The art of running

Yesterday was parkrun day and I arrived to find we were sharing our start and finish area with the Affordable Art Fair. From my vantage point (peering through the fence) I could see a Gormley-esque sculpture of a man and a big oval metal thing. Both of which would have looked very nice in my back garden - had they not been larger than my back garden. Plus I suspect affordable in Hampstead might turn out to be a good example of 'relatively speaking'.

Back to the run and it was nice to listen to the pre-race briefing without the residual guilt of not volunteering (having done a stint last week). I was also quite excited to see how quick I could cover the course as I'm now slightly fitter then when I last took part (which I'm shocked to discover was December 2012). My time then was 29.06 (far from the glory days of 26.26 - my parkrun PB - last April).

I did the first lap in 13.41. It hurt quite a lot. However, I still decided to go all out on the second lap. It was quite tricky to fight my natural urge to slow down, but I got a helping hand for the last 100 yards when the man behind me sprinted past. Some strange long-dead competitive instinct forced me to try to keep up and, while he won, I think this knocked at least ten seconds off my total time. So thank you faster man.

(Stats: 5k (3.1 miles); 27.25; 8.50 minute/mile.)

(Pic: If you press your nose up against it, this is the view through the fence at the Affordable Art Fair. I thought the fence itself had a certain Monet quality.)