Since June 2006 I’ve run 120 parkrun’s, and today we decided to venture to Wimbledon Common to run their little parkrun. Wimbledon Common parkrun started in January 2007 and today was event 138.

I really like Wimbledon Common, although I’d not run there since September last year when I twisted my ankle and screwed up my plans for some good races in the latter part of the year. Anyway, we were back again and I now remembered what a nice place this is to run. Compared with the ‘path’ around Richmond Park, in Wimbledon it’s so much more natural.

Anyway, back to the parkrun - my plan was to run hard and see how things went. I set off like a bat out of hell and was reminded of this by Danny after a few hundred metres. My GPS confirmed this fact. I eased off (ever so slightly) and pushed on. From here onwards it was just a hard fast run. There were a few people around - both to aim for and to push me on.

For the entire second lap I ran about two metres behind another guy (although not right behind, and I consciously tried not to draft off of him today). At one point I pulled up alongside him but couldn’t keep it up.

My finishing time was 18:20 (with an average HR of 177bpm) and I was pretty happy with this. Next week I’ll probably be back at Bushy Park and if I get a good week of training in ahead of me (and don’t get drunk on Friday!) I could be slowly closing in on the 18 minute mark…