Trails and mozzies. This was fun.
Parkrun 3: Blue Gum Hills Parkrun
Location: Minmi, NSW
Position: 64
Time: 34:52
Today was a lot of firsts: my first parkrun at Blue Gum Hills; my first parkrun on 100% trails; my first time walking on a parkrun (when running solo, anyway). The climbs were killer, and my fitness is not coming back quickly, but this course is amazing and would make a great short training run for trail race.
Unfortunately, it has been raining a lot in the region, so the mosquitoes were out in force this morning, although I seem to have been spared the worst of it. The trail itself is located in the Blue Gum Hills regional park, making one of the most picturesque parkruns I’ve run on yet.
It also meant hills, descents, gravel, and thanks to the aforementioned rain earlier in the week, a pretty soggy and muddy track in parts. Nothing but what a good trail run should be.
3, 2, 1, PARKRUN!
The course starts downhill, sweeping to the left along a mowed strip along the outer edge of the park before hitting a grated bridge and joining the Blue Gum Hills Road, an old fire trail, and the first climb of the run.
The rain and slippery conditions made it pretty slow going, and that’s before accounting for my lack of fitness at the moment, as the trail meanders through native bushland. Hitting the 1 kilometre point as I hit the peak of the climb brought almost immediate relief as what comes up must come down, after all.
The decent lasts about 500 metres before a sharp left turn onto the aptly named Loop Road, and almost immediately another climb. I find myself settling into a rythm behind a women who is matching myself, but before too long the climbs, and my fitness more accurately, get the better of me and for the first time, I walk at Parkrun.
It was an odd feeling – I wasn’t entirely sure what to feel. I was being a little sympathetic to myself, whilst also secretly scalding myself for giving into negative thoughts. At which point, I hatched a plan.
Well, two plans.
The first was once I felt I could run again, I needed to catch the women I’d been running behind and can walk on any climbs (and only climbs) on the basis that by the end of the run I finished in front of her. And second, that I at least finish under 35 minutes, or a split time of 7 minutes per km.
The first part was pure childish competitiveness. The second was me trying to be a bit more forgiving to myself.
But that was the plan.
By the time the next downhill came I was wedded to these thoughts and set about catching up to where I’d been previously. My first walking stint wasn’t too long, so this happened pretty quickly. By the time the 3.5 kilometer point had been reached and I was at the final hairpin turn back on Blue Gum Hills Road to return to the start, I’d easily caught the women I’d been behind.
I felt ok at this point. A little more exhausted than usual thanks to the climbs and the likewise climbing humidity, but otherwise ok.
As we decended back down the fire trail I started to remember my first stint along the road, which meant that what was once a downhill had become a climb and whilst I did my best to maintain some semblance of a running gate, eventually my run became a walk. By which point I’d already overtaken the women I was behind, and she naturally overtook me back when I was walking.
I wasn’t sure what climbs were left after this one, but I felt there would be at least one more chance to walk before the final uphill sweeping right towards the start/finish line. Passing the 4km marker just prior to reaching the top of the climb I felt I’d probably be in a good place to overtake just as I was about to finish one final time.
As it turns out, she’d slowed quite significantly on that climb so my half decent downhill running made pretty light work of catching her up again. I overtook her before the bridge, then overtook someone else as we hit mown strip and then it was just the final climb – that idea that I’d have one final walking section wasn’t accurate at all.
The fact was there were a few short climbs, but nothing that felt neccessary for me to walk, so I just kept pushing.
I crossed the line at 34:52 – just under my 35 minute second target, and about 30 seconds in front of my, albeit unknown to her, pacing partner. Despite this being my slowest solo Parkrun (the Parkruns I’ve done as a run/walk with my then 10-year-old daughter aren’t counted for this stat), I actually felt pretty good about the whole thing.
It wasn’t the best day out, not everything went to plan, but it just felt… nice once I’d finished.
Which reiterated in me why I enjoy Parkrun so much.
I love hitting new PBs when I can, and I have great memories of Paradise Point parkrun in super shoes trying to faster each week. But when I’m not, whether because I’m running with someone else, or I’m out of fitness, or I just want to cruise, it’s just nice to get up and head out on a sunny Saturday morning and run a cruisy 5k with anywhere between 100 and 400 or more friends I’ve never met before.
So, onto the next one.