Parkrun 31: 35.57. Age-graded: 43.12%

Ugh. This was so hard.

I walked down the hill because Christian was out. But I don't think it was just that that broke me.

They'd changed the course to try and take the pressure off the grass, and so cut out the first sweep around the end football field, having the start facing the other way, and going straight to the path. Then at the end, they put in an extra out-and-back going away from the finish.

The problems with the new course were as follows:

• The runners were still too tightly packed when they reached the paved paths (both immediately after the start, and behind the weir). It was too difficult to go your own pace and overtake people, and the leaders didn't have enough room to pass on the two-way weir section.
• The last grassy out-and-back section was much too soft and slow to run on.

I felt like I took off as strongly as I could have, and was OK until going past the finish line. But that new out-and-back killed me. I had to stop and walk there. I also found the abundance of mud on the course, and the attempt not to slip on it, sapped my legs way too much.

So I had a terrible time. At the finish, there was a rumour that the course was actually longer than 5k, and I'd believe it, frankly.

Anyway, still glad I ran. I was hoping to improve my time, but the conditions were against me.