Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

On this first day of June, it was unusually pleasant outside as I made my way to Gainesville's Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown, for yet another Saturday morning Depot Parkrun 5K.  At 7:30 race time, it was 68 degrees with only 73% humidity...not what I had expected.  In any event, I had decided to run this time around at a reasonably brisk pace without walking breaks.  To avoid getting boxed in by others, I got nearer the starting line at the beginning and it paid off.  I kept pretty much the same steady pace throughout the 5K's four laps around the park and finished at 27:23, my second fastest Parkrun finish (I've done 45 since January 2019) and only 13 seconds slower than my personal best there.  Parkruns, free of charge, are held in hundreds of locations worldwide...go to their website and sign up to participate, and you will receive a barcode you can copy and take with you for scanning.  Their system is simple although not foolproof, but I like how the results are usually posted online within a couple of hours of the race.  Press HERE to read today's results.  Depot Parkrun is organized and run strictly by volunteers, and they encourage everyone to pitch in to help in various capacities every few weeks...I'm probably going to do so again in the not-too-distant future.  Melissa couldn't walk this event today as she would have liked (and often does) because she had surgery this past Thursday: happily, it was successful and she is recovering well at home.

Regarding last month, May 2024, I kept up my running and walking.  Although other than regularly exercising my upper body by imitating swimming arm strokes, I haven't been in the pool for a while.  The workouts are divided between me running casually in my house, twice-a-week neighborhood run/walk outings, and occasional visits to my local gym where I more intensely run and walk their treadmill at my maximum personal speeds for brief periods.  Oh, and of course there is the weekly Depot Parkrun, in which I either run, speed-walk, or walk with Melissa.  I like the mix of it all and plan to continue this way into the summertime, during which I intend to increase my emphasis on speed-walking as the temperature outside climbs. Oh, and trying to get into the pool every now and then would be a good thing, too...