pickupthepacepaul

What a night, what a day. On the 11th September 2021 I took part in the Sundown 5k. At 7pm I lined up to run my second of 3 events this weekend. First of all I ran the Kew Gardens 10k this morning, and you can read more about that HERE. After a few hours at home we made our way to Old Deer Park early so there was enough time for a couple of beers (we got tokens for a London Pride at the end of each event today), and some food. I knew there would be a festival starting, so something for all the family.

It was lovely to see Dan at the start, who joined my family for a few hours of drinks and laughs, and at times he kept my family amused.

I went into this 5k race with no intentions of going all out, saving myself to pace Brighton Marathon tomorrow. I thought anywhere between 22 and 24 minutes would be nice. I lined up towards the front and let the faster runners pass and eased into a comfortable pace. I was surprised that more runners did not pass, and although my pass was slower than this morning, I still held around 6:45 throughout.

The course isn’t exciting and the majority of it is on grass. It is two laps, which keeps everything close, and so you can see family numerous times throughout the race. On the second lap I was overtaken by someone and gradually he pulled away. I eased off a little, but at 4k I decided to pick up the pace. I overtook 3 runners and had that runner in my sight. It is always great when you have someone to aim for, and at the final turn I overtook him and put on the gas to full throttle. Coming in bang on 21 minutes according to my watch.

It is funny, my family have watched me run numerous times but I’ve never been going all out at the end. My boy said “you were so fast dad”, and it’s nice for him to see me going fast, even if it was only for 100 metres.

They call it the Sundown 5k for a reason, it was such a beautiful sunset. A great time to finish.

A fantastic race, but there are two big draws for this race. The first is that it helped me double up for the Goddess of Victory medal, especially as I can’t do the races tomorrow. But secondly one lucky runner won a VIP trip to the Cayman Island. Very disappointed I didn’t win, but seriously, what a prize.

The music that followed was incredible. Bow Anderson is an incredible singer, and has a voice that reminds me of Amy Winehouse, but her music has a softer tone.

A great night all round, but now it’s time to sleep.