1988
Although training and racing had simply been a way of life for me for several years, by now the demands of attempting to get the new business started up was occupying every spare minute of my time in first half of the year. This meant that running in 1988 necessarily had to take something of a back-seat, becoming a more occasional pastime. I have a few pictures somewhere of the opening day of the shop “Up and Running”, kindly supported by 1983 London marathon winner Mike Gratton, and I’ll add them if I can find them!
The various stresses and strains of getting the shop on its feet took the focus away from my training, recording in my diary that the first 6 months total of 643 miles run by the end of June was “pathetic”, but I still managed a few decent bits and pieces from time to time – Best efforts being a 2hr46’02” on a new 2 lap course of the Maidstone marathon, a p.b on the Northdowns 30K (cross country) of 2hrs02’20” and a good run in the Gravesend summer relay.
July, August and September included no racing, but did include repeated minor illnesses which may have been a manifestation of stress caused by trying to balance the demands of establishing the new business, family life and keeping in running shape. Whatever the cause, by early October and no medical concerns found, I managed a better than expected 78’46” ½ Marathon at Sevenoaks, placing 15th . Then two legs of the Tunbridge Wells common relay the following weekend (not very good picture below).
Going into November the quality in training started to improve and resulted in a 1’15” improvement in my previous best time in the Phoenix road race in Brighton, followed the next week by a pleasing 75’25” ½ marathon at Rochester where I felt strong throughout. An uneventful December ended with an annual total of 1424 miles completed and a diary entry of “really looking forward to running in 1989”.
1989
Starting with a few weeks of pretty unremarkable training, my first race of the year was the NPI 5 miles in Tonbridge on 5th March. This was a single lap of the Tonbridge 10 course, and although I scored a p.b of 27’36” , I suspect the distance may have been a touch short – who knows ? Our second son Joe arrived in late March and despite the inevitable loss of sleep that comes with a new baby in the house, I entered a period of very successful racing through April, running the Paddock Wood ½ marathon in 76’36”, then placing 10th in the Mascalls 10K in 33’49” the following week. Another two weeks on and I scored one of my few (but very enjoyable) race victories – The Hildenborough 10. I recorded it with this short report:
“A rare pleasure for me – winning a race, albeit one of the smaller events around. However, it was nonetheless satisfying because I had to work hard for it. Chris Elvy shot off like a bullet, intending to win and built up a lead of over 300 yds by the ½ way point, with Mark Taylor chasing and me in 3rd place. Kept pushing the pace hard and overtook Mark just past 5 miles and then set about catching Elvy. Finally got up to him at about 8.5 miles, and as he offered very little resistance, I pushed on immediately to try and break him. Quickly pulled away and kept pushing as hard as I could and ended up winning by around 250 yards in 55’12”. Won a large shield, a tankard and some beer. Felt really good”
May and early June was a good steady period of training before embarking again on a spell of racing and hard track sessions. Another run in the Northdowns 30K, placing 11th in 2hrs 02’ 38″ which proved to be my best ever time on the new course, was followed just 2 days later by a leg of the Gravesend relay. I was very satisfied to run the 2.3 mile grassy course in 12’01” which was a 27” improvement on the previous year’s run on the same course. A 10.5 mile Tunbridge Wells carnival race run in very hot weather gained me a 4th place in 61’24” was followed by a fair bit of track racing which saw P.Bs for 1500 metres in 4’32.6, 3000 metres in 9’35.9”, 300 metres in 43.8” and another 1500 metres in 4’32.0. A break from racing until a 5th place in 76’24” in the Hadlow ½ marathon on 24th September and being one third of a winning Tonbridge AC team with Cain Bradley and Pete Mason in a cross country at the Whitbread Hop farm, although I noted that my performance was not good. 1989 drew to an uneventful close with the annual Tonbridge AC Christmas pudding race on New Years Eve and a total of 1670 miles for the year.
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