Salisbury (virtual) 10, 2020

I'd largely given up on the idea of virtual racing this year, after tiring of sloitary flagellation around local roads in the early days of lockdown when meeting up to run with others was a non-starter.

But the virtual Salisbury 10, originally scheduled for April this year, caught my eye because we were invited to run it on the actual race route. I got in touch with Alex Prinsep, with whom I'd had a fierce battle in 2019, and we fixed a date. And then Liz and Keith joined in too, and it became a properly anticipated event.

Sunday 20 December dawned bright, still and cold. We met up at Salisbury leisure centre and stripped down to shiver in our singlets before trying to warm up.

Standing to attention with Keith, Alex and Liz

Alex and I started a few minutes after the others. I fluffed the start by running a 10-mile watch programme which told me I'd finished after 10 metres... what an eejit. Second time lucky, and the two of us set off through Salisbury, each of us nervous about getting the pacing right.

It was a fabulously bright morning, and the Avon valley was looking at its wintry best. We passed Keith and Liz, and a little later Abi and the lovely Mrs S, who were doing a social run. At about 4k Alex started to drop back, and I was rather unexpectedly on my own.

The remaining 12k went by without incident. I was pleased to maintain a reasonable pace on my own, and it was all fairly straightforward except for some chicanery around cars and other runners through the narrow lanes of Durnford on the homeward stretch. Abi and Mrs S were there to wave me on to the race track at the end, and I ran a bit extra because having bungled my 10-mile watch programme, I wasn't sure precisely how far to go in km and I didn't want to be just under.

So in the end I managed 1:01:48, about 90 seconds down on last year, but I was delighted with that on a semi-virtual event with minimal race condition. With a few days remaining, I'm in 6th pace in the virtual league. A tremendously invigorating and energising outing all round.

At the finish line

All 6 of us back safe - and congratulations Keith on his 10-mile PB

Endurancelife Dorset half marathon 2020

Three days after emerging from lockdown, it was wonderful news that this race was going ahead, albeit in altered form; the series of races was now to split over two days, and with HQ being at Kimmeridge Bay rather than Lulworth. So we ended up running on Sunday, which was really a godsend as Saturday was miserable, cold and squally downpours.

We left home at around 6:30 in frosty darkness, and on arrival were greeted by a bitter north wind. Dressed in gloves, hat and a windprood jacket, we headed down to HQ, where they were running a 30-second stagger system. They weren't fussed about my appointed start time of 08:21, and I was sent off at 08:12.

Chilly start

Very quickly, the consequences of the ultra and marathon races on Saturday became apparent... the coastal trail was poached into a slippery morass. It wasn't deep sucky mud, but a veneer of watery goo over thin grass that made the route diabolically slippery. The downhill stretches were utterly perilous. I had innumerable near-misses but only went over once - a glide down my left side on an oily patch, thankfully missing the brambles, barbed wire, jagged rocks and precipitous cliffs that characterised this initial stretch.

There seemed to be no real logic to the start system, as I periodially caught up with runners who were going at a very steady pace. I started catching a grey-haired guy in a bandana on the long long climb up to Houns Tout, and then caught him on the drag up towards St Aldhem's Head. 

The Purbecks were looking stunning today

Past the lookout station, and I abruptly turned way from the sea and headed north, pushing against the insistent wind. Back down into the valley and Bandana Man caught me, but I stayed ahead as we pushed back up hill to Kingston. We collected one other runner here and the three of us pushed up past stunning views to Swyre Head, the topographic climax of the race, where my two rivals nipped ahead.

Wow. This was the first proper competitive running I'd done since early March. It was thrilling. I pushed hard hard and managed to catch both of them on the downward track. Kimmeridge Bay was now in distant view, and it was a question of holding the pressure and keeping ahead as we piled downhill.

Looking down to Kimmeridge Bay

There was a long succession of fields to work through, and then quite suddenly a left turn and over the finish line. 1:54:17 - this means nothing without context, and I've no idea how I fared - results due soon, but I was very pleased to have seen off my two rivals.

I'd been terribly worried about the lovely Mrs S, for whom slippery trails have been genuflectory disaster zones in the past, but she arrived back in 2:46 grinning all over. It had been a full-on, magical morning.

Did Mrs S get badly lost?

No... she's back safe

Clarendon marathon 2020

So here we were - after nearly 7 months without racing, pitching up at Wyvern College, on the edge of Salisbury, for the wonderful Clarendon Marathon. Rarely has a race been so eagerly anticipated in our household, following a long hot summer of training-but-no-racing. Mrs S had been coaching three friends (David, Rollo and Kate) to get to this, their first marathon, and what's more several other friends were running the full marathon, the half or the relay.

After a very dry September, the rain had fallen in vast quantities over the previous 72 hours, courtesy of Storm Alex. Sunday morning greeted us with unseasonably cold winds and intermittent further rain. We met up with Mrs S's morning entourage (the novices, plus endurance stalwarts Abi, Susie and Ian) and after the customary worrying about what to wear, I joined them up at the start area.

 
(a) a snapshot of the course, taken 24 hours earlier; (b) Sunday's rain offering

Some of the 09:00 gang, nearly ready...

...and the full gang, primed for the off

In a topsy-turvy year, this was not a conventional race with a massed start. The steadiest entrants had set off at around 7:30, and from then on it was a question of selecting a start time against a slower-earlier and faster-later logic. After a round of photos and good-lucks, Mrs S and crew set off just before 9, and I retired to the warmth of the steamed-up car with a book and a flask of coffee.

At about 10:30, several of the Romsey runners were starting to show up. I changed out of my nice warm clothes, fretted about which shoes to wear, got myself registered (the registration tent gazebo was being taken down and the poor folk at the desk were putting their damp pieces of paper away and looking wretchedly cold), and did some warming up.

The 11:00 Romsey gang

There were five of us remaining at this point - me, Becky, Matt and Neil from Romsey, James White from Eastleigh and another guy from Salisbury. At 10:55 we were all looking at each other, wondering whether we should just get on with it. Becky went off, and at 10:58 I'd had enough of waiting and I got going.

It was strange to be starting a race completely on my own... it felt like the virtual races I'd tried and given up on earlier in the summer. But after a few minutes I passed Becky, and soon after that the Salisbury guy came tearing past me at a mad pace. Then Matt came by saying 'don't worry about him - he's doing the relay'. I had no notion that Neil was just behind me at this point.

Three RRR shirts... Matt has just overtaken me and Neil is close behind

Up the first hill past Clarendon Palace, through the woods to Pitton and then on to the twists and turns of Winterslow. The marshals were invariably cheerful and encouraging. The rain came and went, and the wind was generally blowing us in the right direction.

  

(a) Somewhere in Winterslow, taken by Ian from OS: (b) Still manoeuvring the bend, and passing Ian's home-made OS Runners sign

At this point I was periodically passing earlier starters. The whole etiquette of overtaking was given added significance by the social distancing rules, but everyone was friendly and encouraging. The ground was wet underfoot but at this point was reasonably firm going, albeit with some excitingly large puddles which were fun to charge through.

Broughton Down was, as expected, fully of slippery bare chalk, which always terrfies me on the downhill slopes. Beyond Broughton, now into the second half, I was passing others more regularly and could feel the effect of the rain-soaked cross-wind. A runner came whooshing past me: 'I'm doing the half!' he gasped, to my relief. Into King's Somborne, looking out for Mum and Dad, and I was delighted to see their parked car ahead on the road, and passed with a flurry of waving. 

I felt strong on the big climbs from King's Somborne to Farley Mount. Then at the '5 miles remaining' sign I was into a dog-leg in West Wood, marking a tweak in this year's course. The return leg was steady uphill and quite abruptly, I started feeling properly weary. The next couple of miles were hard work, with long slippery muddy sections that left me floundering, and which required tricky overtaking negotiations. I knew the climb up to Lanham Lane would be tough, and it really was bastardly soul-sapping. I was reduced to a shuffle and tripped on one of the numerous roots, almost falling on my face.

Then out on to the road with less than 2 miles to go. I had no notion at all of how my race was going, but motivated myself with the thought that Neil would overtake me at any moment... I had expected to see him a long way back. 

Onto Sarum Road, and a push to the line, which arrived more quickly than expected in the reconfigured finish area. 3:12:57 of running and it was over. I snaked up and down the airport-style queuing barriers and had a chat with James White from Eastleigh, who arrived a few seconds after me but had started later.

It was a deliberately low-key and spartan finish. I hobbled off to find Mrs S and Abi at the car, feeling increasingly cold and immobile. At the car, I struggled to get out of my wet stuff and then struggled further to get my damp and broken limbs into dry stuff, before trudging back to the start area to check out whether I'd won anything.

I was thrilled to have got third place, after Matt H and James White. I had been very lucky in that Neil  on a good day would have trounced me - but he had had an uncomfortable race with a sore back.

Donald Trump had come out of hospital especially for the prizegiving

I was just over 5 minutes slower than last year, but I reckon that today's conditions added at least that to the tally. More significantly, I am immensely grateful to the lovely Mrs S, who painstakingly devised, refined and maintained a day-by-day training plan incorporating all the endurance running wisdom that she's been researching. This was the first time that I've trained to a plan, incorporating a weekly mix of slow, tempo, interval and speed sessions. A very big thank-you, my darling.

100km del Passatore virtual relay

This was my first outing that felt like a real running event since lockdown started. I was in a 4-person relay team for the 100km del Passatore virtual relay event, along with Ian, Susie and Alice. We had proper race numbers and everything. 'I corridore salati di Romsey' (the salty runners of Romsey) is a reference to Tuscny's famously saltless bread.

How's this for a cool race number?

I was running with Ian, who turned up ready for a 7am start. We set off up the hill, waved off by the lovely Mrs S, chat abruptly stopping - this is a slope that empties you of breath particularly quickly when you're starting cold.  A few minutes later I went to take a drink from the water bladder, only to realise that it was a brand new one, with the mouthpiece encased in fiddly plastic wrapping.  It being a virtual race, we paused our watches while I fiddled with the thing, cursing myself for not having seen this beforehand.

Ready to go

Going

Back to the run... we kept up a good brisk pace, but it wasn't a race by any means and we were chatting most of the way around.  The inimitable Becky caught up with us twice around Mottisfont and once in Lockerley.

Thumbs up in Mottisfont...

...and hello Becky in Lockerley

The long hill from Lockerley up to Gatmore Copse was a long grind, made quite challenging by the brisk headwind.  Then it was downhill to Sherfield English and a final few km on the back roads to East Wellow at a respectable lick.

We had to pfaff around a bit at the end, turning back on ourselves to complete 25km without going back up the steep hill - no point in creating extra work.  We finished in 1:55:46, on the back of a lovely tempo run through beautiful open countryside in good company.  And with no end in sight to the freeze on all proper racing, this had been a fabulous outing.

The salty runners of Romsey - with Ian, Susie and Alice

CTS Sussex half marathon, 2020

An early start took us to Birling Gap.  This was our first race where Coronavirus had been a big deal, and it was going ahead with various modification, including no water/food stations, no dibber chips and an outdoor race briefing.  We couldn't resist picking up a couple of hitchhikers (they were clearly runners) at East Dean.  One was from France and the other from Hungary and they'd just travelled out from London.  Oops... we really hadn't meant to do that.  They were very charming, though.

Awaiting the start

Get ready

Unfortunately the lovely Mrs S was not running (looking after an IT Band injury).  We got my number sorted, and as always the time sped by and before long I was on the start line.  It was damp, blustery and a bit chilly. We set off, and I was a bit bemused to find myself in second place as the started the climb up the track from Birling Gap heading west.

Out on the Seven Sisters, a handful of guys sped past me.  The first runner (Kier) by this time had sped off far into the distance.  The first downhill was exhilarating... I got closer and closer to the brow, and still no sign of the ground ahead, and then the land disappeared beneath my feet and I skittered madly down the insanely steep drop, flailing to keep my balance.

We didn't do all the sisters; we turned right after about three of them and headed inland up a long slope, and then back down to Birling Gap.  I overtook one poor guy on a muddy hill who was obviously wearing the wrong shoes.

And then we headed east on the coastal path to Eastbourne.  Up the hill and past the Belle Tout lighthouse, a wave to Mrs S on a rapid downhill stretch, and then onwards to the staggered climb to Beachy Head.  Quite a contrast going up it relatively fresh compared to grimly hanging on in the final stages of the Beachy Head marathon.  There's a little valley on the way up with a big propellor on the ground at the bottom - now what's that about?

Downhill past the Belle Tout

Next stop Beachy Head

Downhill from Beachy Head to the edge of Eastbourne, during which I had a couple of skirmishes with other runners.  I managed to lose them on the long hill away from the town and back up on to the downs.  The hills were getting quite tough and relentless by this point.  Once on the top there was a long gradual downhill section, where a bloke (Quinn) caught up with me and we had a long battle of attrition through an endless muddy field.

There was a final little loop near the finish with another drag of a hill.  Someone caught up with me a we had a bit of a tussle but I managed to hold him off. Push, push... I could see two runners ahead of me and wondered if I was catching them, but it was too late by now as we were into the final mile.  The final heave went over a perilously rooty path and down to the finish line. The frontrunners were Quinn, then Kier then me.  Third place!  I was thrilled.  It had been a tough and enjoyable race.  Here are my stats.

Well, that's racing over and done with for now, as Coronavirus has caused all foreseeable races to be cancelled or pushed out to autumn.  We'll get through this together and it's going to be a joyous day when social running and racing is on again. Stay safe, and see you on the other side.

Last race photo for a wee while

Larmer Tree half, 2020

This was a much-anticipated outing for the Hampshire Hares, for many of whom this was their first-ever half marathon.  The lovely Mrs S and I arrived at the venue on a cloudy, breezy but mild day, in time to cheer Ali, who's recovering from a nasty winter virus, to the finish of her 10-mile race. A strip down and quick warm-up later, we were on the start line where I met a couple of familiar faces.

Great to see Ali back to form, with coach Mrs S

Haring to go

After a minute or so there was one other guy in a tutu level with me, but I was ahead of the pack at the first km.  As far as competitive racing went, that was it - I never saw a soul again.  A few times I imagined I could hear foosteps behind me, which was quite a useful spur to egg me on.  My great fear was of getting lost.  Andy Palmer (the inimitable White Star race director) had warned us that sheep might have knocked over some some signs, and I was making a huge effort to clock every possible clue about the route.  But it was beautifully marked, and apart from one brief moment on a track when I ran over a sign that was in the mud adjacent to a junction in the track, navigation was easy.

The course was magnificent. Immense chalk dry valleys and great visibility.  We had three fingers to traverse, and from the top of the first one I started to get a sense of the geography of the course.  As I progressed around, I could see marshals spotting me and scurrying to their stations.  By the time I reached the top of the third finger I could tell I was well ahead and had lost my worries about getting lost.  I was loving the course and feeling strong.

We had two really crunchy hills - as opposed to long drags - to work up and three steep scarp downhills.  There was a tent at the bottom of the final one, which I had passed about 3km from the start.  There were no direction arrows but I was assuming it would be a right turn. 'Which way?' I called out, getting the answer 'left'. 'Is that your left and my right?'  'Oh, sorry, yes'.

Back up the final track to the Larmer Estate, and into the final field and a sign saying 400m. Encouraged, I pushed on, half-remembering a long, drawn-out run to the finish.  I tried to show good form and keep the pressure up as I eventually crossed the line.  Here are the results and my stats.

There was some doubt about the accuracy of this sign

Home and dry

It was a fabulous run around the Dorset hills.  I would have loved to have had a bit more competition, but nevertheless it was great fun.  And it was very special cheering the Hares home, some of them o their half marathon debuts.  A big shame that Mrs S, recovering from injury, was not running, but she was thrilled by how well all the Hares fared. A big thank-you, my love, for the training plans and encouragement that have led to such an exhiliarating start to the year.

With David and Rollo

Neil is self-expressing

Jules, Sarah, Susie and Jo

And here's Rob

Winchester 10k, 2020

Last year's race dawned cold and still, but this morning was mild, windy and squally.  The lovely Mrs S and I got to our usual parking spot in good time and after sitting in the car for a bit hung around the start outside the Guildhall sporting the very latest in binbag chic, chatting to RRR and Hares friends.

Time to put that binbag on!

2000 places had been allocated for this race which seems a bit over-ambitious, but near the startline I didn't get a real sense oof the size of the field. I was next to fellow Romsey runners Alex Prinsep (my old racing rival) and Matt Brown (altogether faster than me), the latter suffering his usual weekend hangover.

We set off, and I was feeling a little sluggish after yesterday's Tring parkrun - Silver Hill felt quite tough and I wondered how today would pan out.  Matt breezed passed me after 1km, as expected, but by now I was starting to get into my stride. At Headbourne Worthy there was a sharp left turn which heralded the startt of a long section heading uphill and into the wind.  I felt fine and gradually reeled in the folk around me.

At some point during the 8th km I realised that I was gaining on Matt. I kept the pressure up, glided past and from there on continually expected him to pull past me.

Ahead of hungover Matt

We were nearing the finish but it took a long time coming. Five marshals in the road pointed me right with some words about right again. There were no marshals at the next junction and I had a moment of doubt before heading right and seeing a runner a hundred metres ahead.

I was just entering Riverside Park when my watched buzzed 10km but there was an awful long way remaining.  I staggered on and on and eventually got to the finish gantry in 39:46, having run 10.71km, although the provisional results say I did it in 39:08 - very odd.

There was a lot of chat at the finish about the long course, and it turned out that the first 130 or so runners had been pointed the wrong way and run an extra 700m. Oops! But I was happy enough, as km for km I was fractionally quicker than last year in tougher conditions, and I felt my pacing had worked well.

Longleat 10k, 2020

This was a bonus race.  We'd entered in for 2019 but it was cancelled due to snow, and had forgotten about it till the race numbers for our deferred entries came through the post.

Mrs S and I collected Jo from Romsey and headed up to Longleat on a mild and dry morning.  The house and safari park were closed, but the place was rammed with cars... we'd no idea it was such a big event.

Outside Longleat House

My mission was to run at a controlled easy pace with my coach, the lovely Mrs S, as part of the countdown towards the Wiltshire 10 next week.  So it was a very different kind of race.  I really think I would have struggled on my own against the temptation to hoof it, but it was beautiful parkland and a very sociable run and fascinating to watch the infinite variety of running styles on other folk.

Halfway through

It was a laugh a minute

The first and final sections were identical 3k laps with a respectable hill up and down with a 1km downward slope to the finish.  Mrs S absolutely nailed it with her first-ever sub-4 minute km and was ecstatic as we crossed the line.

A super morning out. Next stop, Melksham next Sunday and a crack at the 1:00:00 barrier.

Lovely day for it

Thank goodness we avoided the dirty old man

Sounds like a plan

For the first time ever, I'm training to a plan.  In the past I've gone as far as generally getting some more miles in because I've got a marathon coming up... but this is quite different.  I'm following a day-by-day actual plan.

This all started at the Salisbury 10 mile race last year, when I missed the 1-hour barrier by just a few seconds.  The lovely Mrs S, who is working towards a UK Athletics level 2 coaching qualification, consequently devised an 8-week training plan for the Wiltshire 10 race on 9 Feb, just 3 weeks from today.  Since Decembre I've been doing a mix of speed, tempo, easy and recovery runs against a daily planner.

I thought I might find this the most terrible bore, but I'm actually really enjoying it.  Part of it is the challenge of being as precise as possible and marking up What I Did against What I Should Have Done, and the other part is the 'freedom from' element... I don't need to worry or deliberate about what do this week as it's all mapped out.

This is a whole new kind of running and it's kind of thrilling.  Thank you, my lovely Mrs S!

It's a plan, Stan

2019 review

2019 was an absolute gem of a year!  Let's review my objectives from this time last year:

• Be 1st M50 in 50% of races - Done!  I did a tally over Christmas but lost the piece of paper.  But I did hit this fairly easily.
• Bag a sub 18-minute Southampton parkrun - Done! I did this twice, on 18 May and 31 August
• Get top 3 M50 in the RR10 league - Done!  (I managed to get 1st M50)

I'm attributing this to:

• Simply building up more and more race experience
• Taking an iron supplement, having been asked not to donate platelets as I was low in haemoglobin
• Doing more targeted training, for which I'm absolutely indebted to the lovely, fabulous Mrs S and her incredible training wisdom and detailed plans. Thank you, my darling lady - what a coach!

The fun and games of the year are nicely summed up in my RunBritain rankings profile, which has moved from 3.0 to 1.2 this year:

So this year, I want to:

1. Finally nail 10 miles in under an hour
2. Qualify for the England Masters marathon team at Milton Keynes
3. Get my RunBritain ranking below 1.0
4. Pace another runner to achieve a significant goal

Roll on 2020!

Stubbington 10k, 2020

I last ran this race absolutely ages ages ago, back in the early 2000s.  I really couldn't remember anything about it, but it's become a key part of the local road race scene with 2000 runners on a fast course.  The lovely Mrs S and I managed to park surprisingly close to race HQ despite the carpark being full, and briefly said hello to several friends before a bit of a scrum to get to the bag drop and then to the start.  It was a bright, cool and breezy morning which called for a bit of binbag chic.

Being in the middle of training for my current big target, the Wiltshire 10 in 4 weeks' time, I had a clear objective - finish this race in under 6-minute mile pace, which in my preferred units meant getting to about 3:40/km and ideally sub-37 minutes.  I was a bit nervous about this because I haven't run this fast since the 1990s - my century best, as far as I can establish, was 37:22 at Corsham last year.

There was no pre-race announcement or countdown, just a horn, a brief shuffle and into the race.  After a few hundred metres the crush eased and I started relaxing into a good pace.  I caught up with Alex Prinsep and we ran together for a while, but I lost him at about 2km as we went downhill into the Meon valley.  There was quite a tough uphill drag on the other side and then we were heading south into the wind.  I caught up with Paul Ashley and Nicole Frith and was feeling OK.

At about 7k I was on the sea front and the wind was now slightly behind, which was a good boost.  At 8k about 5 runners went past me, but I knew I was holding my own in terms of pace, although I was working right on the edge of my threshold.  I gunned it as best as I could in the final approach to be thoroughly trounced by Paul, who was doing better than he expected on his return from injury.

I crossed the line with a chip time of 36:38, 67th overall and 3rd M50.  I was thrilled to go under 37 minutes and to clock an average pace of 3:39/km.  Here are my stats.  Mrs S was also delighted with her time of 48:17 and 9th in category after a few weeks of niggles and injuries.  Then straight home for a roast beef family birthday dinner - perfect!

With Mrs S at the finish line

With OS runners Matt and David

Hampshire XC championships, 2020

It was in 2017 that I last ran this event - the XC championships at Fairthorne Manor.  The lovely Mrs S and I arrived in good time on a cool and calm afternoon as other races were underway - the cross-countries are distinct in having separate races by age and gender, and rather anachronistically, shorter races for the ladies.  Surely, surely, this has to change.

I had a chat with a few friendly faces beforehand, but I was the only representative of Romsey today.  The course maps always look fearsomely complicated, but our race was effectively three-and-a-bit laps of the full circuit.  We were set off by a starting pistol, which I thought was fabulous.  There was a lot of manoeuvring for position in the early stages in a crowded and competitive start, and I tried not to get too caught up in this.  After a km or so we were off the grass and into a narrow trail in the woods with plenty of roots and tight swerves.  Great fun.  The course was a mix of woodland and grass with some tidy little hills and a few boggy patches, but it wasn't nearly as wet and slippery as it would have been a week or two ago.

Keep upright going downhill through the woods

As I progressed through the second and third legs I was gradually catching a few folk and gaining position.  Amongst this, a fantastic tussle emerged between me and Tom Glancy from Aldershot, Farnham and District - we were never more than 10 seconds apart from each other.  I pulled ahead in the final field, he pulled up level and I gunned it like hell for the finish line to finish two seconds ahead.

Terrified that Tom is about to overtake, as Mrs S looks on

Tom (in green) relative to me (in black)

I finished in 50th place and 2nd M50, and I was very happy with that.  Here are the results and here are my stats.  A smashing start to the new year.