Another Saturday, another Nulkaba Parkrun… I’m sensing a pattern here…
Parkrun 9: Nulkaba Parkrun
Location: Nulkaba, NSW
Time: 32.59
Position: 75
A much bigger than usual field of 166 this time around made for some interesting parking arrangements. Indeed, there were nearly 60 more runners today than last week and I think this was the largest Nulkaba field I’ve experienced, excluding New Year’s Day.
Today, I was very much not into it. Even so, I still want to go fast, but I know that my body is telling me today needs to be slow.
This probably has something to do with the week that I’ve had – travelling to Sydney for work for three days which always increases two things – stress and alcohol consumption. By the time Friday rolls around, I’m just exhausted, which bleeds into Saturday, which means a slower-than-wanted parkrun.
Honestly, this time I’m not as frustrated by it as in previous weeks. I’m giving my body the rest that it needs after a tumultuous week, and I’m still not training at the level I should be.
So despite the fact that as I round the corner to complete the first lap I can hear the lead runner completing their parkrun, thus becoming the closest I’ve come to being lapped, this doesn’t affect me. I’m just doing my thing – albeit, pretty slowly.
Indeed, the only thought that I have as I meander my way around the course is ‘don’t stop’. To better facilitate this, I spy a guy in a Manly jersey maybe 100 metres ahead of me slowing to a walk and I focus on running him down.
His walk doesn’t last a long time and he quickly picks up his pace again. So I pick up mine.
With 500 metres to go, I’m closing him down, but he’s running with someone I presume to be his daughter, and they’re pushing each other. At which point it becomes obvious that I’m not likely to catch him.
But I don’t care. I lengthen my stride as my focus bounces between catching Manly Guy down and not getting overtaken myself as I can hear other runners nearby quickening their own shuffles.
By the time I enter the finish straight, Manly Guy is less than 10 metres ahead of me. I’m not going to catch him, but I get pretty close – maybe 5 metres between us in the end. And I don’t get overtaken in the process.
I’m happy with that. My watch died at the start, so I have no idea what time I got. Luckily, my phone Strava backup works and it shows a time of 33:05, which I know is longer than what the final time will be, but what it actually is I’m not sure. Someone in front of me is very pleased they’ve run sub-33 minutes, so I presume I have to. It’s only later when the results email comes though I find out just how close it was.
All in all this is a ‘nothing parkrun’. It’s a course I’ve run 5 times before, I was never going to run my best time given external factors, and to a point, this was just ticking the Saturday morning box and keeping the 52 parkrun goal online.
There’s nothing new or exciting about this one. It just feels a bit ‘meh’, which I’m sure will happen a few more times before the year is up.