Three Weeks After a Marathon, I Ran a Parkrun PB

9th May. Stretford parkrun. 19:27. A personal best.

Three weeks earlier I'd crossed the Manchester Marathon finish line in 3:43:54, a 27-minute PB and exactly what I'd set out to do. A foot injury in February meant the original 3:30 target went out the window, so I raced for sub 3:45 and got it. A back cramp at 39km forced a brief stop but didn't change the outcome. I left Manchester happy. Three weeks later the parkrun PB made it better.

The first week

I took the whole week off. No running, no plan, just an honest check of how the legs felt each morning. The following Monday I went out for 6km at 5:40/km, embarrassingly slow, and it felt about right. No targets. Just moving.

Building back

The next week was more of the same. Easy 6-7km runs, heart rate kept low. I threw in a 50km bike ride on the Monday for something longer without the impact on the legs. By day 12 I did a 10km run and it felt normal again.

Stretford parkrun

I turned up at Stretford on May 9th with no real plan. Three weeks out from a marathon felt too soon to race properly, so I just went in hard and saw what happened. What happened was 19:27, a parkrun PB.

The fitness was always going to be there. You just can't feel it when your legs are still shot from 26 miles. All those long runs, the 34km on the Bridgewater Canal, the back-to-back weeks, they don't disappear. They just hide for a couple of weeks. The parkrun was the moment they stopped hiding.

What's next

I'm fitter than I've been in a long time and I don't want to waste it on easy miles until October. Over summer the focus is 5km speed, structured sessions, parkrun as a regular test. Then 10km work in August and September, Manchester Half in October, and into marathon training from there.

The goal for Manchester 2027 is 3:30. I know the fitness is there now. I just need a full, uninterrupted training block to prove it.