Romsey 5, 2019

My second race on this rather crazy weekend.  I felt a little bit stiff but OK when I got up.  I had woken up in the night with a fierce wind blowing outside, and it was cold and bright outside.

In Broadlands park, there was no sign of the start line.  We wandered over to the finish area where everything seemed a bit diminished, with a bundle of tangled metal tubes. We learned that a lot of the race infrastructure had got damaged during the night in the wind - what a wretched thing to happen.  Folk starting pouring in.  It was really chilly, and I did a warm-up lap wearing coat and everything, my hands freezing.  The lovely Mrs S gave me a pair of hers and all was well.

There were loads of friendly faces from RRR, the Hares and other clubs.  This has become a super local derby event which has grown in size and popularity.

At the start I found myself close to Gil McClure (Itchen Spitfires) and Nathan Renyard (Hardley).  I tried to keep a steady pace, but it was noticeably tougher going on the return leg in the north wind and on a quite lumpy surface.  Nathan and I kept very close together, but I edged past him about half way through, at the start of the third leg.  Looking at my watch, I realised that if I could keep my pace then I might go sub-30.

Nathan is right behind me

From the end of the second lap there was quite a lot of traffic as we started lapping the back of the field, and keeping clear required continual concentration.  Then up the dog-leg on the third and final lap, where I got to check out the runners ahead as they came back past me, with Romsey well represented.  Lots of waving on the way back, and then plenty more slower runners to overtake on the final km.

I knew I'd need to go up a gear to go sub-30, and I pushed hard.  I gurned my way through the final straight to the finish, managed to find a space to get through the lap 2-ers and clocked a time of 29:49.  I was done for, but thoroughly chuffed with that.  15th place, 1st M50.  I hadn't appreciated how close Nathan had been to me - here's the tussle on Strava.

Into the finish funnel as Viv looks on, amused

Great fun, and the first of two double-race weekends in the bag.

With the Hampshire Hares (minus Jo) afterwards

Southern Counties XC championships, 2019

Becky, Dan and I ventured into central London for what seems a most unlikely activity - cross-country running.  Parliament Hill, part of Hampstead Heath, is infamous for its tough, boggy challenge to thousands of runners each January.  I had an advantage on the rest of the Romsey gang, having been here for a few CSSC XC events, most recently last October.

It was a mild-ish day after a cold week, and I didn't pack a lot of warm gear.  We piled out of the train at Gospel Oak, and in the wind it was really quite chilly - I put on everything I had in my bag, borrowed a hat from Becky and was just about OK.

The Musketeers

This is a very Dan photo

There were ten races throughout the day.  We went up the hill to watch the <20 men come through, and after this Becky was on for her 8k race (absurdly, men and women race very different distances).  Dan and I cheered her on, and suddenly it was our turn.  I had a bit of a scramble to get changed, put my brand-new spikes on and rush down to the start line with barely a minute to go.  No loosening or warming up today.

Becky storms through her first lap

The start is quite something.  The start line is at least 100m long and from there you funnel up Parliament Hill, getting steeper all the time, before you're into the mud.  A gun went off, and 1154 of us charged forward.  Someone roared 'FREEDOM' and suddenly I was in the middle of a medieval battle.

The chaps on the start line

Careful now

Over the hill, and on to the first of three laps advertised as 5k each.  Although it had been a dry month, there was plenty of mud.  With so many runners there was very little space.  It was continually technical and challenging, with many twists, constant gradients and lots of fun underfoot.  My heart and my breath were pounding with minimal respite.

It was all a bit of a blur

Dan, about to punch himself

It felt like I was way down the pack, but on the second lap I was passing close by runners who were well back, which cheered me up.  At the end of the second lap I was looking at my watch thinking that it would be less than 15k overall.  I was glad to mentally tick off all the memorable bogs, slopes and landmarks on my final lap, and then someone called out '800m to go'.  I ran like hell, and managed to catch a few on the final descent and the last straight to the finish line.  Check out my tussle my a guy called Paul...

I finished the 13.7k course in a time of 57:06, and soon afterwards Dan arrived, and then Peat, who had travelled to London independently.  My position was 339 out of 1154, which I was pleased with, in the context of an uber-competitive race - I was hoping to get into the top half.

Great fun, and quite unlike your average race.  Hoping to get an RRR team next year!

Fitstuff G3 - 15k trail race

5:45... well, really.  This is a horrible time for the alarm clock to go off on a bleak Saturday in January, after a long week.  I had some breakfast, got my stuff together, and the radiant Mrs S and I headed off in the pitch dark to Newland's Corner in deepest Surrey.

We arrived in good time, sorted out race numbers and retreated back to the warmth of the car.  It was three degrees outside and there was a thick fog.  I was massively lacking any fire-in-the-belly race aggression and it was a real effort to get out of the car and strip down into race gear.

It was a bit grim at 8am

About 300 runners gathered on the start line; a mix of 10k and 15k runners with identical numbers so there was no way of knowing who was doing what.  There was a high-energy countdown and there was a big rush at the start, which I managed to ignore.

Heading to the start

We've had a fairly dry month so the going underfoot wasn't particularly splashy or slippy.  Over the first 2k I glided past a good number of folk and reckoned I was in the top ten.  Before long I was on my own, but about 4k in I was aware of someone approaching.  My hat was off by now and my hands were starting to get hot.  I waited till I was off a technical downhill section and onto a stretch of road before I started pulling my gloves off, and like an idiot managed to drop my hat just as matey (Robert Tansey) was level with me.  It took me a few seconds to twig this, and I had to turn back for about 30m, during which time Robert had pulled away.

I had now warmed up nicely.  Despite the continued mist, the landscape was terrific, with lots of interesting tracks and some cracking hills.  The signs were really first class - decent size, and positioned absolutely wherever they were needed.  Take note, Serpent Trail, Chase Half and Broadway! 

After about 8 or 9k I started working through the back of the 10k race field.  This is kind of nice, as although it involves some occasionally tricky overtaking, it's nice to go past other runners and shout/grunt encouragement to each other.  And then with about 1k remaining I spotted my enemy Robert ahead.  Excellent, I thought, he's fading.  I pushed up level with him, and he turned and looked at me before pushing ahead strongly, and couldn't answer him.  I pushed for a late surge but he beat me to it and we had a nice chat at the end.  Robert, what a pleasure racing you.  Check out the drama here!

So - I finished in 1:03:45 in 5th place and 1st M50.  Super.  A bit of a schlep getting here and a rather pricey event, but I can't fault the organisation.  Great fun!

Great run, but not up to the sprint finis

Swanage 10k, 2019

This race was always going to be a bit quirky.  It's organised by - naturally - the Swanage Sea Rowing Club, and it was beyond me to find any information about the race, except that it was in Swanage and is on roads. 

We turned up in good time and retrieved our numbers from a noisy football club hall.  It was quite mild (about ten degrees) but with a blustery wind that put a chilly edge on the day.  The lovely Mrs S, racing again after an injured absence, fretted about what to wear.  Reluctantly we got out of the warm car, loosened up, got into position and we were off.

At the start... love the spiky hair

Somewhere online I'd found a set of old results which showed only 3 runners under 40 minutes, but it was clear from the off that this was a reasonably competitive field.  After a flat and fast first km we headed uphill, and I could see some really fast guys a good way ahead.  It was an enjoyable course with pretty Purbeck scenery, and some challenging slopes. I found myself in a competitive race with three other guys, Barry, Adam and Peter - check out the Strava flyby.

I overtook Peter about a mile before the finish and had to push hard to get some distance in the bank before the final downhill charge to the finish.  I reached line just ahead of him in 5th place in 37:27... but the course was about 170m short.  I ran at the same pace as at the Blenheim 10k last October in 38:21, which feels more realistic.

I was first vet, which I was chuffed about, apparently beating the local favourite, Hamish (sorry about that).  But the stunning result of the day was the wonderful Mrs S pulling a blinder out of the bag, on her debut return from injury.

Mrs S 1, Bad Knee 0

The Old Man award

A quirky, off-beat but super race - great fun.

Tadworth Ten, 2019

The first race of 2019.  The lovely Mrs S and I drove to Epsom racecourse in Surrey, an unfamiliar corner of England.  We arrived in good time and watched as the numbers built up - it was clear that this was a well-respected local club race, which is exactly what I like.

The weather had been really cold over the last few days, so I brought gloves, hats and thermal tops with me, but it was a relatively warm 8 degrees by the time the race started so it was singlet job, and I plumped for road shoes after a rain-free fortnight.

We set off at the exceptionally feeble starter's whistle, up over the downs, into a valley and then up a long steady climb to Walton on the Hill.  A couple of guys at the start were telling me to brace myself for a fearsome ascent but it was fine - nothing too steep, just set in to the right gear.  From Walton there was ac steep downhill road section and then another climb back up to the racecourse, and so endeth Lap 1.

I was buoyed up by seeing Mrs S at the start of Lap 2, and was feeling good.  A bald bloke challenged me on the long road hill.  I dug in next to him, thinking he must be 50-something and not wanting to let him go.  But he powered on ahead.  I was overtaken by a couple of young triathletes on the downhill section after Walton and wondered if I had overcooked the pace at the start, but I was reassured when I overtook a clutch of runners on the long earth path up to the downs.

With a km to go I moved up a gear and pushed hard on the final section.  I looked behind but saw no one... but shortly after this spectators were clearly yelling to someone behind me.  I glanced back, saw a bloke right on my tail and hoofed it home, just a second ahead of him, in 1:03:23.

He's behind you!

Great fun, and far more satisfying than last week's Twixmas race.  I asked the bald guy what category he was.  M45, he replied.  So it was worth hanging on for the presentations, just in case.  I was immensely pleased to get the M50 prize, a whopping £70 voucher.  A super, no-nonsense proper race, and a great start to the year.

It's polite to curtsey at race presentations

Takeaways from a cracking race

That was 2018

2018 has been a tremendous year for running.  I went through the races through the year and scribbled them down with my overall and age category positions - see below.

There were some fantastic moments in here.  My highlights were Larmer Tree (hills and snowdrifts), London (the crowds, the drama), Serpent Trail (unexpected result), Snowdonia (dicing with death), Wickham (the duel), Beachy Head (big chalk landscape) and Lulworth (Jurassic cliffs).

In simple stats, here are the numbers for the year:

My goals for 2018 were:

• Be 1st M50 in at least 50% of races: the actual figure was 62%
• Go sub-3 hours in the London marathon - I missed this, with a 3:04 finish, undone by the heat and the too-fast start.
• Stay injury-free - I struggled in the middle of the year with pirifomis and gluteus medius, but I'm now making a real attempt to maintain strength in the glutes.

So, my goals for 2019 are:

• Again, be 1st M50 in 50% of races (this is going to get harder)
• Bag a sub 18-minute Southampton parkrun
• Get top 3 M50 in the RR10 league

And a particular mention to the Lovely Mrs S, who has been absolutely wonderful throughout the year, booking races, being ever-supportive and generally inspiring me all the way.  Thank you, my love.

The Lovely Mrs S