Unfilteredattemptedathlete

30/05/2026

parkrun
Nice to get a run in "at home" this weekend, like a comforting hug the friendliness at surrounded us with joy.
This run I felt like I was doing my best. Still some way off my best pace, but I choose instead to think of my overall goals of being best for me on the day.
Cool enough for gloves the whole distance, but near perfect running conditions out.
We go offline now for a while, missing a couple of parkrun Saturdays in the process (unless I can convince the pilot on the way home to try for an early landing slot 🤔😂) so to have this as my lingering memory of my favourite day of the week is fantastic 😍

27/05/2026

Holy cow

This weekend, Darren Wood will become the first person ever to join the 1,000 walk/run milestone club 💛

That’s 5,000k covered over 22 years, a milestone that would still take around 19 years to achieve even with perfect attendance every Saturday 🤯

Darren tells us more about his journey 👉 http://parkrun.me/darren-wood

🌳

27/05/2026

mind games
Luckily enough, I know enough about how I feel and what effort versus pace is (for me)
Also lucky I'm in a good enough mind space to just accept there's a glitch in my heart rate record to be patched at some point

24/05/2026

long
Today I feel pretty good about my running. I've had the week essentially off dealing with my idiot brain, but still got the rhythm feels for pattern and routine.
For someone who only really came to parkrun tourism when I've been living out on the other side of the Blue Mountains, being only 3 parkruns short of the Sydney basin complete is pretty good.
I try for 1 in 3 as travel to new locations, this past 10 weeks have added more than my normal balance of new events.
So now I stand at 99 events, destined to be on that number (not out) for a few weeks as we travel out of parkrun clutches after next weekend and I'm hoping to go run "at home" before we leave.

22/05/2026

parkrun
I've been on a bit of an unexpected tourist stream recently, all fun and exciting but for the most part, unplanned in a way.
Today sees me at running their nice little two lapper.
In effect, it's a circled 2 laps with only about 30 odd metres of elevation gained.
The crew are friendly and the size of the run (maybe 120-150) isn't excessive for the paths.
Plenty of parking, a loo and some water at the start/finish.
Fastest (parkrun) time of the year so far.
I've been coping with some accumulated, internalised (and as it turns out, completely unnecessary) stress this week and haven't run as a result. So felt good to blast out the junk in a couple of hot laps.

17/05/2026

When I think back to my go at the big dance of UTA last year, I mostly remember how well supported I felt.
Family and friends surrounding me at every turn to help make the doing part easy

13/05/2026

trail
Hey runner friends, if you're in your UTA final week I send you wishes for good sleep, plenty of hydration and just enough activity to keep your muscles moving
What a fun experience it was participating last year.
Have a great time and soak it all up

08/05/2026

parkrun
On my way to renovating yet again, this time the morning of so as to "pass by" (kinda) the NENDY from where I'm ending up.
I'd read 141m of gain across the undulating trail type course and whilst I knew it would be rolling hills, you might have scoffed at the idea someone would put together a parkrun like
But it's true enough, and beautiful 😍 if you don't mind the odd incline and decline.
Some of the undulating is done at 10% and you climb more coming home. So bring trail shoes and your resilience.
Super friendly crew of course and an amazing run.
At half way, and even for some time after that, I thought I had my numero uno secure. Even was audacious enough to put it into cruise control. Until about 300 to go when a youngster popped up from nowhere and asked me to change back into a racing gear. Be damned if I'm waking up at ungodly o'clock with less than 4 degrees to be beaten at the flags 😂

07/05/2026

parkrun
Special shout-out to the photographer at this past weekend.
Multiple angles and places, well framed, makes people look like they're running. Been
Don't believe me, go have a look. We should all aspire to be a parkrun photographer like this.

05/05/2026

trails
Every so often when the topic comes up, I might be heard to mutter something to the effect of "I'm not really a trail person, you know?"
Of course, that's not entirely true. I'm just not into trail running as is normally thought of in endurance world.
I love catching some forest in amongst my regular week. My routine at home 10k wanders through some elevation gain and dirt.
Over the weekend I found great solace looping a lookout trail with coal tunnels included.
So my crybaby version of being okay with trails is I prefer to just run, I prefer not extraordinary amounts of time on feet and when possible, average vert gains/km rather than all at once.
In other news, whilst I stand by my assessment that Garmin's last update for my watch did something screwy with high heart rate expectations. But for some reason it's manipulated my brain into thinking I can run more efficiently? I've included a screen shot showing 4 of the same runs, one markedly better now