This year, with no in-person races, I ran several (not) parkruns. The (not) parkrun is the virtual version of the weekly free event, parkrun. Parkruns are all over the world, and one takes place in Eagan. Laura and I have raced it quite a few times.
After the pandemic, parkrun began hosting a virtual event. It's pretty simply — all one has to do is run a 5K and then upload the results on the (not) parkrun website. The time then appears with other runners of the same parkrun on the website.
Since my goal for the year was to run a 5K in under eighteen minutes, I decided to use the (not) parkrun as my race.
After taking off all of March due to injury, I gave my first (not) parkrun a shot in July with a time of 20:13. It looked like breaking eighteen minutes for the year would be a pretty tall order, but I knew I was a long way from being fit, so I wasn't too discouraged.
From there on I went from 20:13 and mostly improved my time each subsequent race I did around every three weeks.
Then, on October 12, I ran 18:02. It was agonizingly close to breaking eighteen minutes. The thought also crossed my mind that I could have counted it for breaking eighteen minutes if I had stopped my watch at 3.10 miles. Instead, I stopped my watch at 3.13. On all my (not) parkruns (and most 5Ks in general), my GPS has read between 3.12 and 3.15 miles because one never runs the tangents perfectly and GPS isn't as precise as a wheel measured course.
I'm still going to take a couple more shots at breaking eighteen minutes for the 5K this year. After I feel recovered from my marathon, I plan on running two (not) parkruns before the end of the year. I'm using the McMillan's advice in "Turning Marathon Fitness into 5K/10K PRs" to structure my training. We'll see what happens.
I'd highly recommend the (not) parkrun. It's free, and you can track your progress over time. You can also see other runners results and see your age grade%. You can sign up at About parkrun.
Run well.
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