I always try and set myself goals in my running and almost every run will have some sort of objective wrapped up within it, even a short training run. My primary goal this season was to achieve eight club standard times at platinum level and regular readers will know that I needed just one more, a five mile time which I was planning to get at the Joy Cann 5 in Huncote on August 1st. I had other goals in the background too. One was to avenge last year’s disappointment of missing out on some silverware in the Leicester League set up by finishing in the top 3 veterans over the nine races. I didn’t broadcast this ambition as if you look at the standard of over 40 runners in the county, I am probably nowhere near the top three but with the points system counting the best 6 from 9 races, it rewards attendance and consistency as much as ability. Finally, there was an opportunity to our club to be County Champions in our first season in the top flight of the road running league – a one-off chance to make history which was ours for the taking but ended up going right to the wire and the most thrilling of finishes of which more later as I intend to keep this chronological!
The Joy Cann race has good memories for me and I felt confident of a performance better than the required 30:05. I felt I ran well in a very strong field, finishing 23rd in 28:31, four seconds off my personal best but strong showings from both Hermitage Harriers and West End Runners meant Badgers ended up haemorrhaging more of the sizeable lead we had accumulated to that point. A few of us enjoyed a pleasant weekend in Snowdonia for Adi Payne’s birthday, turning out at Dolgellau parkrun and hoping to pepper the top order of finishers. Despite the event being relatively small in terms of participants, the course record holder made a rare visit on the same day and put our pink shirted sextet firmly in our places as we had to settle for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 8th instead!
I gave the Simon’s Heroes charity Abbott Run a whirl the following weekend and opted for the 5K much to my team-mate Glyn Broadhurst’s disappointment. He was in it to win it as was I and despite running together to the top of the first hill, I looked over my shoulder shortly afterwards and he was not there. It was a great little event, very intimate and family friendly. I won by about four minutes in the end and quite glad I didn’t run the 10K. That would have been an awful lot closer and I wasn’t up for anything too strenuous especially as I’d trained hard in the week and done my long run the day before.
The league races came thick and fast with the challenging Carl Rutt 10K next up, hosted by our title rivals Hermitage. We expected them to field a strong side with it being their home event but with the lead we had, we could afford to finish one place below them for every race until the end of the season and still come out on top. However, it was a case of deja vu as West End wheeled out some big beasts and we finished third meaning that the league would end up as a straight shoot out at Countesthorpe on the final day of the season. In fairness, Danny called it this way back in June and he was right. I felt we should have had it in the bag by then but our inability to consistently field our strongest side could ultimately prove our undoing. The Carl Rutt race was a cold and wet affair. Again, I felt I ran well and confidently. I misjudged the course gradients a bit having not raced there in many years but I was running out of my comfort zone and began to take a few scalps as well as hang onto the coat-tails of some of the quicker runners who I have often been in awe of. Danny ran superbly and breezed past me with two miles to go. He seemed back to his best, which would be confirmed when he triumphed at the Badgers Atherstone 10K race two weeks later.
With our baby son due in early December, I needed to plan my races carefully in order to achieve my County standard times. Earlier in the year, I had given up on attaining the same level as 2017 but over the summer, I found myself sneaking one or two times, in the case of the Huncote race by just one second but now I could myself getting there. As with the club standards, the shorter the distance, the more chance I have of achieving although the bar is somewhat higher at County level. Braunstone parkrun was a qualifying race and on my to-do list and I surprised myself by running 17:08 here. It didn’t strike me as an overly fast course but I was grateful to have run well and finishing first was a real fillip a week ahead of my home town race.
Last year’s top three were absent from this year’s Badgers race so a new winner would no doubt emerge. I felt confident of running well as I knew my form was good and I was not without a chance but my money was on Danny Warren to triumph. I needed a hot day to even things out but we ended up with rain and cool temperatures. I didn’t realise until race day that Aaron Chetwynd was running too which was likely to bump me down a place. He has been the club’s top runner in 2018 and has taken his running to a new level, itself inspiring others to similarly achieve. I had visualised the race numerous times in the week leading up to it and planned my strategy of how best I could win. I did a recce of the final mile so I could make a mental note of how far certain landmarks were from the finish and calculate my times.
On the morning of the race, I was relaxed and focussed. Aaron, Danny and I slunk off for a warm-up on the Abeles Way industrial estate, away from the numerous distractions and people wanting to chat. I am sure we all wanted to win but above all, we wanted a Badger to win first and foremost. Jamie Paterson was a big danger although he finished below both Danny and I in 2017. The race was magnificent, my strategy went completely out of the window as I hit the front early on, buoyed by so many people calling my name all the way up the Coleshill Road. I felt good and in control and I knew if I was going to win, I had to make it hard for everyone else. I wouldn’t beat Danny in a sprint but I could run downhill quicker than anyone else. At halfway, I was still leading but Danny then hit the front and drew out a decent lead going along Twenty One Oaks. There was still plenty to play for. There was three of us, Aaron, Jamie and me all grouped together and even if I was last of the three, I’d get a prize of some kind. Probably due to the wet weather, my lace became undone despite me always tying them in a double knot ahead of a race. As I stopped to re-tie it with cold fingers, Jamie asked if I was ok to which I replied “yes, just my lace” but the stoppage cost me two places and about ten seconds. From this point I could not make touch with the duo who seemed to be locked in a battle of their own. I was working incredibly hard but the gap just wasn’t closing and by the time I hit Long Street, I knew I would be fourth. Even if the lace had stayed tied, I suspect I still would have finished fourth and can have no complaints about being beaten by any of the top three. They are all better runners than me and good lads too so no shame in losing to them. As it turned out, Danny won by about 20 seconds from Jamie who found a bit to lose Aaron through town. I was a minute off the win in fourth and while delighted for Danny, I knew I didn’t have much more to give to get on the podium.
My training dropped off at the end of August as I tried to stay fresh for these key races. The biggest test was our head-to-head battle against Hermitage on September 2nd, a ten miler. I didn’t see much point in working hard during the week as I wouldn’t get any immediate benefit for the race so my mileage dropped. All week, I had been looking at the personnel from each team, guessing who our quickest eight would be from a shortlist of thirteen and pitting them against a Hermitage rival. They had some quicker runners but we had a strong squad and it was looking incredibly close. Both sides made late transfers, probably easier for us with almost sixty places already bagged by the club, there was more natural wastage. Hermitage ended up having to use places left vacant from other clubs to get their side out.
I thought about issuing a clarion call to the side but figured that they were all grown men and did not need any additional motivation for this race. I was massively up for it and even though the weather forecast was for a warmer day than would be optimal, I knew I was going to run a PB. I hadn’t run a ten mile race since the same event last year when I ran pretty well to finish in 59:14. In midweek, Damo and I ran ten miles round Hartshill Hayes on significantly more gradient than we would encounter on the undulating course on race day. We had a genuine chance to make history. The club could win the league again in the future but could only win it in their debut season once and this was it. We won the cross country league in the winter – this would be the more impressive part of an incredible double. If we could triumph.
Before the start, Aaron broke my heart when he announced that Gavin McDermott was there. He is one of Hermitage’s top runners and wasn’t on the start list I saw. I was devastated. He would doubtless ensure a saving of 50/60 points for his side which meant game over by my calculations. We had a top quality side out but some of the lads were not going to be in tip top condition. At the start line, Hermitage grouped stage left with Badgers to their right and from the gun, four rivals went straight to the front. I clocked Danny trying to count the places and advised him not to waste energy on such minutia and just run his own race. While a team race, if everyone got to the line to the best of their own ability, that was the best chance we had of a winning outcome. No point wasting valuable mental energy on things beyond your control.
I’d picked Ian Murdey out as my man to beat. He beat me last year but he is older than me and I have had the better of him in every race in 2018 since I’m back to full fitness. He was sat in a group with me, Danny, Aaron, V40 league champion Martin Hulbert and Jamie Paterson from the Badgers race. At the first drink station three miles in, Hermitage had four runners so far up the road they were out of sight. I found myself leading the Badgers charge and I must admit, I thought we had bottled it. There was no way that I should be first – I had myself down as 5th or 6th. Who wanted to take responsibility? Selfishly, I thought that if the team prize had gone, I wouldn’t waste the race and deny myself a PB. I would go down fighting and at least I could say I had done my bit. I felt good and pushed on. Remembering Ted Franklin’s advice about looking ahead, I vowed not to look back for the entire race and began to pick off one or two runners who had gone off too hard.
I caught the leading West End runner and sensing he was flagging, decided to run past him hard and quickly to ensure he wouldn’t come back at me rather than use him for a mile as “transport”. Sadly, he did not finish the race having collapsed near the end, obviously I had no idea at the time but thankfully he recovered quickly. With about four miles to go, I sensed hope for the first time. Jason Williams from Hermitage became visible to me up the road and seemed to be losing pace. While I didn’t expect to beat him, the fact that I could see both him and one of his team-mates (Alex Cumming) meant that position wise we were not shipping too many points to them in our top order. Our middle and lower order were where we would win it. For whatever reason, I assumed at the time that he helped pace his team’s fastest guys and then dropped down through the pack to shepherd his side home! What was I thinking?! Why would anyone do that, least of all a runner of his experience and stature – he was just tiring! I moved past him and told him I thought his side had already done enough to win to which he graciously explained we were making it hard for them. I did not try to run past him hard but he did seem to struggle to keep up with me so I moved on to Chris McMillan from Owls, a regular top ten merchant. I was getting a nosebleed by now, someone even shouted I was 7th! I couldn’t believe it – surely they meant someone else. It was nip and tuck with Chris for a few miles but when we reached the summit of the final climb before the finish, he just seemed to stop. Maybe I had beaten him too. The person in front was a Hermitage runner but at around 20 seconds ahead, too far for me to wheel in. I needed to finish ahead of McMillan though for an extra point.
The PB was achieved when I crossed the line in 7th, time 58:40. There was twenty seconds or so either side of me and I went to shake hands with some of the other finishers and it wasn’t long before my team mates began piling through. Aaron had been suffering with a bad chest in August but was creeping back towards his best form again and made the top ten. Damo is not in the same shape he was when he tackled the London marathon but he is incredibly hardworking and such a talent that nothing would surprise me about how he might fare. He ran an hour dead and helped Danny battle on when the heat started to affect him. Danny’s 60:14 was as good as any Badger’s performance in the circumstances. He often suffers when the temperature rises so to produce this time was just fantastic. Now we had half our team back and there were only 15 finishers. It was game on. We chatted and congratulated some of the Hermitage guys and got our collective breath back.
Danny’s mum and wife Rachael were manually counting the finishers so we could work out the result there and then. Neil Russell missed a lot of races as he spent the summer building his new house but was drafted in by the captain the week before and what a masterstroke as he ran out of his skin to become our 5th finisher. Ryan Bennett was well below par but understandably so given he’d barely run for five weeks. For me he is our most talented runner and his ability to hold pain unrivalled in the club. He was disappointed in his performance which when put into context was superb. The same went for Chris Baxter. He was gutted at the end with how his race went but without him in the side we would have lost the league. It was as simple as that so he along with all the other guys should take great credit. Payney was our 8th guy who along with Aaron and me recorded a PB. He was in good form and worked incredibly hard and it was fitting that he was the guy to have sealed the win, although we were unaware of it at the time. The final two Hermitage runners crossed the line within a minute but as the runners came through in greater numbers, the place differences became more pronounced. We had 180 points to their 191 and the lowest score won! Against the odds we had done it and everyone played their part, not just in this race but across the whole season of course. But to win in such dramatic fashion is what sport is all about and to play a big part in something so special was something I shall treasure forever.
Chris Hortons Marathon Journey 