Time trial weekend. Time to hit that PB.

Parkrun 15: Newy Parkrun

Location: Newcastle, NSW

Time: 28:35

Position: 232

Currently, I’m training for a 10k PB attempt at the end of May, and part of that program was a 5k time trial at roughly halfway. Although originally scheduled for Thursday, I moved things around in order to fit this into a Parkrun Saturday.

I wanted somewhere flat and fast, but also reasonably close to home. Originally, the plan was to head somewhere overnight on the Friday after work, run parkrun somewhere new, and head back home for the weekend.

Alas, finances had other ideas and I cancelled the accommodation I had booked down the south coast, and decided to hit the flattest course nearby, Newy Parkrun located just outside of the Newcastle CBD.

I also decided I’d do this run in my pair of Vaporfly 2s, in order to give myself the best chance of hitting a 2025 PB at least, with the big target to be sub-30 minutes, and as close as possible to a sub-28. In all seriousness, I doubted I had the fitness.

I decided to leave a bit earlier than I would normally. Newy is traditionally the largest attended parkrun in the region, so I wanted to be sure I had enough time to park, warmup, and find my spot in the crowd before the start. As it turned out, there were 560 runners – a smaller than usual newy crowd, but still bigger than I’d run in for some time.

Thankfully, the start line has markers for expected finishing time, to better enable people to self-seed. Given the crowd, I like this idea a lot and I found a position on the border between the 30-34 minute finishers and the 25-29 minute finishers.

The start was, predictably, slow, and honestly, I could have lined up closer to the start of the 25 group. Given the fact this was a time trial, I made the decision that I wouldn’t start my watch until I was at least up to the start line, which meant that my watch time and official time would be out by 20-ish seconds. With the start being mostly walking for the first 10 metres or so, I was happy I made this decision.

Even after that point, the first 100 metres were slower going than I wanted, although I felt remarkably good. I normally hate the first kilometre or so and have difficulty getting into the run initially, so this change of attitude was welcome.

By the time we hit the first 500 metres, the pace is quickening and I’m overtaking people. Before I knew it, the watches around me were announcing the first kilometre. I don’t have auto-laps set on my watch as I find it counterproductive on long runs as I focus on when the watch is going to make a sound, and not the run itself. In any case, with other people’s watches were more than adequately filling that role.

I felt good. Really good. That first kilometre would prove to be my slowest of the run, thanks to the slow start, but still comfortably under 6 minutes/km.

The route takes in a slightly mixed trail of a short gravel section in the first (and fourth) kilometre, with the rest a mixture of footpath and bicycle path. And it’s true to its reputation of being flat with the only rises being a short section of a few metres leading onto a bridge, and then falling away coming off it. Otherwise, it’s virtually completely flat.

With the Newcastle Half-Marathon and Marathon the following weekend, the pacers for that event were using the parkrun as a trial run with their pacing flags. Which meant I could keep in line with a marathon pacer, and kinda know where I was in relation to my 5k goals.

At the end of the second kilometre, I noticed the 4:00 marathon pacer in sight and felt that if I could keep him in my sights, I’d have a chance of going sub-28.

So that became my main thought. I reached halfway, turned around (with the mandatory slowing down during the turn) and started back the way we came.

Those third and fourth kilometres were, excluding the first, the two slowest, and I knew I’d have to pick up the pace in the final kilometre if I was going to go close.

And pick up the pace, I did.

Whilst a 5:25 final kilometre is not the fastest single kilometre I’ve ever run in a 5k run, it’s the fastest I’ve done this year, and it was a full 13 seconds faster than the previous two.

When I crossed the line, I stopped the watch and was completely spent. It took me a few seconds to gather myself and glance down at the time: 28:17. First goal achieved, stretch target tantalisingly close.

All in all, this was a good run. Still 1:30 slower than my actual 5k PB, but I didn’t really think I was fit enough to even be that close. There’s still work to be done, to be sure, but the basics are there, I’m in a good space, and we roll on to next week.