultra safe side, we set off just after 9am.

Happy to report that my pace was good, no sign of any calf twinges and I finished with another personal best, knocking 2 minutes 56 seconds off my previous PB.

This was the confidence builder I needed. This was the ParkRun I’ve been waiting to do since I started with my calf niggles about 5 weeks ago. I was finally able to put into action some training strategies to help me progress and build on. I can now build on them further next week and the week after.

Chalk Guy was able to mark the occasion in his usual style.