After much recovery, some slow miles and a gradual return to the gym, my legs were ready to run fast again. For me, the summer is about fun miles with friends, warm evenings at the track and some shorter races.

So last week I took my legs to the Finsbury Park parkrun. It’s embarrassing how few times I’ve done this run considering it starts less than 5 minutes jog from my front door. Saturday mornings are usually either spent preparing for a long run or sleeping in, and I think this was only my third appearance as a runner.

But with legs itching to get back to something more than a jog to the shop and back, I headed out, barcode at the ready. I lined up somewhere in the middle of the field, ready to treat it as a tempo run. But as the starter counted us down, 3-2-1, and the pack headed off on the downhill start, I was carried along and decided to go with it.

Finsbury Park parkrun is a two lap course that takes you up and down two hills on each lap – so four climbs and descents in total. One climb is a long, gradual one, the other is a sharper uphill. It keeps it interesting and you know that at the top of each, you’ll be rewarded with a downhill because there’s pretty much no flat.

I had no idea what pace I might run, so I let my legs decide and didn’t look at my watch the whole time. I knew on the second lap that I’d been pushing hard and the last hill left me feeling a bit sick for the last sprint to the line. I stopped my watch to a new 5k PB of 21:46, pleased with the result.

The following week I headed back home to Peterborough for my sister’s birthday and packed my running kit. Peterborough is pancake flat and the parkrun is a quick two-lap route round some lakes. Buoyed by the previous week’s result I was hoping I could knock a few more seconds off to run under 21:30.

This Saturday, the parkruns in Peterborough and Huntingdon asked runners to wear something pink in tribute to a local woman called Bex who had sadly died the day before. After being diagnosed with cancer, she’d founded Team Bex to encourage a lot of people into running and raise some money for charity.

Team Bex were out in force at Huntingdon 10k last year and my sister found herself running part of Great Eastern Run with Bex herself last year. They’re an brilliant group and bring a lot of energy the the events I’ve seen them at. So I borrowed a pink tutu off my niece to show my respect.

The running itself couldn’t have been more different from the previous week. I’d been looking forward to running faster on the flat course, and had decide that, like the week before, I wouldn’t look at my watch, I’d just run what I felt like running.

There’s pros and cons to looking at your watch in a race. It can keep you on track for a certain time, but other times it can hold you back. You can look at a number flash up as you go through a mile and suddenly feel awful because, in your mind, that number means you’re going too fast.

I could have done with a glance or two at my wrist on Saturday. The splits show me going off too fast then fading in mile two and three. After the first mile I felt awful, but my parents were out cheering, plus I was wearing a tutu, I couldn’t drop out, I had to keep running. My dad shouted out that I was third woman, so as I came round the next bend I looked back to see if there were any other women close behind me – there weren’t so I decide to try to hold my position but knew I could slow a bit.

I stuck with the guy in front of me for the second lap of the lake, counting down the last kilometre like a kid counting down to Christmas. I heard some footsteps closing behind me, so put in an uncharacteristic sprint to the line to hold them off.

I was pretty sure the race had gone badly, but my watch said 21:21. And after a moment or two sitting on the grass, I was feeling ok again and cheering other runners down the finishing chute. And that’s when I remembered what I like about short, fast running: yes it’s hard if you’re chasing a time, you have to push hard and it can hurt. But then it’s over, and you recover a lot faster than for a half or marathon, ready for you to get back out running. And you’re also finished in time for a second breakfast.

So obviously the question now is, how much faster can I go?