Swithland 6

It’s a race I’ve not missed since I ran my first back in 2014 and an event I’ve always enjoyed. I don’t ever recall running badly at Swithland but neither do I recall a barnstorming performance either, partly due to the warm weather that always seems to accompany this Leicestershire League race. I ran 34:23 six years ago which stood as my personal best up until last July when I went eleven seconds quicker at Worthington for Tamworth. This year, I was looking forward to the race, especially after missing the previous round with a head injury.

I had been mowing my lawn in the evening after putting Rory to bed and in my haste to empty the grass box, strode headfirst at some speed into the corner of the garage door which was in an almost upright position. Had it been in a full upright position, I would have walked underneath it but those extra couple of inches make all the difference. The impact floored me, I wasn’t knocked out, I had my wits about me but it flipping hurt! My first reaction was one of embarrassment – “I hope nobody saw that”. It appeared nobody did. I heard a car coming into the close where I live. I wasn’t sure whether I should try and get to my feet like a stunned boxer or just have a minute more on the floor pulling myself together at the risk of encouraging alarm. The neighbour in question didn’t bat an eyelid and went straight into their house, not that it is a common occurence where I live to have residents lying in a pool of blood on their own front driveway I hasten to add!

I noticed my head was bleeding profusely and immediately my thoughts turned to the West End 8 the following day. I desperately wanted to run but my head had to stop bleeding and quickly. I tried knocking the locked front door for some assistance but there was no answer. My wife thought I could deal with any enquiries as I was already out and about! I staggered around the back again, dripping blood all through the house to get to the kitchen where I tried some cold water and a tea towel to stem the flow of blood. It seemed pointless. I thought I was going to need a blood transfusion the way it was flowing but that would definitely rule me out of racing so I tried to hope it would stop of its own accord given a little longer. I made it up to the bathroom upstairs to get my head under the shower but I could barely see, there was blood everywhere. I couldn’t see out of my glasses, the dog was covered somehow then my wife came in and saw the carnage. Being medically trained (veterinary) she got me to apply pressure and stay still before taking me to hospital after arranging childcare.

Deep down I knew I should go but could feel my race chances dwindling by the second. My head was very painful and my face covered in blood. Hopefully this look would enable me to be seen quicker! The sooner I could get back home to bed the better. I’d already been in A&E looking after Louise earlier in the week and now I was back, only this time completely unnecessarily. I needed some assistance but felt terribly guilty for taking up valuable time and resources borne out of a moment of what I felt was stupidity on my part, not that anything that happened was deliberate, far from it. Just a complete accident.

Anyway, they cleaned me up, checked me over, glued my head back and told me I’d be stupid to run, if only because the glue would get wet with sweat and I’d end up back in the next day. The decision was made for me then. I wasn’t going to take up more NHS resource by disregarding their advice. I think it’s morally wrong and quite offensive to do this, especially when as a member of the public you have had good quality and completely FREE care. I had a headache for the next 24 hours but it went. I felt worse after the race because I believed that the team outcome would have been different had I been there. Even if I had a poor race, we’d have done enough to outscore our main title rivals OWLS. As it was, Payney ran fatigued, possibly not expecting to be needed and we got beaten into second. We now have a mountain to climb to retain our title of the last three terms.

So back to Swithland. Last year I ran okay but didn’t feel great at the start, a little off colour but nothing major. The race sold out quickly and was packed full of local racing superstars. I’ve never troubled the top ten at this race and that was certain to continue to be the case! Being a veteran of seven of these races prior to today, I knew that the first mile is a real cavalry charge, downhill in a full field all egging one another on. My tactic was to switch off and run reservedly for that first mile or so. I ran 5:22 so it appeared to be a fail, but it didn’t sap the energy out of me for the latter stages as I was able to hold pace reasonably well.

There were so many good runners there. I noticed that last season’s league champion Mo Hussein was back after injury but he held back quite a bit after a hectic start and ran well within himself to the point where I harboured ambitions of for once being able to beat him in a race – not that it was really a level playing field! I kept him in range most of the way round, hoping that by the time we reached the last 100 metre downhill dash to the line, I would be able to launch an attack and claim a the unlikeliest of scalps. That failed too! Mo pulled away a little before the corner and while I was able to increase speed to the line, the gap was too big and besides, with the gradient, everyone else increased their speed to the line so to make any impact, you’d need to go up two gears not one and I was already at my limit. Mo is my little lad’s favourite runner, probably because he always seems to win when Rory is watching. I thought it would be great for him to see his dad beat him. I didn’t and even if I had, Rory was still playing on the swings so would have missed it anyway!

Still, when I stopped my watch, I was amazed to see I’d run 34:18, six seconds shy of my personal best. Other than checking pace and distance, I didn’t bother doing any finish time predictions or extrapolation – I was too busy racing. I finished 30th in the end, Matt was second in 30:19, there were international athletes in the field too. I was well off any prizes although the men’s team should have picked up second as per the prior year but a technical glitch led to the team prize giving being postponed on the day. It was my second quickest 6 mile race in 25 efforts and my course best at the age of 48. Suffice to say I was delighted even if it meant that I would likely have to drop the points in the individual V45 leagues due to the volume of quality in the field. Barring injury to Richard Wayman, I think that ship has sailed this season but hopefully I can get on the podium. He is running really well again this term and I’m yet to beat him. I got within twelve seconds at Swithland but still conceded many places despite my best efforts.

I was still in the points as fourth Badger back out of the six scorers. Neil Russell was back in action for us which is good to see. He was right behind me and the team are a lot stronger with him in it. He’s another oldie like me and keeps me on my toes! With any luck, I’ll be back in the points in the next race at Prestwold when we have a couple of lads missing. That’s at the end of June so no doubt I’ll bring you news of that next when it happens.