[Closed] Anybody run a sub-20 minute 5K (Parkrun) ?

Sounds tough. My pb, and one and only run is 56mins. This did include finding a stick to unblock my inhaler, my daughter falling in the mud and me needing a pee stop.

However Mrs Yak is aiming for sub 20 and is at 25 now, but hasn't done any training. There are no sub-20 women at ours so I assume sub-20 is quite fast. So good luck!

How hard will this be for a 49 year old man

[url= https://mensrunninguk.co.uk/training/sub-20-5k/ ]Very[/url]

surfer or aracer to the forum! Listen to what they say, as they are both fast runners, and have much experience with this sort of stuff

It will hurt.

Anything is possible with enough training. I am 42 and have a PB of 19.48 for a 5k. You don't necessarily need to follow a training plan but you will need to increase your time spent running and do things like hill runs, intervals, tempo runs etc. Best of luck!!!

Turboferret likes his running as well. So he may be able to advise.

I think under 20 is born runner type times.

My fastest is 19m 1sec.

What got me there? Weights.

Now before that kicks of an argument i dont believe the weights did actually help run faster. I think they taught me to push that little bit harder time and time again.

Also. Run 5k THEN run the park run. That knocks loads of time off for me being properly warmed up.

Anything is possible with enough training. I am 42 and have a PB of 19.48 for a 5k. You don't necessarily need to follow a training plan but you will need to increase your time spent running and do things like hill runs, intervals, tempo runs etc. Best of luck!!!

I started running last April after losing weight (6.5stones) and my first park run was a 26.5mins. I have now got it down to 21.50 and will be trying for a sub 20.

Issue is that I am also training for a couple of ultra marathons so pace isnt the priority at the moment but the speed will come as the training helps.

As already said time on feet with hill reps, tempo runs and intervals coupled with longer slower runs should also help. Anything is possible though.

The margins for 10k and 5k improvement are very slim so once you start getting towards your target time it can take a lot of effort just to (say) take a minute off your time.

I'm not massively a massively dedicated runner but aimed for a sub-40min 10k in the Salford 10k last September and came in at 40:13 😡

It took a fair few weeks of speed training to get to that and it ended up costing me a hamstring strain which I think I'm only just properly recovering from now.

I'm 36 so not sure if that makes me young or old.

Not sure what my point is other than yes it will likely be tough but you'll never know unless you try. If you start doing lots of fast intervals and speedwork though I'd say proceed with caution (as always) unless you do loads of this already.

There is a coaching website somewhere called McMillan coaching where you can enter your current race PBs and your objective PBs and they will formulate a plan for you based on these metrics. Probably worth a look.

Some Parkrun courses are faster than others. Find one that is all flat, and on good paths/tarmac. And get some decent weather, not too windy etc.

sub 20 is not born runner territory, but at that age it would be a good achievement.

Lots of short intervals 400m etc with equal amounts of recovery.

My 5km pb is 20m 21s, and oh my god it hurts. I will get under 20 mins though.....

A 19:59 parkrun for a 49 year old male gives you an age-graded score of 73.23% according to Runnersworld: https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/age-grade-calculator

It's not spectacularly high and should be achievable for most with a bit of dedicated training 🙂

I've just come back to running after a year or so off and enjoying riding too much to wanna run.

My aim too is the sub 20min 5k, aiming for 19.30. PB before lay off was 20.30, but at the time I was just running XC 10k's with friends with no structure or training.

This time I am planning some kenyan hills, intervals and also longer slower runs will get me there. OP give it ago and keep us updated!

I’m 43 and have a pb of 18:13, although I’m about a minute off that at the moment. Perfectly possible to be regularly under 20 mins! I only run once or twice a week and can maintain under 20, but I am up to 236 parkruns!

Just enjoy it and try hard! And I agree with the warm up comment - I often ride there and back which is 7 miles each way, and I run better when I’ve ridden first...

I’m just going to sit here in the corner with my 27:30 and sulk now.

Rachel

Thanks for all the advice. Will check out the McMillan coaching Duggan.
I've told the Mrs about my plan and also bought a Garmin watch for the pace making, so I now have a financial investment. Will keep you posted.

A 19:59 parkrun for a 49 year old male gives you an age-graded score of 73.23% according to Runnersworld.

Had a big injury a couple of years ago and couldn't exercise for a long time, before that I was regularly sub-20, and once even sub-19 (age late 30s). Following the injury I'd lost a chunk of pace but have managed to get it back to where I'm routinely sitting around 20:30 (age 42).

I'm now stuck between wanting to get back to where I was but not being arsed to put the effort in and make every run hurt...

I'm not massively a massively dedicated runner but aimed for a sub-40min 10k in the Salford 10k last September and came in at 40:13

I'm not teasing or laughing, because I've been there, and as awesome a time as that is, I'd nearly rather run a 41.13 (if you know what I mean...). 🙂

I don't really run at all and the checking the odd time I've done this year my PB was 24.58, so I would say if it's taken you a year to get to 25 mins you might struggle to see massive gains after that.

edit: ignore my bollocks I see you haven't done really structured training, so yes. go for it.

My pb is 20.01, I was gutted, 4th in the race but would have swapped that in an instant for 2 seconds, hopefully getting back into it after a bronchitis induced lay off. Evesham park run tomorrow will be my first run in a month

Isn't that percentage relating to world record time for that age. It doesn't mean that 73% of 49 year olds can achieve it.

No, it doesn't - but in my experience pushing 80% or above of age-graded time is where real talent kicks in and 70% is achievable for most with some dedicated training.

Your age-graded score is the ratio of the approximate world-record time for your age and gender divided by your actual time. To score 100% as a 49-year-old man, you would need a time of 14:38.

I agree sub 20 is pretty quick for a 49yr old, but I was just making the point that it's not unrealistic - so OP, go for it 🙂

The way to improve your 5k time (short of a proper, bespoke training programme ideally put together by a coach) is to train so as to, (a) lift your VO2 max, and (b) spend time on your feet.

Spending time on your feet is the easy bit. Couple of 8-10km runs a week, at a steady zone 2/3 pace. One of these runs can become a tempo run as your fitness improves.

The VO2 max bit takes dedication and pain. Find a one mile loop, preferably with a hill in it, and make it your friend. Start at 3 reps as hard as you can go whilst still being able to complete the session. 2 minutes walk inbetween reps. Build up steadily to 4, 5 and then 6 reps (but dont move up until you've done each one at least twice and have improved your average time across the reps). Try and make each rep consistent - no more than 10 seconds difference between your fastest and slowest times. You should feel pretty spend at the end of the session. Lots of stretching afterwards and take a recovery day the following day.

Building consistency is key so you need to do this session 3 weeks out of 4, with the 4th week more of a rest week where you still do the steady runs but not the vO2 max session.

Whether sub-20 is achievable without a proper bespoke training programme I have no idea, but you can give the above a try and see how far it takes you.

Not wishing to rain on your parade, but I think you need to be sensible about this. A 50 year old man pushing for a running time target to me = injury. Especially if you aren’t a natural. Take it easy at first and listen to what your body is telling you.

I started running last April after losing weight (6.5stones) and my first park run was a 26.5mins. I have now got it down to 21.50 and will be trying for a sub 20.

Issue is that I am also training for a couple of ultra marathons so pace isnt the priority at the moment but the speed will come as the training helps.

As already said time on feet with hill reps, tempo runs and intervals coupled with longer slower runs should also help. Anything is possible though.

Great work shifting 6.5 stone and starting to do the ultra marathons...outstanding!

My PB also in the 19.30 range. I was stuck for ages around 21 minutes. Upping the weekly mileage too Parkrun + 1k warmup run and two 6-9 miles at a much slower pace (9 min miles) got me close to 20 mins. The final step seemed to come after starting spin classes. About a month after starting those I was under 20mins, which I could do weekly until baby sleep killed my sleep and my running time. Hoping to get back there this year (and also the sub 1.30 half time which is still 1.30 minutes away!).

Some Parkrun courses are faster than others. Find one that is all flat, and on good paths/tarmac

A lot of good stuff has been said already, although I'm not sure 'most' 49 year olds would be able to hit a 73% wava (otherwise it wouldn't be 73%, it would be 50%).

You are probably not going to see a 20% improvement in a year, unless you are really untrained or a genetic winner, so perhaps a staged plan may be more realistic. If you improve quicker than expected, all good. Staging may reduce you injury risk as well.

Good luck, I only ever made 21.3x, but who knows I've got a couple of years on you!

Matt

My brother is Scottish XC champ for 50+. I was trying to get my sub 40 10k (I'm 50).
His advice was intervals. 400m @ 80/90% then jog back.
A simple tweak is to do a 3K faster than normal. Then 2 / 3 mins rest. Then another 3k.

There was a monthly 5K race held at Camp Bastion every month when I was there. I think the fastest time I saw was just over 15 mins.

How quickly are you hoping to achieve this aim?

I reckon you could be looking at a years work to get there. 32 minutes is really slow, 25 minutes is a bang average time for anyone who isn't physically impaired.

Sub-20 is fast at any age.

Good luck!

Not quite, for me: I did a 10K last year (age 42 3/4) and my first 5K was 20min flat, so I'm sure it's doable.

A 6:20 pace 5k should definitely be doable but it's a big jump from 8 minute mile pace.

Set yourself a reasonable time frame for it. You need to build up slowly to avoid injury and let your body adapt. It's not going to happen this year so set some more realistic target for this year, maybe get down to 7:30 race pace. You'll need to go from 2 days a week to a consistent 5 or 6. Build up to this [u][b]gradually[/b][/u]. Once you're consistent [b][u]gradually[/u][/b] build up the milage . Get a decent base of steady miles. Lose as much weight as possible. Try and get some decent advice on your running style, cadence, stride length, etc. (look at how good runners run). Spend about a year doing this, basically turning yourself into a runner. Then start doing some interval work around race pace or above.

Issue is that I am also training for a couple of ultra marathons so pace isnt the priority at the moment but the speed will come as the training helps.

No it won't, or at least there's no guarantee. I do OK in ultras but I'm pretty slow at 5-10K pace - I did a 10K for fun with a mate last Sunday and finished in 43:46 which isn't bad (I'm 46) but isn't spectacular. I just don't do enough dedicated fast running as it's not what I'm aiming for.

I started running in 2013 with an average parkrun of 23 minutes and chipped away at those times peaking at 19.01 when I was training for the Bournemouth marathon in 2015. Although I was doing a lot of races over 2013-2015 and improved a lot.

Ongoing niggles with hamstring/glutes and a bit of laziness plus half a stone extra my best parkrun is now stuck at 21 minutes for the past 2 years.
The greatest improvement I see with people in my running club is those who do the track sessions

I'm not teasing or laughing, because I've been there, and as awesome a time as that is, I'd nearly rather run a 41.13 (if you know what I mean...)

Haha no, I know exactly what you mean!

To be honest I knew on the day it would be very close and thought I would just fall on the wrong side of 40mins so had decided that I'd treat it as a warm up race and have another go a few weeks later to properly try and nail it.

Ended up with a hamstring injury and now some foul weeks long chest infection so if I have another bash I'll be starting from the beginning again I think.

I'm not sure why but it's kind of becoming an itch I really want to scratch so I'll definitely have another go but I think the clock is ticking tbf.

I think you can do this.

Based on what you said, you only did 100 runs (av 2/week for a year) to knock 7 mins off. To me, that shows some potential and some ability.

I'd suggest getting to an average of 25-30miles per week over the next 6 months, over 4-5 runs at an easy pace. When you're comfortably there, replace a couple of those runs with tempos (20mins pretty hard) and a session of intervals of 3-5min efforts per week.

If you keep that up, I think you'll be sub-20 by the end of the year.

(I did similar and went from 56min 10k to 43min in a year. I'm now at 35min 10k and 17:15 5k. Not particularly quick but 30mpw is the most I can sustainably do)

beaker - Member
There was a monthly 5K race held at Camp Bastion every month when I was there. I think the fastest time I saw was just over 15 mins.

By an Athersmith? I've raced against them and they're quick!

My pb is 20.01, I was gutted, 4th in the race but would have swapped that in an instant for 2 seconds, hopefully getting back into it after a bronchitis induced lay off. Evesham park run tomorrow will be my first run in a month

A lot of good stuff has been said already, although I'm not sure 'most' 49 year olds would be able to hit a 73% wava (otherwise it wouldn't be 73%, it would be 50%).

That's not how age-grading works, but I agree, I should have qualified - by 'most' I mean 'most runners' - obviously vast swathes of 49 year olds couldn't dream of hitting 40 minutes for a 5km, nevermind 20 minutes, but we're all fit outdoors types on here 8)

It's doable but as others have said there is an injury issue, also it depends on the terrain. My local parkrun, hampstead heath, is a little brutal with it's two up hills on a lap that's run twice. I nearly cracked it as a 40 year old but then injuries arrived, and have ridden more than run. Still stuck at 20:21.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

I have a mate who's done a few marathons. I believe his PB is 3:00:03

Finished a 100 mile road ride event last year in 4h59m56s. My (ambitious for me) goal was "under 5 hours" as it represented a 30 minute improvement over my best. Under is under, over is nowhere 😉

Running. Hmm. I had a run recently for the first time in years and did 5km in a bit under 26 mins (avg pace was about 5m11). This thread has got me thinking of whether I could get down to a 4:30 per km. Only way to find out is try I guess.

It will be a challenge starting from here... But you can do it. Lots of good advice on here but in a nutshell:
Do more running, no replacement (although lots of other things help) probably at least 4 days per week. Quality running not "jogging"
Introduce speedwork in some form, also hill work
Do a longer run once per week
A couple of times a week run until your eyeballs pop.

A mate of mine is 50 and ran his first sub-20 min 5k two nights ago:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1339352035

He only started running last August!
But:
- Very fit cyclist
- Some downhill in this, probably 100mtrs total
- 6ft and a quite skinny 12st 4lbs or so

Doesn't quite answer your question but I would have thought it was possible to replicate at a parkrun. No road crossings for a start!

It can be done. I'm 55 and have a Parkrun PB of 19.17.

Choose a fast course. Draft people. Take shortest possible racing lines. Learn to suffer. Believe in yourself. Good luck with it.

All that Fell running pays off 😀

I was going to post up an age-grade calculator, but am slow to the thread, so no need!

73% is what you need for your age, and if you look at a fairly fast and flat Parkrun such as Bushy, out of 940 runners last week, 79 had an age-grade score of 73 or over, and 67 were unknown, so just over 9% were faster than you are aiming for using that method.

Depending on your running history, going below 20 may or may not be easy. If you're nice and lean, already running 100+ miles a week and have been for years, you may have hit your biological/physiological potential, so it's not going to happen. However, if you're a relative newcomer, could afford to lose a few kilos, and are willing to work at it, I'd say you probably should be able to. From your first post, I'd say you are more in the latter camp (although I've no idea about your weight), but don't go balls-deep too quickly, gradually build on the distance and speed work, and you should see significant improvements come.

Also, choose your venue carefully, my PB at Tooting (flat, mainly tarmac) is nearly 2 minutes quicker than Alice Holt (gravel, undulating) so you may already have some gains to be made with no extra effort!

Another thing is how close to killing yourself were you when you did 25 minutes? If you weren't close to blacking-out or puking at the end, you almost certainly could have gone quicker!

Plenty of online advice about training, I'm not going to profess to prescribe anything as I'm not qualified to do so, apart from being a semi-respectable runner.

Let us know how you get on 🙂

Cheers, Rich

surfer - aye, maybe. It's much more fun than Parkrun, that's for sure! 😀

A person [s]50 year old[/s] [s]man[/s] pushing for a running time target to me = injury

Get a running technique coach. MY PB 18.55 but I would want a 17.30 if I was prioritising flat running and I will go for coaching. All the training programmes / tips here are what you need to improve but injury is a massive problem in running.

My mate used this guy and improved a minute to a 38.58 10k
https://www.runningreborn.co.uk/

I started out at about 24 mins, and then whittled away at it, as mentioned above, by upping my running and intensity of running.

Eventually got it down to 19.50 - but managed to really screw my ankle over time...so just be careful. I had an underlying bone spur which really aggravated the achilles.

Really needs an op now if I am to get back to "serious" running. 🙁

@ The Teaboy

By an Athersmith? I've raced against them and they're quick!

Not sure what an Athersmith is? I think the chap was USAF. It was quite disheartening seeing him finish just as I started my second lap. (My best 5k was 25:48)

surfer - aye, maybe. It's much more fun than Parkrun, that's for sure!

I enjoyed you race when I did it a few years ago although I remember getting attacked by Jack Russell which I gave a friendly tap with my foot in defence only for the owner to attack me with its lead 😯

Interesting thread. I started distance running back in 2016 when I moved over here to Manchester. Ran my first Parkrun at around 23 minutes or so. Got it down to around the mid late 20's when I trained for my first marathon then. The following year when training for Belfast I got my 5k PB of 19.25. Came from more miles, including XC over winter, and core/strength training. Also knocked 30 minutes of my marathon time on a much hillier course. Speed and strength work is your friend for the shorter distances.

One of my Parkrun goals is sub-17 while pushing a buggy 🙂

Need to knock off 44 seconds, switching from Tooting to Dulwich would probably help - all tarmac and no corners 😀

Cheers, Rich

I think under 20 is born runner type times.

That's a convenient excuse not to try. I think under 20 is 'willing to put a bit of effort in' type times.

I'm 53 next week, can still run sub-40 minute 10k but I rarely run 'competitively' because if I attempt any block of serious training I usually end up with a niggly injuries - I generally only run 1-2 times a week. My marathon PB is 2:56 and would love to give it another go as I managed a sub-60 minute 10 miler not too long ago. Running on and off since my teens, since I'm lucky that I've maintained my joint and tendon strength and have a fairly neutral gait, but I need well-cushioned shoes if I'm not to suffer afterwards. To develop leg speed I use a treadmill at 1-2% incline which is far less harsh on the legs - scares the bejesus out of some other gym users when the oldest guy there is running at over 16kph - but I build the speed up slowly rather than simply banging it to the max. Developing a higher cadence and shorter stride is something I wished I'd learnt to do earlier.

I'd say most healthy middle-aged men should get to 20 mins on a flat fast course. Note that a lot of park run courses are not very quick, I have only twice gone under 21 on one of my occasional courses (never sub-20) and won it one of those times. Regular running is the key. Say build up to 3 times a week 30-60 mins for starters.

19.11 5km last year at 40 years old and 13 stone.

That was a run at lunch time along canal. Never done a road race or park run but reckon I'd easily get under 19 with a flat course. Mildly interested to know what I could do with a bit of specific training, but not interested enough to do it.

Easiest thing for speed, run intervals with people faster than you and lose weight.

In the fine words of Swiss Tony. Running should be like making love to a beautiful women, it should be long, slow and muddy 😯

I've only ever done 1 parkrun without a buggy, (massive respect for the 17odd with a buggy turboferret!) and it was 19:09.
At the time I was riding my commute (15 miles each way) a lot, and doing some fell running too. This gave me loads of base fitness and leg strength.

To get a bit more speed, I find a couple of sets of tabata intervals during a gentle run - 1 set on a tough hill, one set on the flat - does wonders for my leg speed. Also helps with the running through the burning muscles feeling too!

A lot of it is finding what works for you. Never been a fan of structured training, just like to go for a run or ride of an evening, but the benefits of intervals are pretty sizeable I find.

A good slice of the improvement you've seen probably comes from realising you can hurt yourself a bit more and it's not so bad.

A mate of mine pushed his times down by smashing off the front with the fastest and seeing how long he could hang on for. Took him a little while, but without too much extra training, he found he was hanging on for longer and longer before blowing up until he started to be able to finish strongly at the same pace.

Might be worth a try! 🙂

Oh yeah.

Start on the start line thats a good minute right there if not more!

A mate of mine pushed his times down by smashing off the front with the fastest and seeing how long he could hang on for.

Become good friends with Speed sessions and tempo runs.

I’m 41. Used to pop along and run parkrun in around 22:30/ 23 mins on not much regular running.

In May I joined a running club. 2 nights a week the club holds coaching sessions which generally focuses on speed work of some kind (on track and cycle paths).

I’ve got my 5k down to 19:25 and planning to go sub 19.

IMO if you want to go faster, that’s what you need to focus on in your training but don’t neglect the longer general runs to build endurance. Tempo runs are ideal

Finished a 100 mile road ride event last year in 4h59m56s. My (ambitious for me) goal was "under 5 hours" as it represented a 30 minute improvement over my best.

😆

VERY similar story here... Done a few centuries, fastest was about 5hr40 on a faster course, said to myself anything under 5hr30 would be good on Ride London... Came in at 4hr59min47sec I think! I actually burst into tears as I crossed the line, I couldn't contain the emotion!

FFWD 12 months and I smashed the previous year at 4hr37, barely raised a smirk as I crossed the line 😆

Anyway, running...

I could barely run 50m these days, let alone 5000 (I'm ok on a bike, but any impact sport is a no go for me right now!), but I was a good short and middle distance runner as a teenager. My Dad was 3 county (Hereford/Worcs/Glos) champion at 100/200/400 for most of his teens so I guess it came naturally to me (though I never had his natural ability) which I guess helped. Problem was I just couldn't get into it, I found it incredibly boring! Tried doing a few runs past the forced cross country runs at school (where I'd usually walk part of it with mates out of protest), and when I was about 15 (so my Dad was about 41) we started doing a few 5k's together to try to get us both back into it (he'd spent most of his 20's drinking, and most of his 30's eating). Think the first run was 19 something, and after 3 or 4 attempts we got into the 17 minutes bracket. Working this back, that's approx a 10mph avg pace, but I used to find it impossible to "run" at anything below about 8.5mph avg. About 15yrs later my best mate decides to get fit, I start going down the gym with him, we jump on the running machines and he sets them to 6mph, which was just a fast walk to me! I literally can't run that slow! 😆

So if a fat 41yo and an uninterested 15yo can do that, I'd be surprised if most regular runners can't apply themselves and do the training to get sub 20 for sure... Will reiterate that my body is a state right now, and though I can get on a bike for 5hrs at a time, I couldn't manage to run 5k at all these days let alone in a good time!

Incredibly depressing reading this! I thought I was doing ok, am a 48 year old , 14 stone bloke who has done parkrun since February 2017. My first runs were around the 32 minute mark. At the time I was nearly 17 stone. In December I managed to get to 24:30 and have now run 25 mins dead or better on 3 times.
Hoping to get to sub 24 this year with which I’d be very happy. My best age grading is normally high 50s to 60%.
I run with a couple of 50 year olds which run between 20 and 22 minutes but they are both race whippets and about 11 stone.

The only person I know that runs sub 20 is 17.

I have another running buddy who is a similar age and not a race whippet and he can do sub 23 but that’s down to sheer bloody mindedness on his part.

I’m probably not trying hard enough........

Incredibly depressing reading this!

Don't be depressed, it all depends what you want out of it and how much time / energy you are willing to commit.

Incredibly depressing reading this!

Considering how long you’ve been running and where you started from I think yours is a good achievement.

I use a treadmill in hotel gyms to train for this. Start at 15 and bump it up gradually.

Then longer 10-15k runs outside.

JGG, hope you don't take offence but unless you are really tall 14stone is a lot of timber to be carrying around.

It can be not a lot of timber at all. What is that 90kilos or thereabouts? Some people are built a little stockier, some are very lean. If you are naturally lean it’s gonna be of greater help for middle/long distance sports. That’s not to say if you are more solidly built, look at Eddie izzard, you cant excel at endurance but pace is gonna be harder to achieve.

I only do XC and trail running - I hate the tarmac cos I’m a mountain biker, ain’t I - and have this year hit 21 at 5km and mid 40’s for 10. I spoke to a superfast marathon runner about how to get a step change, and he reckoned it’d be marginal gains after introducing hill reps, spring reps etc., to which I said I only run for convenience and would rather be riding the trails and ther and then my goal of sub 20 min 5km evaporated.

Hope you hit your target OP.

46, I’ve done 3 park runs 2 of which were under 20, 19’20 best, primarily because they had a 20 pace runner who I tucked in behind then gave it laldy past towards the end. I don’t do any structured training as such, couple of runs a week, one game of 5 aside, cycle a couple miles to work every day. Crank it up a bit when there’s a race in the next few months, managed top 10% or better of every race I did last year.

One thing I notice is that so many park runners further down the field have really poor form: posture and upper body movement, but also generally a far too low cadence. I reckon most folk could chop a few minutes off just by concentrating on an efficient and fast style

Some of the triathletes in the uni club do 5k (at Parkrun, not on a track) in the low 16s (16:15 is the best I've seen). I'd never had any context as to how good this is, but judging from this thread that's pretty handy right?

I'm considering doing a parkrun at some point, but I don't really fancy doing run training of any sort, is this a terrible idea? I'm a fairly fit 21 year old, and invariably I'd end up trying to stay with the triathletes mentioned above and killing myself. Any tips?

Not sure if it's been mentioned to try it on a treadmill, it'll show you the pace you need to go and you can always hop off when your body over takes your legs.

I've gone sub 20 a few times and I'm a bit of a lump suited to shorter distances. Doing it on a treadmill made me think I could do it outside.

Try going to the front of the park run pack next week and keep up with the quick people, doesn't matter if you blow up and cross the line at walking pace.

OP here. Set of on my local park run today and without planning to do so, found myself running inside the top ten when I'm normally about mid pack. The pace was obviously higher and was a bit of an eye opener as to what I will need to be doing. After lap 1 (of 3) I dropped off and then sat on a park bench to contemplate the task. Jogged the remaining 2 laps just to say that at least I completed it.
Interesting.
Anyone else doing a similar thing, feel free to highjack this thread. Would like to hear other peoples stories.

Some of the triathletes in the uni club do 5k (at Parkrun, not on a track) in the low 16s (16:15 is the best I've seen). I'd never had any context as to how good this is, but judging from this thread that's pretty handy right?

World record for 5k is 12:37 (that's 3 consecutive sub 4 minute miles, over 15mph avg pace ffs!) for men and 14:11 for women, 16:15 is certainly handy (5m12sec per mile) but they won't earn a living from running that pace.

Remember that the world record marathon run is 2:02:57, which equates to 26.2 consecutive 4m41sec miles!!! That's sub 15min pace for a 5k but doing it 8 and a bit times on the trot! The mind boggles...

One thing I notice is that so many park runners further down the field have really poor form: posture and upper body movement, but also generally a far too low cadence. I reckon most folk could chop a few minutes off just by concentrating on an efficient and fast style

As someone who used to be a half decent runner, I couldn't agree more. I can't run for toffee these days, but 90% of the people I see out running these days need to learn to run first, before they do themselves a damage! But the same could be said for most road cyclists that take it up, learning to turn the pedals at a good cadence in a smooth style rather than just jumping on the bike and hacking up and down would work wonders, but of course "it's just like riding a bike" so nobody bothers to learn!

Can I just thank the OP for starting this thread? Inspired by it I got it into my head to see if I could go sub 20 as zi haven’t done it for a ehile. I wanted to go to Burnley as it’s reasonably flat and fast but got outvoted by the Mrs so we went to Avenham Park, Preston. This has a Hill in it and you do 3 laps. Cut a long story short I surprised myself and ended up 10th in a time of.... 19:59!! Happy bunny.

but 90% of the people I see out running these days need to learn to run first, before they do themselves a damage

Very much agree with this, it’s even painful to watch.

My aim for 2016 was a sub 20 Parkrun. rather surprisingly to me it had been achieved by 09:19:47 on the first of January at the age of 50. I got my pb down by another second to 19:46 a month or so later. Not sure what my best would be now but certainly slower, I lost 9 months to Plantar Fasciitis and though I'm back running I'm not aiming or training for anything just running for the fun of it. Best thing I found for improving was hill reps and 1K at full pace repeats.