Race Report - Bryn Bach 6 mile / Lap the Lake fun run

I've always been a reasonable fan of old Parc Bryn Bach. My 5k PB is round it's very flat parkrun (although I do prefer Merthyr and Penallta as runs), it's free toast is legendary among... certain individuals I know and generally, it's a nice, big, green park.

It's quite nice!

So when a run comes up around it, I do occasionally like to participate, even if I'm pretty confident the flat parkrun will not be representative of the conditions!!

Got Andrew Cooper in the background! Hi Andrew!

So, 286 others joined me behind the café thing and we were off on a 6 mile (not 10k) jaunt. The hill isn't a devastating one, but going up it twice still takes it's toll (I think I lost 40 or so secs the 2nd time up). The rest of the course is reasonable, up and down a little but scenic, clean and well organised marshaled. Ideal!

So, how did I do? Targets were:

Baseline:0:52:00 (8:40 min/ml)

Achievable:0:50:00 (8:20 min/ml)

Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time:
0:47:00 (7:50ish min/ml)

and I did:


1 minute (according to my watch, gun time was 46:12, no sign of a chip yet) under top target. Think I handled the hills quite well after a couple of weeks of minimal training. Pretty confident I'll at least make the trip to Llanelli now, even if I'm not exactly going to light up the field! Very happy!

Once that was all done, it was a coffee, a welsh cake and back out for the fun run. 2.6ish miles with the daughter at a far more casual pace of course.

Why?

Why?

One of the most commonly question I'm asked about running (closely followed by 'Can't you go any faster?' and 'Can you get out of the way fatty?').

Motivation is of course an individual thing, for some people it's health related for others it's to achieve goals etc. Well this is my take on it:

• Health: 

OK, before we start I'm pretty much a wreck health wise. If I were a horse I'd be put down, if I were a dog, injection please, if I were a... you get the picture. Not counting my too-short-for-my-leg-so-gets-tight hamstrings, my excessive body weight or my history of knee injuries, I have type 1 diabetes and Asthma.

As a result of these ailments, an inactive me would be a pretty (more) messed up me. The physical activity, along side medication of course, helps me regulate both things to the degree where I still generally function as a person.

• Fun

This is the one that confuses people. It's fun, I'm usually pretty happy when running, in a group, on my own, in a race situation (as let's face it even in a race, I'm not in the race!) it's just a relaxing experience. This may just be me... but I'm confident it's not. If it were I suppose the taff trail would be a damn site quieter on a Sunday morning!

Ok, that's PenyFan... you find a better photo.

• Kids

The one thing I was always worried about, I never wanted to be the heffer of a dad picking his kids up that can't even run/waddle after them. I wanted to be at least normal looking so the other kids don't point out to the sprongs their dad has indeed eaten the majority, if not all, of the pies.

I think I look at least roughly normal now...

Of course if the kids ever looked up my race times... whole other thing to mock about.

There are many other reasons, but when I think of it, these are the biggies!