Headed out for my third Reading Parkrun on my own this morning. My wife hasn't been sleeping too well, so I left her in bed this morning whilst I went off on another of my barefoot adventures.

I had a relatively good run today. I had intended on running at a consistent pace in the region of 3:48 to 3:54, but after a relatively quick first kilometre (I still don't go out gently enough), I started feeling a bit tired and settled in at a more relaxed pace. Finished off with a fast last km with a near-sprint at the end. Still managed a sub-20 so I'm happy. This run also tipped me over the 400km of running this year.

I'm running the Forest Five on Wednesday evening (probably in huaraches rather than barefoot as it's all offroad) and I'm on the early shift again next week, so I may not be up for another Parkrun next week, but I'll see how I feel.

This weeks results:

Time: 19:52
Overall Position: 12 / 122
Age Category Position: 2nd

For the second week in a row that crazy nutter was there at the Reading Parkrun running without any shoes. Don't believe me? Well check out the photos (more here):

Things were a lot cooler this week thanks to the clouds and light drizzle, but I think it was more conducive to running. I had a great run this morning, but unfortunately, I don't learn. Last week I mentioned I set off a bit fast, well this week I set off faster (3:25 for the first km) and found myself in the lead as we approached the bridge. It was at this point I realised I was being silly and backed off a bit and settled into a pace of around 4:00/km - the pace I planned on running the whole race at. To be honest, I don't think I could have kept up a pace much quicker thanks to my blistering start.

That said, I can't really grumble too much about my fast start as it meant I managed to smash a whopping 28 seconds off my time from last week setting a new personal best (PB). The overall pace of the race was a bit slower this week too, but I think everyone still had a great run.

So my results this week were:

Time: 19:41
Overall Position: 14 / 127
Age Category Position: 3rd

I think that's a good bit of speed work in preparation for Wednesday's Yateley 10k. I'll be doing that barefoot (though probably not anywhere near as fast as this 5k) so if you're there, watch out for the crazy fool - I'll be the one in the red shirt

Oh yes, and don't forget: Comrades online tomorrow morning.

Check it out, some crazy nutter did the Reading Parkrun yesterday morning completely barefoot...

And that nutter was ME . Yes folks, I have now technically done my first race in over 10 years and I did it barefoot. I opted for a mostly grassy 5k and it was fantastic.

I've been contemplating doing the Reading Parkrun for a while now however have always been put off by the weather or the fact I had to make my decision to run by 6pm the night before. Not anymore. On Friday morning I heard the weather was due to be glorious this weekend, so I thought I'd register for the Parkrun this weekend and give it a go. Well, things have changed since I last considered doing the Parkrun as now you only need to register once, print off your barcode and take it along to ANY Parkrun in the country. No more pre-registering the night before. Just turn up, run, and flash your barcode when they register your finish position. Brilliant.

So with myself registered and barcode printed, my wife and I got up early on Saturday morning and cycled down to Thames Valley Park. The weather was wonderful, as predicted, and there was quite a turnout. Apparently there were a record 115 entrants in yesterday's run. At 9am we were promptly started and things got off with a blistering pace. I somehow managed to get a little caught up in the excitement of it all and started off a little too quickly, but I soon settled into a comfortable pace and finished in a time of 20:09 - waaaaaay quicker than I was expecting. I was only aiming for somewhere around 23:00, so I'm chuffed to bits.

Of course, I suspect a lot of my great time has to do with the fact that the course is mostly grass. There is a short section with a gravel path, but most of this has nice grassy verges so there's not need to continually run on the gravel. The gravel wasn't completely avoidable but I didn't really have any issues with the sections I couldn't avoid.

So my results were:

Time: 20:09
Overall Position: 16 / 115
Age Category Position: 5th

All in all it was a great run and I'm glad to have done it. I think I may have to get my bare feet down there more often too.

Oh yes, and for those who don't know anything about Parkruns, essentially they are free relatively informal timed 5k runs run in parks all over the country, open to anyone and everyone (provided you're pre-registered and got your barcode). Check out the about page for more details.