A surprise win by the seaside

Well, following on from last week, I pretty much did it. I allowed myself one fast run at parkrun on the Saturday and ran at a steady pace for the rest of the week save for a couple of segments that I have discovered on Strava whereby you can see which runner has the “record” on a certain section of road somewhere up and down the land. I targeted a couple of these, approximately a mile in length and beat the existing best times which was satisfying, although restraint is the watchword here as this could get an extremely addictive and pointless pastime for a competitive old fox like me!

During our holiday, I purchased a weekly rover ticket for the local steam train that covers ten stations from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead. Thrifty as ever, I determinedly got my money’s worth out of the ticket by hopping on board after a day’s sightseeing and riding out to a different station before running home, trying to find the way back. It was great fun and a fabulous way to explore yet more of our often very beautiful country. I stumbled across a truly spectacular cricket ground in the village of Stogumber and I shall always remember the run along Dunster Marsh and Blue Anchor beach at sunset even if I got lost after leaving the coastline and accidentally running into Watchet harbour!

At the ripe old age of 41, I attracted my very first wolf-whistle whilst in the act of running and the week of increasing mileage was topped off with a surprise first place at Minehead parkrun. I had ambitions of winning after finishing fourth the week prior. Two of the three runners ahead of me were unlikely to be there as they too were tourists. If the lad who ran a strong second didn’t show and no tasty newcomers arrived on the scene, I could be well in the mix. I led from the off, charging off excitedly and probably way too fast. At the first hairpin which took seemingly forever to reach, I was very closely followed by a very handy veteran from Barnsley but third place was way way back. I knew I was good for top two but desperately wanted the first place so I knew I had to work hard from here to make it count. I didn’t want to give the second place guy the psychological advantage of having caught me up even if I fancied myself in a sprint – I had to run him out of the race. Ploughing on, I pushed hard into the stiff sea breeze coming off the Bristol Channel and with half a mile to go, I started to open up more of a gap and took the win by around 20 seconds. Ten quicker than the week before on a slightly drier surface but front-running presents a different challenge you don’t get from chasing.

We got home later that afternoon in time for the Badgers club 5th birthday celebrations, brilliantly organised by Clare Whetton. There was an inflatable assault course which seemed a good idea at the time but it did for a few people who attacked it somewhat over-zealously. This old fool was one such individual. I charged into the tunnel like a paratrooper escaping machine gun fire and consequently smashed my head and neck awkwardly and have been in some discomfort ever since. They say never look back and with a neck injury, this is easily achieved. That said, it hasn’t hindered my running this week so far.

On Sunday, I joined up with a hilariously hungover Dave Jackson and a sober Aaron Chetwynd. We knocked out 11 miles relatively easier. I started with a sprint up Keys Hill setting a new record – since broken a few days later as the younger competitive Baddesley boys flex their muscles. Astounding myself amongst anyone else who knows me, I have woken up early enough to get a run in before work for three of the last four days. The one exception being Wednesday when I was too tired following a knackering club training session.

I hadn’t trained with my club since July owing mainly to injury but more recently holidays so I was a little nervous beforehand. I thought about joining the intermediate group in an effort to break myself back in gently and not get carried away, however last time I did this I felt I didn’t get anything out of the session so I ran in the fast group and one thing led to another! I was in a sub-group of the quickest four club runners and proceeded to do my very best to keep up with the fastest of all, Danny Warren, which I did. I could tell he always had a little bit extra if needed and this was none more evident than at the end where I required a good lie down for a minute or two to recover and he didn’t! I’d got five miles in my legs from the morning plus I’d jogged down to training but I felt my form and energy was good. I’ll never be at his level again but hopefully I pushed him along a bit.

I am full of enthusiasm at the moment and need to be mindful of over-doing it. I feel good and am really enjoying my running, partly because I feel I have missed so much over the summer which is without doubt my favourite season to run in with the weather, light and feel-good vibe. As the nights draw in, I skipped club tonight to get a longer run in with an earlier start as well as give my mate Dave a helping hand with his marathon training. I thought I would hold him back but it turned out to be the opposite as he continues to batter himself when normal logic would suggest some rest might be in order. He had an 11 mile head start on me and manfully ploughed on but he was suffering which is never nice to see. Then, better to suffer in training than on race day and I have every confidence he will bag a great time in his race and enjoy the glow of satisfaction afterwards that makes it all worthwhile. The same glow I am chasing, only seven months further down the line!

Still lapping everybody on the couch!

One of the things I dislike about running are the plethora of terrible slogans such as the one used in this headline! That aside, this week has been a pretty good one, no doubt helped by the fact that I am now away on holiday. We are visiting Somerset for the first time. Usually we go abroad for our main holiday but periodically it is nice to discover a new part of the UK. The weather has been kind to us and in turn this has meant that I have been able to get out running most days. In the last seven days I have clocked up an impressive (for me at least!) 35 miles which is as much as I was doing on average when in full swing training for last years London Marathon.

It started last Sunday when I turned out for my club, Badgers, at the final league race of the season, a ten miler at Countesthorpe. A fellow club runner and seemingly a nerd to rival of Danny Warren put together some stats (unofficially) that suggested the Badgers men’s veterans team of which I am a part were top of their division. With this in mind, I couldn’t not turn out given that we had a real chance of honours. The top four over 40’s count points from 500 for first in the race, 499 for second and so on and the team with the most aggregate points gets 20 points, then 17 and 14 etc. The calculations showed we had a three point lead over Anstey who have a voluminous squad. Upon seeing the official figures at the race, our lead was understated and we had a five point cushion, not that you change the way you run. It is a team thing but my view is you focus on your own run, go as fast as possible then help cheer your mates home hoping your encouragement may enable them to sneak an extra place or two.

I knew we were missing some of our quicker vets – legends like Matt Tonks and Martyn Barrett and new-boy Ian Smith didn’t want to run it. I knew I had to run half decently as I was a probable scorer as would be the ever-reliable Glyn Broadhurst. Jimmy Dewis answered my clarion call to help the team out given the situation and it’s a good job he did as we would have finished runners up otherwise. Colin Lees was our fourth scorer as we earned our 17 race points by the slender margin of just 16 positions in the race. Even runners who didn’t score helped as by default they push down opposing team’s scorers so it was truly a team effort in the finish. Given my form, fitness and foot, I planned to run sensibly. Glyn and I covered the first quarter race together. I pushed on a bit when a lady runner went by and had enough left at the end to scorch past around half a dozen runners finishing 70th out of around 700. Ordinarily I’d expect to finish higher but I felt happy to have got round without making my condition any worse. I was 8 seconds quicker than the prior year and 2 places to the good. We hadn’t seen the leagues until half an hour before the final race but in a way that is understandable as I guess it stops teams bringing all their “superstars” and “ringers” out for the last run of the season to affect the table.

Without the distractions of work and home duties, being away makes it easier in many respects. Every day, I have been able to whack my trainers on and go out exploring local paths, tracks and in some cases roads. We are stationed at a friend’s holiday cottage that we have rented for a fortnight and it is lovely. It is quite exciting venturing into the unknown. I do have an ordnance survey map of the area and always try and plot a route before setting off but so far I have ended up off-piste every time without fail!

Perhaps unwisely, I never run with my mobile phone and I am old-fashioned in that I prefer to use my map-reading skills to using things like sat-nav. Keeps the mind sharper I find. Consequently, I have had a few adventures this week. The roads down here are often bereft of footpaths and do not offer the safety net of grass verges. They are bordered by tall banks and hedgerows making it dangerous for runners. I have avoided main roads at all costs, the back lanes aren’t too bad as they are neither wide or busy enough for a car to cause a major problem, plus it’s so quiet that you can prepare for evasive action early as you hear vehicles approaching.

Anyway, I have been doing the majority of my running (5 miles a day minimum) on bridleways and public footpaths. There’s plenty of choice but the signage is poor compared to back home hence why I keep getting lost. And it’s flipping hilly round these parts too! I have seen some fabulous wildlife and been chased across a field by a herd of around thirty cows only to reach the gate in the corner and then have to cross a steam-train railway line to continue on the route. Sadly, someone long before me evidently did not make this crossing successfully as the dozens of teddy bears pinned to the nearby trees would indicate.

I have recorded my mileage but been totally unconcerned about speed. One step at a time I suppose and besides, I have enjoyed myself immensely often wishing I had brought my camera out with me to capture some of the superb sights and scenery on my jaunts. I worry that these are “junk miles” and in some ways they probably are but the object of the exercise for the next week or two is to get back running habitually without doing anymore long term damage to my tender feet. So far, so good.

Ever the competitor, I allowed myself a weekly treat. There is a relatively new parkrun in town, well, ten miles up the road in Minehead anyway and I had a go at it on Saturday morning. It is two trips along the sea-front so very flat but frustratingly wet following heavy overnight rain. Keen to protect my foot, I engaged in a fair bit of swerving, jumping and dodging in order to keep my right foot as dry as possible to avoid extra friction. Looking at the previous four runnings of the event, there was an outside chance of glory I felt, but as always with parkrunning in a tourist town, the personnel can vary wildly from week to week. Part of me worried that an athletics club stag party based at Butlins might turn up en-masse and jettison me out of the top ten but then would they not all be severely hungover on a Saturday morning!

En-route I saw a young but clearly very fit lad heading towards Minehead at about 8:15. It was feasible he would be going too but that would be one hell of a warm-up. It turned out he did go and finished second in under 17 minutes! This performance was still two minutes slower than the guy who won. Here with mates on a road-trip, he ran 15:05 or something. I ran well to grab fourth but he had finished when I still had half a mile left to run. Totally different class. This morning I ran the hilliest 8 miles ever (and got lost!) on a glorious morning yet thoroughly enjoyed the thrill and feeling of adventure and exploration along with the freedom that running gives you. This week, I plan to run a minimum of 10k a day with a parkrun treat at the end to see if I have improved, but not to race the clock or concern myself with pace or time in the meantime. For me this will be an unbelievable achievement but in order to work hard I need to get fit first and then stay fit.

And so it continues…

Admittedly it has taken a while for me to write another instalment on my blog. I always planned to write another “what next” piece after my failed marathon attempt and in typical belated fashion, here it is. I shall most likely continue weekly with this page as the plan is to focus on the new season and achieve the goals I have set myself. Similarly to football, the athletics season (in my club at least) runs from September through to August. As we head into the ninth month, the time seems ideal to re-assess and set my running goals for the coming season and also reflect on the year passed.

I consider the last twelve months more positive than not so. I hit the best form of my life at the turn of the year, ran arguably my best race (36:05 in the Telford 10K) and enjoyed my lowest handicap rating ever on Runbritain. A number of goals remain elusive. The sub five minute mile. I had one attempt at this while not race fit and clocked 5:14. With good form and no injury worries along with some more speed sessions, I am confident I have got this in 2017. There are few opportunities to find races of this distance, strangely and a fast flat course is imperative. I have sourced one that is perfect given good form.

The sub three hour marathon is another holy grail of mine. After London this year, I have been able to qualify for 2017 on the “Good for age” ticket. This will be my main goal race from now. It is a long way off but the plan is to slowly get fit and try to stay injury/niggle free. I was very fit last year but did not have the requisite endurance to accomplish the task in hand. I will need to significantly increase my weekly mileage to right wrongs next time around.

I wanted to achieve a Platinum with Distinction on my club Standard Times awards. I got three in the bag early on last year, got a fourth on a multi-terrain circuit which ultimately wouldn’t count but gave me the confidence that I could do it on the road easily enough if I could manage it on turf and then London happened.

I recovered sensibly, learned how to manage my plantar-fasciitis effectively and ran a reasonable half marathon in the searing heat at Bosworth although how Dave Jackson ran five minutes quicker that day still amazes me – that was probably the best I’ve seen him run. His improvement this year is something I aspire to. He has worked exceptionally hard and is reaping the rewards. I want it to be me next.

My biggest mistake was over-racing. You can have too much of a good thing. I much prefer racing to training but too many races can work against you in the long run. You learn a lot from a race, especially a bad one, but it gets harder to motivate yourself when you are racing all the time – the specialness of a race, the excitement can morph into mundanity. Motivation was not the issue in the end, it was knowing when to stop.

I raced the Kingsbury Classic 10K in the wet when below par blistering my feet. In an attempt to race my way back into form as I did in 2015, I ran the following day at the Rugby 6 on sore feet in wettish conditions to the point where my feet felt as though they were on fire for the final two miles and changing gear on the drive back required teeth-gritting. They say there’s no fool like an old fool and I proved everyone right by racing the West End 8 league race four days later. Chasing my Standard Times, the 8 mile distance is the rarest of them all and I was determined to make the most of what was probably the only chance I had. I knew after three miles I wasn’t going to get my time but every race must have a purpose. For league races, it’s fairly easy as you try to place as high as you can in order to help your team out. I usually have three or four goals in each race just to keep you going. The standard time was gone but a sub 50 wasn’t as indeed was a PB. As the race wore on, it was clear my foot was not happy. Five miles in and every step was crushingly painful. I eased off the pace, begrudgingly conceding places to my rivals and limped home in incredible pain in 50:49, somehow only 24 seconds off my personal best and two seconds inside my then club record!

From this point I spent the rest of the summer seemingly stuck in a permanent cycle of not running for a week or two, doing a race and then trying to get fit for the next race in a week or two’s time – without running! I had a minor knee injury and despite my best intentions, failed to give my tattered feet sufficient time to heal properly and consequently endured a fairly disappointing end to the season as my running fitness eventually started to drop off more noticeably and the opportunities for achieving Standard Times reduced. I feel terrible about constantly messing Karen Thompson around with the club rotas. She (probably quite wisely) told me to forget my watch and just run for enjoyment but I think I am just way too competitive for that to happen. As a run-leader, I take groups for training periodically as its good to put something back plus I think the club wanted someone fairly fast to help guide the real quick runners.

That said, there were highs along the way. I ran just 14 times in the 104 days between May 16th and August 27th. This includes training sessions as well as races.  I managed to record a new 10 mile PB at Nottingham, just ten seconds off my Standard Time target. I tracked Eleanor Fowler (20th in the London Marathon) for most of the race hoping to be dragged to a good time. I burnt her off with a mile to go – perhaps I should have had the confidence to have gone sooner. I travelled to Sproatley in nice flat Humberside to bag a new vets 7 mile club record. I enjoyed a top ten finish but missed my target time by 26 seconds. I could still record 5 times at Platinum standards and lose the distinction element. Alan Argyle and I both travelled to the flat Skirlaugh 8 mile race looking to wrap up the complete set of club records within our age categories. I set a new PB  but could feel my form waning as the lack of training began to take effect. I had been working hard in the gym and began supplementing this with some cycling but the training was not ideal for purpose.

The Joy Cann 5 was the final straw. I was struggling towards the end with my foot again and had to let runners through. For me, this is sacrilege, especially in a team race where every position counts! Luckily it is a short race so the damage was limited and unlike previously I did not compound the injury by racing repeatedly straight afterwards. If nothing else, failure here meant that I decided thereafter not to chase two more times in the folorn hope I might just get lucky when the reality was that I would not!

I still achieved a Gold Standard (Distinction) which is a step up from the previous year and added to my completion of all V40 club records and new PB’s at five distances, I consider the year a success. Even my London Marathon effort showed how much I’d improved in the last few years – 3:13:01 after a terrible run compared with 3:12:26 following a near perfect one. I picked up a few prizes and a few first places at parkrun too which is positive. The goals for this season are similar. Sub 5, Sub 3, Platinum Times and PB’s. I need to improve my half marathon best as I feel it is well within me when fit.

Off the field has been pleasurable in the main. I’m not the best watcher but I have had a dabble with the camera at races to be involved and help encourage and support. In addition, I have had a fair bit of fun producing the newsletter each month. Sometimes it is a bit of a drudge when you are short on ideas but other times when you don’t have writer’s block, I have been sat at the table crying with laughter at my own stupidity and childishness. It would be nice if my weekly news reports could produce such self-amusement!

I raised about £1,700 for charity and ran in the Badgers 10K race dressed as a banana – didn’t go sub-40 though. That rankled! I achieved my goal of 25 volunteer stints at parkrun. I thought I might have reached my 100 runs too but it’s 83 after today’s run so it may be early 2017 before that milestone is reached. The top-ten streak is still in-tact mind and I need at least two more new courses to add to the list to complete that ambition. With a holiday away coming up, I am hopeful I can take another step forward in achieving that.