Every year I run the Basingstoke 5k race. It starts at the cinema and goes through the shopping center, through the business park and round the boating lake. It's a nice little race and I've completed it 8 times now.
But we all know that this year hasn't been like normal years. So where I would normally run it on a sunny Sunday in May, this year I ended up running it on my own in the dark on a frosty Friday morning.
If we had run in May I'm pretty sure I would have got a PB, I was running really well then. But as it's gotten darker in the mornings I've felt more tired when running and my times have gone up a bit.
The race itself got moved a couple of times before they decided to go virtual and although I decided to give it a go I did not have high hopes of a good run.
However it might have been dark and frosty, but it was a pretty morning. As I was on open roads I had to stop for a couple of cars, and I had a stitch half way round, but when I stopped my watch at 5k I found to my amazment that I actually had a PB - 24:32. Thats 20 seconds off my old PB.
I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact there was no one else there, so I didn't really know how fast I was going and there was no-one to get 'stuck' behind. When I say 'stuck' I mean you find someone who is running at a nice pace and you stick with them for a while without realising that you could actually be going faster than that, but this pace feels comfortable so you just stay there for a bit.
Whatever it was, it feels good! I've submitted my results and now wait to see how everyone else did. The've given us the whole weekend to run it, so results won't be out until next week.
Amendment: I finally got my results - 33 overall (out of 153) and 9th woman. I'm so chuffed. Also I LOVE the new medal design. Such an improvement on the old one and really cute.
