Thirsk 10 - Northern 10 Mile Championships

Ouch! 2 miles to go in the Thirsk 10

NEW PB 61 minutes 40 seconds

Well done to all at Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers for hosting what turned out to be a memorably great race with some staggeringly good performances, and all in spite of the waterlogged course that in some parts was flooded across the full width of the road.

Unassailable chip timing, two bottles of water (Burnsall 10 organisers please take note) on the route, a warm pavilion where bread and soup / tea and cake etc was being sold at very reasonable prices after the event, rapidly published results and free race photographs. What else could a runner ask for? Showers. A punctual start. A cheaper event.

Does anyone else have a wardrobe brimming with scarcely worn race T-shirts? Mine are stored in a couple of those vacuum bags that you find on shopping channels and in sunday newspaper supplements. Frankly, I'd rather have the option of passing over the race souvenir if it meant that the event was less expensive. Gripe over.

There were too many superb performances for me to pick any one individual, so I'll confine my comments to our ladies team. Well done - just look at what you can achieve when you all turn up! The Harrogate League is yours for the taking next year.

The women were ably anchored by Her Majesty, who came past me at around the 4 mile mark and I simply let go thinking "yeah I'll see you in 3 miles girl". I'm unashamed to say that I was dropped almost as heavily as Tiger Woods is about to be by his wife and sponsors. I think the difference was around 50 seconds to a minute, which tells a tale in itself.

The first 5 miles of the race passed uneventfully. I was perfectly happy letting other people around me do their own thing while I stayed focused on remaining comfortable, efficient and rhythmic. The splits suggest that I was pushing the pace a fraction at 5:52 5:54 5:56 6:03 and 6:02, but in truth I was comfortably cruising. Then a wheel fell off as I turned the corner at the Busby Stoop.

The next 5 miles were 6:19 6:20 6:16 6:20 and 6:20. Yet despite this I'm really rather proud of how I kept my resolve burning. The problem was all too clear, having failed to taper properly by pushing a 9 mile training run 2 days earlier, my legs were spent. There was a lot of tightness in the right leg radiating from the gleut down. What's more it hurt. By this time I had become a mark and was being overtaken frequently enough to be embarrassing. Nevertheless I gritted my teeth and entered 'the zone'. Once in this mindset the pain became irrelevant. My only purpose was to finish the event as fast as I humanly could and absorb whatever suffering the task required.

Last year I ran this in 63:16, so should be delighted by the 96 second improvement. The results are here. Admire the many brilliant team and personal performances at your leisure.

Anyway, I spent the journey home rubbing my left calf, which was a precursor to an injury that flared up on Friday gone while out with the hound stalking deer on the Chevin. I'm managing it well by training conservatively, but it's really fouling up my Ribble 10K preparations. Let's see...

Preston 10

The Preston 10M 2009

Last night I was cavorting at a medieval banquet in Coventry, where I awoke at 6.30, i.e. half past daft o'clock. After a 2 hour drive up the delightfully clear M6 to Preston, there was just sufficient time for the customary pre-race rituals before lining up with seconds to go before the gun, or whistle(?!) in this case.

Well done Preston Harriers on putting together a decent and safe event. It got a tick in every box except the one marked 'accurate time keeping'. How do I know that? Well, I pressed my start button well after the whistle blew, and pressed it as I crossed the 'imaginary' line. So one of three possibilities occur. Either a) my GPS is not a precision device linked into a myriad of computers monitoring the exact movements of the earth to generate an atomic measurement of time, or b) the 'imaginary' line was not where I quite imagined it to be, or finally c) somebody timekeeping had geriatric reflexes. Obviously I'm being facetious, but why is it that time recorders never have the same result as me?

All this carping on is because I beat my PB by a paltry 7 seconds, instead of the 9 as I have it, so call me a pedant. The results are here - 36th out of 365 in 1:02:16. I'm dissatisfied with the result but pleased with the performance. By the halfway point of this two lap course I was yearned for the heated seats of my car, but while being cheered on I managed to trick my mind in to believing that it would be all plain sailing from then on. Ha! Amy Green from Keighley charged past me like a bison and I was left pondering whether my race was over up until mile 7. The 3 preceding miles had been mentally tough, then I realised that I had barely been overtaken, and that everyone that had come past was within my reach. That was it - simple as - I just managed to convince myself that I had turned the tables on them by 'allowing' them to overtake and now I was going to reel every little one of them in - and I did. Being blunt, I couldn't have raced faster on the day and so got the result that I deserved, but am pleased to have salvaged some self-respect by mounting a strong come back right to the line.

Is the deficiency in my training that I don't do sufficient race paced miles? In other words, for a 10 miler should I be out training on the flat doing 5 miles in 30 minutes? Maybe a two mile warm up and the same to cool down? From now on I'm going to be doing more race specific speed work.

So what's new? The ECG results are in and they say I'm - normal. How insulting. Much to my good fortune the Cardiologist happened to be a runner. He explained how another running cardio chum of his does 10K's in 32 mins and has been doing some research on responses to interval training. Anyway, the outcome of this was that his subjects fell in to two groups - responders and non-responders. Now that I've become a Wednesday night regular at Carnegie let's see which category I come under. As for the pains, he believes it's some sort of spasm brought on by exertion, but wants me to take a treadmill test just to be on the safe side. Great - 30 minutes indoors hill training!

What else? Ah, there's the small matter of my spring marathon. Hmmmm, well as Paris had filled up by the time I managed to pull my credit card from its web encrusted stitched shut wallet, I plumed for Blackpool instead. Same date (April 11th) - both places have a tall iron tower that you run past, who'll even notice the difference?

Three races left this year. Thirsk 10 and Ribble 10K (both pre-entered) and maybe the Langdale 10K....

Bridlington Half Marathon

A GOOD CLUB TURNOUT

CREATE YOUR OWN CAPTION

Thank you to Bridlinton Road Runners and their local Rotary Club for putting on a well organised and enjoyable event. The news of the day had to be Andrew Pearson winning in 1:05:48 on an undulating course with a headwind on the final mile. The second runner was almost 5 minutes behind, making this a victory by a country mile. I can't wait to see whether he puts in an appearance at the Thirsk 10 (Northern 10 Mile Championships).

My own performance was acceptable given my level of preparation, what with having been quite busy with back to back trials. The results are here and as can be seen, I was 35th out of 684 in 1:24:02. Even if I had been 'race sharp' I don't think that I could have gone more than 2 minutes faster on this course, and so am pleased that I held it together for the duration and didn't fall apart when the temptation came at between 5 to 7 miles. I've no idea what happened, but suddenly some self-doubt crept in to my mind as my legs began to tire of the hills and a pack of 5 (including Helen Cross) overtook. All that I could think was "oh blow I'm about to become a target". Somehow or other I turned it around and persevered to have quite a rewarding final 3 miles patiently picking off those who didn't have the legs for the distance. I'd say that I overtook as many as came past me, although admittedly not all the same people. If I learnt nothing else I can at least now say that I've discovered how to keep my neurosis in check during a race.

There were two other occurrences of note. First, a certain 69 year-old gentleman completed his 100th half that day, and I had the honour of having lunch with him afterwards. Well done Peter, you're an inspiration! Second, we won the team prize! It was handed over less than magnanimously with the announcer carping on about how 2 other teams could have won it if they'd pre-entered. Fortunately for me, Fr Julian and The Best that they didn't, and we each pocketed £30.

You might have noticed that I'm less of a blogger of late. The reality is that I began to lose the pleasure of diarising events when my form plummeted after coming back from injury at the start of the summer. I'm now feeling far more positive. Looking forward to winter training for a spring marathon (Paris?), followed by a summer on the fells, then the XC next autumn. Next year I commence my BGR preparations and endeavour to become 'fell hard' with some lengthy exploits in the mountains. Perhaps even venture in to mountain marathons... Let's see.

Wednesday evenings are now occupied with track sessions at Carnegie run by our Ilkley bretheren. Not only am I grateful for the effort put in to organising this, but I'm noticing incremental improvements. Let's see what happens at the Preston 10 this Sunday.

PS Well done to David McGonigal on completing is first half-marathon last weekend. Are you addicted yet?

Wetherby 10K

WETHERBY 10K - 37.41

On 14th September I popped over to Wetherby for a cracking little Yorkshire run. Thank you very much to Robert Gray and his gang at Wetherby Runners for hosting a race that lives up to its billing. This is a rapid course, but which tends to attract a relatively mortal standard of competitor.

Mercury came 2nd, hot on the heels of Dunn Running. White Knight was also blistering. Dare I say it, so was I, right up until the point when I had to stop and walk. With 1KM to go there came a stabbing pain - a bit like the others that I've been suffering for around a year now - except this was enough to halt me in my tracks. Somewhat miffed, I soldiered on to cross the line in a respectable enough time, all things considered. My aim was to run a sub 37m race, and I would doubtless have been very close but for the casual stroll at the end.

The upshot of all this is that I've been referred to a Cardiologist to see whether we can get to the bottom of the problem. Crossing the line clutching your chest and being surrounded by St John's ambulance crew (not for the first time) is probably a sign worth heeding. Tomorrow morning I have an ECG scheduled for 24 hours, with a track session planed for the evening. Imagine the perplexed expression on the face of the person who examines that print out!

Anyway, I loved my first 10k. What a fun distance. All out 'spill yer guts on the pavement slogging through the pain barrier' kind of fun. Oh, and I almost forgot - we won the 2nd team prize and as our third counter (29th) I was £10 up! That covered the fish and chips that we pilled in to the Wetherby Whaler for after the event.

The following Sunday I went for a trot round Lake Ullswater with the wet nosed four legged hairy rabbit chaser. It was right up there with running up Ingleborough in deep virgin snow last Easter Sunday as one of the most beautiful runs I've ever done. You may get an impression of this from clicking on the satellite image below. The lad and I saw a red deer stag taking his family of three out for a stroll over Place Fell, which together with the breathtaking view that greeted us as we came round the fell to face the Helvellyn range, were the highlights of the morning. Pure soul running.

The Ilkley Incline

New lungs and legs please!

Ilkley Harriers and AC deserve enormous gratitude for laying on the Ilkley Incline on Wednesday evening, despite the awful autumnal conditions and merciless midges.

For those of you unfamiliar with the format of the race, it's a one mile course up a steep hill. Simple, except not quite. I had done a 10 x 400 around the park on the evening before, and was also part way through a trial, so perhaps should have side stepped this event. At least that's what I was thinking at around the half way mark as my body was begging my mind to stop driving it in defiance of gravity, and I was cursing my sense of spontaneity for ever having decided to enter.

My idea of a conservative start was a touch more like Usain Bolt's notion of propulsion. Far far too fast to comprehend. In my defence, I had absolutely no idea that the first half mile was vomit inducing. Rather than taking the lead of my more experienced club mates, I pelted off and set myself up as their targets, and had been completely reeled in by the half way mark. Next year....

The results are here. Congratulations to Graham Peace, who was half a minute up on Zeus' time from last year! I was 2 minutes behind in 9:15. Judging from how my gleuts felt the next evening I would say that it's time to get back in hill training for the autumn winter. My lungs were raw and wretched afterwards, as anyone who heard me coughing up on the jog back down could bear witness.

Perhaps some gym work might now be called for, but I'm struggling to find the time to run as it is just at the moment. Happily I'm very well professionally occupied and have been for some time, so any complaints would be misplaced.