Leg trial: parkrun 51

I’ve not been out running since I hurt my leg. I’ve learnt that I need to rest a pulled muscle for a couple of weeks at least before trying the same activity again. I’ve been missing my Thursday running group runs and volunteering at parkrun instead of running it. I have been going to Pilates as normal, which has been ok.

This week, there were no twinges in my leg from hurting it, even when going up the stairs, so I thought I’d try a really slow run to see how it felt. I didn’t want to hold people up during the group run, so I thought parkrun would be a good chance to test it out: I can run at my own pace, and there are people on hand to help if need be. If I ran alone, I could also run at my own pace, but there’d be no one to help me if something happened. And it turns out I prefer running with other people.

I plodded round with someone for a little while having a chat until they couldn’t keep pace any more, then I was on my own for most of the rest of it.

I almost caught up to someone who was walking, but they took off running when I was about a metre behind. I caught up again a little while later; she was alternating between walking and running on a timer.

I talked to her afterwards about it. She said that she gets about the same time whether she runs the whole thing or alternates between walking and running, but she feels less tired when alternating. I find it hard to get going again if I start walking; she said that’s why she has a timer. Maybe it’s worth a try some time, if I can work out how to make my watch do that. I suppose it’s like interval training, which generally seems to work for people that have tried it.

I saw another member of my running group going the other way on a two-way stretch; she was further ahead than I was. She asked me how I was doing; I was doing all right. Apart from at the start, when I was a bit wary of hurting it more, I’d forgotten all about my leg because it wasn’t giving me any signs that it wasn’t healed. That seems like a good thing to me.

It looks like I’ll be out on Thursday again, but I’ll still be taking it easy – I don’t want a relapse!

Excitement

As I was running towards the small field on lap two, I noticed there was an alarm blaring in the school. It seemed like a burglar alarm. I thought I should probably tell someone, but then I realised that the people I was seeing running the opposite way would get there before me and report it.

As it turned out, a couple of minutes after I finished, a fire engine turned up. I had thought the alarm too quiet for a fire alarm. Other people said they’d thought it was a burglar alarm, too.

I didn’t find out what had happened because it was too cold to hang around. It was warm enough in the sun when sheltered from the wind, but there aren’t many of those places at our parkrun in the fens.

The wind was biting, and I had bare arms, unlike the other runners, many of who were wearing at least two layers. I’d boil if I wore anything else!