parkruns and hill walks

After my chickening out of my first parkrun due to torrential rain last week, I am pleased to say this time the sun was shining and I made it down to Cramond in Edinburgh to take part. And I am so glad I did. It was weird not having my iPod with me (I never run without music) and I was a little apprehensive as I was on my own an when I arrived there were quite a few serious looking runners all warming up. But as more people arrived I realised how mixed it was and there did appear to be others running on their own.

Anyway. I started off well, though I thought I was going a little too fast to sustain for the full 5km but once I got into it and started overtaking people (turns out I have a bit of a competitive streak in me!) I found myself managed to average a pace of about 7mph. There were points when I felt I was about to flag but I kept going. I even managed to pass a teenager and a tall athletic looking girl with very long legs. I did miss my music at some points but it certainly didn't affect my speed - far from it. I used my breathing as a way of keeping a beat. Anyway managed to get a time of 24 mins 28seconds which was a 5km PB for me and according to the results I came 4th in my age category and 106th overall out of 195 parkruners and was the 20th 'lady'. So overall I was chuffed to bits.

I didn't run on Sunday but instead went on a very long 13 mile hill walk around the Pentland Hills taking in about 6 summits all in all. There were a few wrong turns and scrabbling through the heather but made back in time for a pint at the pub. It was a beautiful day and got some stunning views right across the firth of forth and beyond - you could see the proper mountains in the distance. Needless to say after all this activity I was in bed very early on Sunday night.

I shall definitely be going back to the parkrun though maybe not next weekend as it will be a pub-themed weekend and I have a wedding to attend.