The month of May is often one of the best, if not the best for getting outside and racing. The usual race calendar sees many of my favourite races packed into this month from the Bosworth Half to the Kingsbury Classic and loads more besides. Obviously, May 2020 was somewhat bereft of organised races so people in the running community began to get creative and put on a number of time trials, dressed up as races along with other inventive schemes. I was involved myself in some of this, partly as a result of giving me something to write about in the newspaper and the club website each week as well as to engage the club’s membership in some way and help them achieve any outstanding goals they may have, particularly the Standard Times awards. With only being allowed out once a day to exercise, I had to be creative in order to stick to the rules. With a dog to walk every other day and a baby to occupy, I regretted not buying a running buggy when everyone suggested I might, but I found I could combine activities for example enjoying a family walk on the doorstep leading straight into a long run home for me while Louise took a direct walk back with Rory. I recall on one of these occasions, I combined the run with a long overdue chat on the phone with my good buddy Ted. To my shame I have not been in contact since, as is the case with many friends of mine. It’s easy to lose touch and the combination of lockdown along with raising a young child, who until about six weeks previously was robbing me of a full night’s sleep with unblemished consistency has catalysed this! When I ran, I tried to make it count, so there was no dossing about. Every session was goal focussed and hard. Strava segments helped enormously and to change things up I concocted some sessions of my own such as a highly challenging yet equally rewarding 1 easy mile, 1 hard mile four times over.
We celebrated VE day by knocking out 7.5 miles dressed in red, white and blue colours, individually of course, but it made for a vibrant set of selfies for the paper. The West End 8 mile race was ticked off my list, on a baking hot day too. I managed to break 50 minutes, nearly four minutes off my best mind, but enough to get me my standard time. I picked better conditions for the inter club 5 mile race that I helped organise and was delighted with my return of 29:24 as well as a 17:33 5K. I felt in reasonable shape, especially given these events weren’t proper races as such, just you alone running against your watch with no external motivators, pacers or otherwise.
May was a belting month weather wise and I managed to get out in the garden quite a bit with the paddling pool on the go for the little one. In March, he finally began sleeping through the night which opened up all sorts of possibilities for my running. I began to get out first thing in the morning when I could, revisiting favourite routes and setting myself ridiculous challenges. I wanted to see how fast I could run a mile downhill so set about devising a route that was rich with gentle gradient along the entirety of it’s length. Purley Chase Lane in Mancetter seemed the best route, assuming there were no quarry lorries about. Lockdown had meant the roads were virtually empty and it was a joy, although sometimes a slightly eerie joy to have such a rich range of wildlife sounds and birdsong as the soundtrack to your runs. Anyway, I managed the mile in 4:43, a fast finish too as the steepest drop came at the end. I was pleased but also self critical in that I lost intensity just past halfway.
Lil Souter arranged a team event which for whatever reason I didn’t involve myself with. It was based on a 20 minute challenge, testing route planning skills as much as outright speed. The idea was each team had to cover as much distance as possible in their 20 minute individual time allocations and downhill running was allowed. I had to see what I could manage and parked up at Ridge Lane on a Saturday morning to once again throw myself down Purley Chase Lane. I’d worry about getting up the hill back to the car afterwards but I didn’t want to waste energy in doing so beforehand. I attacked the first mile with some gusto but was demoralised when I saw the split time, about half a minute slower than what I’d expect to clock at Kingsbury parkrun. Maybe I was warming up, there was a slight uphill involved but not much. That said, I then hit the big descents and I felt like I was flying. It was such fun although probably not very good for my V45 joints. In the competition itself, Glyn Broadhurst picked what I thought was the most optimal route, although he must have shot across the A5 into Witherley when landing in civilisation. Even with the reduction in traffic, for me this was a risk. I wasn’t getting run over but I didn’t want to stop so modified his route to take me back towards Atherstone. I had no idea where I’d finish up but I didn’t want to be going uphill either. After 3.6 miles, I wound up at the top end of Ivor Road, ready to head down the drive towards number 16 where I used to deliver papers as a kid. This was an absolute dead end but I could see the finish line / time approaching so I knew I wouldn’t have to either run up Witherley Road (uphill) or do a u-turn in order to keep going. While it was good fun, I then had the trauma of getting back to the car. I couldn’t really leave it there to collect tomorrow, we are a one-car family these days and my wife was due to begin work at 9am, which meant I had a small window of time to get my exhausted form back up the hill, 2.7 miles uphill when absolutely knackered in 25 minutes, allowing for a ten minute drive home. I broke it down into three mini runs figuring I had the rest of the day to sort myself out physically and made it just in the nick of time. I tried to play it cool when I walked in but I think my wife knows me better than that and while she was relieved that I hadn’t made her late (one of us had to look after Rory), she wasn’t best pleased that I had cut it so fine and planned the run so badly.
Sometimes, I fail to learn from previous mistakes and the constant pushing resulted in a knee problem becoming noticeably worse. If I was kneeling at slightly the wrong angle, I’d find an excruciating pain, so I decided to take three weeks rest.
Exercise combinations 
More combining, this time with a run out to meet the family in Shenton 
VE Day 75th anniversary celebration run 
Empty roads 
Scenic scenes 
Spring bluebells 
Post race glass of milk 
Deserted streets 
Out with Rory
Chris Hortons Marathon Journey 