Race Report

Peterborough Parkrun #12, Ferry Meadows Country Park, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Saturday 19 October 2013.

In pursuit of a quick 5K course, Grantham Running Club's Matthew Kingston-Lee headed to Peterborough to take part in Peterborough parkrun #12, held on Saturday 19 October. The fledgling parkrun may only be its third month but the picturesque and immaculately maintained Ferry Meadows Country Park is no stranger to 5k events, being one of the venues of the Peterborough 5K Grand Prix Series.

The free-to-enter 5K timed run utilises one small lap of Lynch Lake and two larger laps taking in a tour around Overton Lake. The course, which has a UK Athletics 'Course Accuracy Certificate'  is run entirely on tarmac and is virtually pancake flat save for a short rise and descent over a small bridge. With KM markers and a plentiful quota of enthusiastic volunteer marshals, Peterborough parkrun very much had a race feel in terms of the slick organisation.

Matthew took off at the start in exuberant fashion, perhaps a little too enthusiastic as he took the lead after two hundred meters and headed the field after the opening kilometer by several seconds. He led until around halfway when Darren Preston caught and passed Matthew, eking out a small gap that Matthew was unable to close down as he struggled to maintain pace in the final kilometer. Matthew crossed the finish line in second position, clocking 17:21, which was frustratingly one second outside his 5K / parkrun PB, but was pleasingly 43 seconds faster than his previous fastest parkrun of 2013.