Singing and running in the rain...

What a glorious feeling, I'm happy again!

Well, I wasn't so much singing in the rain, but I was certainly humming that tune to myself on my round my parkrun freedom run today. I was certainly in the right mood for a run and nothing was going to dampen my parkrun spirits. Even the blustery wind and driving rain were no match for my determination to enjoy my run.

I honestly don't think I stopped smiling throughout the whole duration of my run. The conditions certainly weren't ideal, but that really didn't bother me at all. After all, it's a work from home day today and if it rains tomorrow I could be destined to spend my lunch hour in the office, reading about yet another England sport team that has failed to live up to the high standards set by our Olympians and Paralympians this summer.

Better out than in (doors) as it were!

I started out with no aims for my freedom run, no aims other than enjoyment that is, but I suspected it would take me around 25 to 27 minutes. I quickly settled into a comfortable pace and did my best to ignore the wind, rain and flying leaves.

I headed round the normal course, smiling and saying hello to all the other fools braving the tricky Autumnal conditions. The weather may not have been great, but it was still a lovely day to spend time in the park.

As it turned out, the speed that felt comfortable was a fairly decent pace. I eased round in just under 22 minutes and I honestly hadn't  taken a single deep breath. Running within yourself is a really nice feeling. The time had just flown by. There were none of the disappointed feelings of failing to meet my targets like last week. So I didn't even hesitate and just carried straight on into a second parkrun freedom run.

The weather even eased up on me a bit during the second freedom run. The wind died down a touch and I think it just about stopped raining. I carried on a at very similar pace, finishing my second freedom run just over 10 seconds quicker than the first in 21:43. That gave me a combined (double parkrun) 10km run of 43:38. Not bad for taking it easy!

That is now 199 parkrun freedom runs completed around the Coventry parkrun course!

All in all a very satisfying run in the rain.