…..diary of an also ran part 9

I arrived at the start line feeling fresh and well ready for it. The rough plan was to set off at 6’15” pace and finish as close to 2hrs 45’ as possible, however with a hilly course to contend with, the very hot weather on the day made a good time less likely. Adrenalin got me to the first mile marker in 5’36” and I found myself up at around 20^th place ( from a line-up of approx 1500 ).

At 4 miles I was still too fast and not feeling too comfortable, so I made a conscious effort to relax, and apart from a weak patch at 8 miles soon felt much easier. Taking on water and sponges at every opportunity, I went through 5 miles in 29’40”,  10 in 60’09” , and steadily pulling people back had climbed to about 11^th position at half-way, reached in 1hr 19’08”. Very good supportive crowds along the route helped during the difficult bits and by 20 miles, passed in 2hrs 03’20” I had clawed my way up to 7^th place. A severe bout of stitch at 23 miles threatened to derail me, but I was able to run through it and recover sufficiently to move up to 5^th place, crossing the line in front of huge cheering crowds in a new p.b. of 2hrs 43’17”.  Going up on stage to receive a really nice high value prize of a stereo radio/cassette player made the day feel very exciting.  The hard work in training, maybe helped by touches such as the diet experiment seemed to be paying off.

Probably unwisely, but fuelled by the enthusiasm generated by my modest success at Maidstone, two days later I raced in my first track 10,000 metres in Tonbridge A.C’s club championship. Tired from Sunday, my marathon strength helped keep me going to a very satisfactory 3^rd place in a time of 35’40”, behind Pete Mason and Chris Mckane. A few days off to recover were in order.  The rest of June and July consisted of low mileage but with regular track meetings keeping me reasonably in shape.  Despite this, a diary entry from 26^th July notes that I received the results of blood tests ( all O.K ) following 3 weeks of extreme lethargy and no desire to run, although the entry was made only 4 days after a new PB at 1500 metres !!  Looking back at the amount of racing and high quality training that I’d been doing for several months it perhaps was unsurprising that I’d had a tired spell and needed a bit of recovery.

A gradual weekly build up through August –  which included my first training run round Bewl Water, a run which to this day has remained  a fairly regular favourite of mine – led to my third attempt at what I was now regarding as a “must do” race ; The SLH 30. Whilst I remember no detail of this particular race, I’m sure that improving my 1983 time by 23 minutes with a 3hrs 30’03” will have been regarded as quite satisfactory at the time. A drive through France to Northern Italy in our VW camper for a couple of weeks holiday, returning home in time to turn out at the Blackheath Harriers XC relay held at Sparrows Den in West Wickham. This was more or less regarded as the mark on the calendar which heralded the start of the winter season, and despite it being a fast and furious 2.3 miles which included a pretty tough hill section, I always enjoyed the event, after which a jog back to the Blackheath Harriers clubhouse to shower, change and then upstairs, past the huge photograph of Blackheath’s most famous son – Sydney Wooderson, for a cup of tea and bread and jam – lovely !!!  The autumn and winter continued with most weekends featuring a race of some description – maybe a Kent league XC fixture, the Reigate Priory relay, at only   2 ½ miles one week, or the Brighton ½ Marathon another (during which I scored a good new PB of 75’23” on a very flat, fast course) , interspersed with races such as the Faversham 5, which was at least ¾ mile more than that, and one of the oldest established races in the calendar – the Rochester 5 – which was simply 2 ½ miles solid uphill, then straight back down again ! Tough.  With December being traditionally a fairly quiet month, the year closed with an annual mileage total of 1,948 miles, and with my plan for the new year to be more of the same.     

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