Another Saturday, another parkrun!

This time I headed on the train to Crystal Palace parkrun (nearest station for me is Penge West).

I ran the Age UK 10k here earlier in the year so I knew a little of the park, although the parkrun route is 2 (and a bit) laps of a much shorter section. 

There were about 170 people running, although compared to some other parkruns there were a lot less families/kids/dogs/buggies and more faster runners!

I wore my Adidas Kanadias again as I couldn’t remember what the surface was like in the park but they were unnecessary really- the whole route was on gravel or tarmac paths. 

I think once you got to know this parkrun it would be a pretty fast one- there are some uphill parts, but also a massive downhill section which I loved. And you get to do it twice! I didn’t wear a watch and just ran on how I felt but I would have been interested to see how my pace varied between the uphill and downhill sections. 

My time actually ended up being 4 seconds slower than my parkrun (and 5k) PB, which is 34:21. I’d love to improve this over the next few months- I’ve been focusing so much on increasing my endurance for long runs as part of half marathon training, that if anything I’ve actually got slower! Part of that is because of injury, but the plan for Brighton Half next February is to focus on speed work and try to gradually pick up the pace. More on that to come… 

The Crystal Palace parkrun route is lovely and green- there are so many trees around and I especially loved this tree tunnel at the start line 🙂 

There is also a boating lake and some fun statues in the park too, although you don’t run past these- I took a post-run detour to go and take some photos!