Russell Finn's blog

Thursday, June 29, 2023

project20202020 - 2023 edition

At the end of 2019 I had the idea for #project20202020 - twenty different parkrun courses run in under 20 minutes. A nice bit of parkrun tourism and something to keep my training and over-eating on the right track throughout the year.

It started well, then COVID-19 hit and no more parkruns. I did 20 sub-20 5ks though - see https://finnr.blogspot.com/2020/12/project-20202020-covid-version.html

Now it's 2023 and the project has been rebooted. Same goal, but I'm 3 years older. That bumps the age grading requirement from 70.95% (45) + 71.50% (46), to 72.63% (48) + 73.22% (49)

The rules for a qualifying performance are simple:

* Finish with an official time under 20:00 (fun fact: I ran 20:00 at Lakeside this year, 3:57/km but 5.07km course)

* At a a course where I haven't yet run sub-20 in 2023

(1) 2023-02-04 Lee-on-the-Solent 19:30 10th 74.44% age grading Strava Results

Fast course with 2 dead turns, started with an "easy" one

(2) 2023-02-11 Newbury 19:49 9th 73.25% age grading Strava Results

Nice course on Greenham Common. Work but always ahead of the pace goal.

(3) 2023-02-18 Netley Abbey 19:56 6th 72.83% age grading Strava Results

Sub-20 was touch and go. By half way I was thinking I should just be happy with a top 10 finish and a course PB. But with 4k lapping at 16:14 and with a mostly downhill final km it was still on. Maximum effort, want to stop, don't stop, want to stop, sprint finish, gasping. Job done, just.

(4) 2023-02-25 Ganger Farm 19:48 4th 73.81% age grading Strava Results

First time visiting this event. No hills but a few turns to negotiate.

(5) 2023-03-11 Southampton 19:04 23rd 76.14% age grading Strava Results

Quicker than expected, happy with that. Sub-19 would be nice though wouldn't it?

(6) 2023-04-15 Keswick 19:22 12th 74.96% age grading Strava Results

Happy with this because I'd pulled my back doing a deadlift 12 days before, then over-indulged in the Lake District so I wasn't confident I'd even be sub-20

Upon return from the Lake District I discovered I had caught COVID-19 for the first time. That put a major dent in my running speed which took a while to recover from, hence the gap between (6) and (7)

(7) 2023-06-03 Basingstoke 19:40 11th 73.38% age grading Strava Results

Nice park for a parkrun. Pleasant outing with Bracken and Rich

(8) 2023-06-10 Warwick Racecourse 19:43 11th 73.78% age grading Strava Results

Tried my AlphaFlys that served me well at the Eastleigh 10k. No silver bullet, maybe a little heavy for 5k?

(9) 2023-06-24 Andover 19:40 4th 73.81% age grading Strava Results

With Harry. He finished first in 17:52. If I hadn't have taken him this would have been a record-equalling 3rd finisher spot for me. Doh!

(10) 2023-07-08 Winchester 19:16 9th 75.35% age grading Strava Results

Heavy showers before and after, but dry for the run. Much quicker than expected. Chatted with Harry and Abdullah before the start

(11) 2023-07-15 Whiteley 19:34 8th 74.19% age grading Strava Results

Strong winds caused some event cancellations locally, but not this one. Windy, with a heavy shower in the middle. Chatted with Laura and Andy before the start.

(12) 2023-07-22 Bartley Park 19:39 12th 74.47% age grading Strava Results

With Bracken. Nice chat with Phil afterwards. Completed the Stayin' Alive challenge of 3 B's and 3 G's.

(13) 2023-07-29 Stratford Upon Avon 19:47 30th 73.97% age grading Strava Results

Nice park. Flat with only one sharpish turn. Drooping willow branches to avoid along the canal and plenty of overtaking traffic on the 3 lap course.
Main problem was right calf tightness from 2-4km which got worse at 800m to go. Eased off to 4:06/km for a while and ran through the pain. Ended up with 2 months of calf problems

(14) 2023-09-23 Long Eaton 19:55 14th 73.47% age grading Strava Results

Calf still a bit touch-and-go so very happy to have gone sub-20 on the fastest course I've run, ranked 13th fastest in the UK.

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List of parkruns ranked by speed - https://www.thepowerof10.info/content/itemdisplay.aspx?itemid=1704

Wednesday, May 03, 2023

Log of Running Races

10k

2023-03-19 Eastleigh 10k - 39:24

2023-01-08 Stubbington 10k - 41:40

2022-09-25 Winchester 10k. 18th place 41:33

2022-03-20 40:00 Eastleigh 10k

2022-01-16 Stubbington 10k - 41:20

2021-08-01 Eastleigh 10k, 39:51

2019-03-24 Eastleigh 10k, lifetime PB 38:41 PB

10 mile

2019-10-20 GSR 2019. 66:40 for 391st

2018-10-21 My 1st Great South Run - 64:47 PB

2016-02-13 Moreton Morrell Mad Dash 10k. 40:21 and 4th

2014-11-23 Sandown Park 10k: 24th of 181 in the rain

2014-11-02 Lordshill 10 mile race 1:09:08

Half marathon

2022-11-20 Gosport half marathon. 1:29:51.9 official time

2019-02-03 Portsmouth Coastal Half ❄️❄️ 1:30:19

2018-04-29 Fleet half marathon, 1:27:12 PB

2017-09-10 Great North Run 2017. 792nd of 43127 w. 1:29:14

2016-03-13 Surrey half marathon, 1:28:24 official

2015-03-22 PB at Warwick Half Marathon. 1:33:34

2014-03-23 Warwick half marathon 2014 1:36:24

Marathon

2023-06-18 Hampshire Hoppit 4:01:33

2022-04-24 Southampton marathon. Hot, windy and over-long. 3:27:30 official

2021-10-03 London Marathon 2021 - 3:19:37

2020-10-04 Super muddy Clarendon marathon 3:56:38

2019-09-01 6th at Andover Trail Marathon 3:24:48

2019-07-21 Solway Coastal marathon. 3:06:34 PB

2019-06-09 Hampshire Hoppit. 27th of 359 3:40:58

2019-05-05 Southampton marathon with Mat, 3:18:05

2018-12-23 Last minute entry to Portsmouth Coastal 71st of 906 3:30:23

2018-06-16 Maverick Exmoor, bootiful 5:10:55

2018-04-22 London marathon: survived. Ouch. Toughest run ever 3:20:38

2016-09-18 Bath Two Tunnels marathon - 3rd overall 3:27:28

2016-06-19 Hampshire Hoppit marathon: 3:41:05 and 19th 3:39:26

2016-04-17 Brighton marathon, 3:09:57 official

2015-10-04 Clarendon Marathon 2015 in 3:55:28

2015-09-13 New Forest Marathon 2015: 3:27:11

2013-04-28 Shakespeare marathon 3:38:11

Ultra

2019-12-22 Portsmouth Coastal 50k. 4:35:54

2018-05-26 63.36 km I "won", sister's 300th marathon, my longest run ever, 5:58:35

2017-06-10 60km Runstock festival 7:17:16

2015-05-10 53km Marlborough Downs Challenge Ultra 2015 5:28:06

CC6

2023-02-12 CC6 Badger Farm

2023-01-29 38th at my first CC6

RR10

2023-05-03 Itchen Valley

2023-05-17 Hamble

2023-05-31 Cadland Estate

2023-06-07 Ampfield Woods

Other

2018-09-16 Running Grand Prix: 20 miles. 5th place. 1st V40

2018-05-12 23.5 km Maverick Original Dorset 1:57:52

2018-03-24 14 miles Coniston 14. 72nd of 1050 1:35:54

2018-03-10 21.8km Great fun. Maverick Original Hampshire. 14th of 180 1:37:43

2017-04-03 23.8km Maverick Innov-8 Original Hampshire 1:57:52

2014-04-09 20 mile Compton Downland Challenge 2014 3:17:41

Thursday, April 27, 2023

London marathon 2018 - the hot one

A belated write up on my 2018 London marathon adventure...
 

First though a huge thanks to all those who supported me - via donations to charity, keeping me company on tough training runs, putting me up for the weekend, coming to support on the day, and to Emma for making the awesome Adventure Time T-shirt with my name on

I got to the start with plenty of time to spare. I chatted to whoever was next to me in the various queues - I think everyone was nervous and talking is a good distraction. I was in the Green start -the smallest one with 4000 people, lots of Good-for-Age folks. Wave 2 of 8 put me within 50 metres of the start line and I crossed it within 1 minute of the race starting.
 

I was hoping the heat wouldn't affect me too much and set off intending to do about 7:00/mile pace and seeing how that felt. First 3 miles felt fine, although my heart rate was higher than it should have been. By 6 miles my legs felt heavy which is not good. By 8 miles I knew my target time was definitely not going to happen and stopped caring about maintaining goal pace and eased off a little to keep my heart rate sensible. I got to half way in 1:34 which is a respectable time, but despite still working quite hard I was just slowing bit by bit all the time.

I enjoyed running round the Cutty Sark and over Tower Bridge. And all the way around there were people encouraging us on. Having my name on my shirt in big letters meant people were shouting "Come on Russell" a lot, with one kid adding "Ooo! Adventure Time!" when he recognised the pictures which really made me smile.

I saw the race leaders and Mo Farah when I had reached 22.4km and they had reached 34.7km - man, do they make it look easy.

There were water or Lucozade stations every mile. It felt like a reward to make it to each one. I drank a bit, squirted water on wrists, over my head, down my back, drank some more. It was so hot. Managed not to squirt Lucozade over myself - winning.  I had 9 energy gels in total (and a Biscuit Boost). No problems eating, always hoping they'd give me more energy. They must have, but no magic cure for tiredness.

The underpasses were great - quite windy and out of the sun. Oddly quiet too, as the supporters stayed up top in the sunshine.

It was good to finally reach mile 21 where all that remained was a westerly run in to a headwind which I normally hate but today it was having a small cooling effect. Still working hard but now barely managing 8:00/mile pace. 

But then I got a cramp develop in my abdominal muscles. I tried just pushing on to start with but it got so bad I had to walk while prodding and poking to help relieve it. Then I resumed a slower run which worked for a bit but it came back. 3 or 4 times I went through this before, at nearly 25 miles, I realised it had gone and I could pick up the effort and pace again.

I saw my family at the end of Embankment just before the right turn at Westminster which was really great - in Brighton I hadn't seen my family at the end despite their screams so I was really pleased to do so today. 

For the last part I could run a bit quicker, with a knackered 'sprint' finish at the end, the final mile taking me 7:30. Compared to lots of my peers I had a fast finish so I'm pleased with that. Crossing the line was a relief, it was a long time coming given I'd over-cooked it from so early on.

There were people holding a few dozen medals apiece, which in the wind were making a lovely jangling sound. A nice little suprise. I picked up my finishers goody bag (drinks, lentils crips, cereal bar, technical T-shirt) and drop-bag and headed to Trafalgar Sq to meet family.
 

Having been initially somewhat disappointed with the time - 15-20 mins slower than I was targeting and was most likely capable of - I've now seen lots of similar ability runners who fared worse than I did. Plus this is still my 2nd fastest ever. In Sept 2015 I dipped under 3:30 for the first time (3:27) and would have been absolutely delighted with 3:21, so 2.5 years older and in 20-24C heat I think I did OK. I finished 3104 of 40255 (7.7%) I definitely learned a hard lesson about running fast marathons in the heat too  https://www.strava.com/activities/1524609454

The fund-raising smashed my expectations. I'd lowered the suggested target from £750 to £500 because I wasn't confident. We've ended up at £1416.08 (inc. £215 gift aid). 48 separate donations, covering: family, friends of family, A-level friends, running friends, ex-IBM friends, current local colleagues, current US colleagues, neighbours, 2*Anonymous. I'm really quite moved. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/russell-finn

No running yet this week - battered legs and maximising recovery because I have the deferred pre-London Fleet half marathon this Sunday. Not 24C please.

In summary, a super-tough but massively enjoyable day running in arguably the best marathon in the world.

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Project #20202020 (covid version)

It started well with a parkrun double on New Year's Day, 19:46 at Southsea and 19:28 at Lee-on-the-Solent. Then 19:41 at Keswick parkrun in February (plus a non-counting 4.99km repeat of Lee pacing Tim GP to a parkrun PB of 19:46)

Then COVID-19 arrived and no more parkruns :-(

We also have a monthly challenge at work. A segment is created (or chosen) each month by the fastest finisher in the previous month who hasn't already chosen. This also effectively came to a close in March but meant I had a few fast 5ks from that. January was net downhill and had my all time Strava 5k PB of 18:04, and that was after a "sighter" of 18:34

February's challenge was roughly net flat, with a 50 metre climb up Port Lane and Old Kennels Lane, so I'm very pleased to have done 18:52 according to FetchEveryone

March's challenge was 8.2km, net flat with 3 big climbs to enjoy. Fetch found a tasty 19:36 for the last 5km

So that's a total of 7 sub-20 GPS 5k's before COVID (8 really, with the short parkrun). Where does motivation come from now?

First up is the stalwort of Strava segments. I'd found 2 overlapping 4.5km segments. Still in March, I got top for one, 2nd for the other and I averaged 3:57/km so got a 19:47 5k

In April I checked I could still run sub-20 with 19:32 on the Fast Flattish 5k segment, a 19:28 says Fetch

May had no sub-20s. I think I had a case of covid toe, which just meant blisters on the bottom of my feet for no obvious reason. So I did a lot of cycling for a week or two which meant my running fitness decreased. I tried a fitness 5k test and scraped 21:59, boo. But my fitness came back fairly quickly thankfully.

In June parkrun introduced notparkrun, which was a new source of motivation. This lead to me regaining sub-20 pace - 19:52 albeit net downhill on segment J12-J13-B&Q Vanity 5k, getting 2nd spot.

July had one sub-20 run, with 2 crowns within a net downhill 19:16

August had 2, first a 19:01 downhill notparkrun segment Vanity 5k: Otterbourne to Kiln Lane and then a more satisfying genuine net flat 5k in 19:39 on Eastleigh flat 5k loop

September had 2 within 97 hours, 19:53 and 19:59, (but both downhill)

October had none, mostly because I ran the super muddy but fun Clarendon marathon, and then picked up an injury by returning too soon - not fast, but on the Wednesday after the Sunday my foot started hurting. So cycling again for fitness.

But 3 sub-20's in November, woot. First by getting the crown with 19:21 on net downhill segment J12-J13-B&Q Vanity 5k. Then I did the adidas TERREX Kendal Virtual 10km race in 40:23, with a fastest 5km of 19:57, and then I did a downhill sub-20 in 19:26 as part of 6.67km at sub-4/km pace

At this point I found the Fetch Everyone Benchmarks page that shows my 20 best 5kms of the year, and saw that I had done 19 sub-20's already, so just needed one more for a covid-adjusted version of #project20202020.

Gotta finish proud so today I ran a net flat 5k in 19:48

All in all, a nice challenge. Hoping I can do a 2021 version with real parkruns, fingers crossed. You want in?

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Russell's running review 2014

My total tracked running distance was 3095km. 5 races. 17 parkruns at 7 venues. I also cycled 3217km

Personal Bests

10 mile PB at Lordshill. 69:08 chip time. Sub-7 (4:20/km) pace according to Strava - measured short

Net-flat 10k PB, 41:54

Net-flat 6k PB at 4:04/km pace - my best ever age-graded performance

5 mile PB 4:08/km pace 33:15-ish, but net downhill

Half-marathon PB at Warwick BHF 1:36:20 official 1:36:10 by Strava

30k in 2:29:16 (Sub-8/mile pace)

Other best performances

Farley 10k loop clockwise at 4:19/km (6:57/mile)

Farley Church Sign loop in well under an hour - 3 nasty hills, 4:25/km average pace

Most painful / toughest

Sub-7 10k. Absolutely brutal. Averaged 176bpm HR, hit 190! Hardest run ever.
Compton Download Challenge 2014 - the hills!
10 mile PB at Lordshill. - last 4 miles were tough, last 2 horrible
11k sub-7/mile pace with Dan 171bpm average heart rate. Had a 5k cross-country slog back to work afterwards
Started a sub-8 half marathon. Gave up after 10k cuz I felt awful
6x800m intervals, all sub-6/mile pace
Kenyan intervals: 1 min@4:10/km, 1 min @ 5:10/km
6x1k, all sub-4/km pace
3x3km intervals

Races

2014/03/18 Half-marathon PB at Warwick BHF 1:36:20 official 1:36:10 by Strava

2014/04/19 Compton Download Challenge 2014 32.3km (20 miles) in 3:17:41

2014/05/18 10k in Florence town Measured short IMHO. 1000s ran, great atmosphere

2014/11/02 10 mile PB at Lordshill. 69:08 chip time. Sub-7 (4:20/km) pace according to Strava - measured short

2014/11/23 Sandown Park Running Show in the Rain 43:43 (sub-7 by GPS) 24th of 181 finishers

Longest

35.5km (22 miles) in 3:09:59 Longest run of the year
32.3km (20 miles) in 3:17:41 Compton Download Challenge 2014
30.2km (18.8 miles) in 2:30:00 (Sub-8/mile pace) Sub-2:30 30km with negative split
27.8km (17.3 miles) in 2:35:06 Lapping waves on the Strawberry Trail
42.6km (26.3 miles) 8 sub-24 parkruns in one day

I also did freedom runs at Havant and Queen Elizabeth Country Park - 8 sub-24 parkruns in one day

Segments

2:57/km for 800m (downhill of course)

Hursley site entrances (north to south) 3:22/km in to a headwind

Well that went well 4 Course Records

Taking segments near Liverpool 3 Course Records
Chandlers Ford segments 2 CRs and a 2nd

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Longest day runs: 8 sub-24 runs in 6 parkrun parks

tl;dr - Ran 5k 8 times between 09:00 and 18:30 across 6 different parkrun sites. Every one was done in less than 24 minutes. Also ran over a marathon's distance for the day - 42.6km in 3:26:20

Longest day 1/8. Eastleigh. 23:35 5 km 04:43 pace

My goal was all 7 parkruns in under 24 minutes. Last year I did them all in under 25 minutes and jogged an extra 7.2k to make a marathon distance overall for the day.

The day started thinking we'd do 7. Only later did we think about adding an 8th. And the extra mileage for a daily marathon came for free from the Netley Abbey jog from the car to the start and back

There were about ten of us at Eastleigh. Dave Williams, Mark Pocock and Luke Saker are the people I knew.

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858511

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 4:39.62 +4 145 (78%) 158 (86%) 85.3
2.00 4:41.66 -9 158 (86%) 166 (90%) 85.0
3.00 4:52.81 +23 163 (88%) 168 (91%) 84.5
4.00 4:33.82 -16 161 (87%) 165 (89%) 85.1
5.00 4:47.41 -2 164 (89%) 169 (91%) 84.8

Longest day 2/8. Winchester 3-laps. 23:31 5 km 04:42 pace

A touch easier than Eastleigh. Mark Pocock only did the Eastleigh one. Tim and May were there and May ran it. There were 3 or so guys who were doing Eastleigh and Winchester.

Only Luke, Dave and another guy named Ulen Neale went on to Queen Elizabeth Country Park.

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858501

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 4:38.02 0 144 (78%) 152 (82%) 85.5
2.00 4:37.72 +0 156 (84%) 160 (87%) 85.8
3.00 4:50.93 -1 159 (86%) 160 (87%) 85.2
4.00 4:42.46 0 161 (87%) 163 (88%) 85.0
5.00 4:42.20 -1 162 (88%) 166 (90%) 86.0

Longest day 3/8. QECP. 23:51 5.01 km 04:46 pace

Kieron (Race Director) and another guy also ran with us (not alongside, behind).

A 12:10 start and it was getting warm, although the sun was mostly behind clouds.

By the top of the big hill on the 2nd lap I was 44 seconds behind where I need to be but I made it all back in the next downhill kilometre. My Gradient-adjusted pace as quicker for the climb than the descent though - 4:24/km for the main climb (km 3), 4:54/km for the descent (km 4)

I worked fairly hard on this run but I wasn't fatigued so it was overall fine.

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858496

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 4:32.94 -30 152 (82%) 163 (88%) 88.1
2.00 5:27.60 +32 165 (89%) 174 (94%) 85.4
3.00 5:13.11 +33 172 (93%) 175 (94%) 84.7
4.00 3:51.01 -72 163 (88%) 172 (93%) 88.7
5.00 4:46.84 +22 168 (91%) 172 (93%) 86.6

Longest day 4/8. Havant. 23:49 5.01 km 04:45 pace

The sun was properly out by now and it was 23.5C I wore my peaked cap to keep from burning too much.

Dave lead the way and we had a slow start so that Ulen who hadn't done it before could find the route. The first km is also downhill, so a slow km that includes the only downhill is a Bad Thing.

For the last 4km I was working pretty hard to catch up the deficit. The last 3km features an average heart rate of 172bpm. Not clever. And this is on twisty stony tracks so this was really quite tough.

Also the watch tracks poorly in the woods so I over-ran the finish by 200m - else my time was more like 23:07 (according to the segment http://www.strava.com/activities/156858482/segments/3628982173 )

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858482

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 5:10.01 -18 143 (77%) 154 (83%) 86.2
2.00 4:49.40 +9 162 (87%) 166 (90%) 85.0
3.00 4:35.35 +2 170 (92%) 172 (93%) 86.1
4.00 4:38.43 -3 173 (94%) 175 (95%) 85.1
5.00 4:35.69 +9 174 (94%) 177 (96%) 85.6

Longest day 5/8. Netley Abbey. 23:52 5.01 km 04:46 pace

Paula Wilson's friend and family were at this one. They also did the next 2. Well, the kids did a lap, the husband did the full distance. Sun still out and hotter if anything. A bit of a breeze from Southampton Water perhaps but toasty. Loads of people at the park.

We parked 1.1km away in the free car park near the Co-op. Luke and I shared 6 icecream "split" lollies on the jog to the start.

On the first lap we took a path too early for the real "triangle" and so did a bit of extra distance at slow speed. We got it right the next 2 laps though.

The tracking under the woods was again poor with the watch showing us losing time even though I don't think we ran any slower in this section.

This meant the final km needed to be quick to catch up - 4:25/km is 7:07/mile

Overall we worked harder than we should have - probably because we ran further than tracked and lost time navigating on lap one. Not too bad though - better than Havant for sure.

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858457

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 5:05.05 +10 153 (83%) 159 (86%) 86.2
2.00 4:37.62 -7 162 (88%) 166 (90%) 85.2
3.00 5:03.95 0 164 (89%) 167 (90%) 85.0
4.00 4:40.11 +4 167 (90%) 169 (91%) 85.6
5.00 4:25.43 -2 170 (92%) 172 (93%) 86.1

Longest day 6/8. Soton Course C. 23:46 5.01 km 04:44 pace

We saw Tim at the start, plus Paula's friends again. No Race Director, and given that Luke and I had decided to do a "bonus" parkrun here, we ran Course C for the first one while the others did Course A.

Luke let me set the pace, although he pulled away on the main hill by 5-10m or so. Strava agrees our gradient adjusted pace was too fast on the climbs and too slow on the descents but never-the-less I'm happy with the pacing.

Average heart rate of 158bpm was pleasing given the 164, 164, 163 of the previous courses. I was in my racing shoes, plus the ground is concrete so an easy course overall even with the hill.

Felt pretty good on this one but when we finished we walked to the car for a drink and legs felt heavy/tired. Still, only 2 more to go!

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858434

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 4:51.94 +14 150 (81%) 159 (86%) 89.3
2.00 4:39.19 -1 162 (88%) 166 (90%) 87.3
3.00 4:42.34 +4 158 (86%) 162 (87%) 86.8
4.00 4:56.28 -2 161 (87%) 165 (89%) 85.9
5.00 4:36.13 -22 157 (85%) 160 (86%) 86.6

Longest day 7/8. Soton Course A. 23:53 5.02 km 04:46 pace

Tim told us that the bit past the paddling pool was no problem so our "bonus" parkrun was to be Course A.

We'd finished Course C quicker than needed and our legs were tired so we paced this one to over-achieve by less. Luke particularly found it tough for the last 2km or so. I wasn't too bad but my legs were just getting "flatter" and heavier all the time.

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858428

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 4:55.21 +11 146 (79%) 155 (84%) 89.4
2.00 4:49.52 +4 159 (86%) 163 (88%) 87.1
3.00 4:30.65 -14 158 (86%) 161 (87%) 87.0
4.00 4:49.52 +5 162 (88%) 165 (89%) 85.8
5.00 4:48.44 -6 159 (86%) 162 (87%) 85.9

Longest day 8/8. Eastleigh 23:45 5.01 km 04:44 pace

The final event. Or the one after the final event if you're doing the standard 7 parkruns in one day.

Because we'd done 2 at Soton, we had a quick dash to get to Eastleigh. Waiting for us were Paula's friends and Ulen (doing his 7th of 7).

Luke and I were mashed by this point, but "just one more" I figured. Luke wasn't so sure, and dropped out after one lap (I think, will find out later).

My average heart rate of 163bpm is 6 higher than the previous parkrun, but it felt *much* harder. I wanted to quit but didn't really ever think I would - I just knew it was going to hurt.

I got to the start of each lap "on the money" so I was quietly confident. I got to the top of the hill on the last lap with 10 or so seconds to make up but with the final part being 400m of gently downhill I knew I could do it.

I was pretty wrecked by the end, with pain in my quads, breathing heavily, and wanting to lean against things.

Stats then:
8 parkruns all sub 24 minute
Average parkrun tracked 5.0km time 23:45
Average time to the official finish probably 23:20
Average parkrun tracked 5.0km pace 4:45/km - 7:38/mile)
42.61km in 3:26:24 (marathon in about 3:21)
Fastest tracked 5.0km 23:31
Slowest tracked 5.0km 23:53
Most painful: final Eastleigh
Toughest course: QECP (with Havant on the day being a close second)
Easiest course: Winchester

http://www.strava.com/activities/156858406

Distance Split pace Elev. chg. Avg. HR Max. HR Avg. cadence
1.00 4:47.67 +5 151 (82%) 159 (86%)
2.00 4:47.66 -13 162 (87%) 165 (89%)
3.00 4:57.71 +15 166 (90%) 169 (92%)
4.00 4:38.90 -5 165 (89%) 168 (91%)
5.00 4:33.07 -2 169 (91%) 172 (93%)

Overall - a great day out. Shame there weren't the 20 or so people who did all 7 last year, but still a very enjoyable way to spend the longest Sunday of the year.