January has been a very mixed month for parkrunning. It was a five parkrun month and I had planned on 4 runs and one volunteer on the Saturday's and came out with 3 runs and 0 volunteers.
1st January - New Year's day was a bit different this year and I not talking about the fact that parkrun was actually on this year as covid stopped it going ahead in 2021. But the other difference was that you can no longer do 2 parkruns on New Year's day. This was always fun but obviously meant events were a lot busier so probably wise decision. I decided on Pollok as Queen's weren't running an event. The great thing about New years day is you get to see folk who wouldn't usually be at parkrun so it was good catching up with a few Giffnock North folk as well as various other faces from the Pollok parkrun world. For the run itself I wasn't having the best of days and had to have a fair amount of walk breaks finishing in 35.27. The thing is though it set the bar nice and low for my seasons best so better things were to come.
8th January - On this day I was down to marshal at Queen's but unfortunately it got called off due to ice. I was actually quite relived as I had a bad night sleep on Thursday night and really needed a weekend to recouperate. Tollcross was on but I decided just to go back to my bed instead and catch up on some sleep.
15th January - This would be my first visit to Queen's of the year but this time I would be running it. After the first lap, just turning the corner up the first hill after the long flat section I actually got lapped which I was quite surprised about. Usually this happens on my second lap but not quite that early and I hadn't had a bad first lap. But the second lap I started walking the hills which I don't often do, then the 3rd lap was the same. I was quite surprised to look my watch at the end to see 32.06 as I thought the walking would make me slower than that. So that was a nice boost. When I got my actual result it was actually 32.46. They did put up a post saying if your time was wildly out to contact them but for me it wasn't PB territory and 40 seconds isn't wildly out so I was happy to keep it as it is. Plus the next week I knew I could comeback and have a bigger improvement.
22nd January - And that is exactly what happened. On this run I didn't get lapped till the top of the second hill on the second lap. And I didn't start walking till the 3rd hill on the 3rd lap. In general I just felt better all the way round and ended up finishing in 31.21
29th January - This was the 3rd Saturday of the winter which the weather was to make its impact on parkruns in Scotland. 38 got cancelled. Mostly in the east as their was amber warning for wind there but there was still a yellow warning in the west. Meaning the likes of Ruchill and Linwood both called off as well as various coastal ones. I was all over facebook in the morning waiting to see if there was going to be news and Queen's did post saying they were on but may have to cancel last minute. So I headed to Queen's and parked up. As I waited the wind was absolutley wild and I did question myself doing this. In fact at 9.15 I just drove off and back home. Quite unusual for me to do this but and the run did go ahead fine. Great to know in hindsight but I just didn't feel comfortable at the time so know I made the right decision.
Overall not the perfect start to the year but I still got out a fair bit. In fact i ran 44 miles this month which means I am on course for my 500 mile annual target.
