Running and Me - Part 2

So, in May 2007 I had finally joined a running club. This meant that I could turn up to races in a club vest and bright yellow jacket! Initially, I would refer to this as my ‘go-faster’ vest as my race-times started to improve immediately. I used to be really intimidated by by club-runners - now I was one!

Something that really impressed me was how fast the NHRR Vet runners were, not least the ones (a ‘little’ ho-ho) older than me. Sir Darth Frampton and Stewart Bryant may not realise it, but they were a real inspiration to me and continue to chalk up age pc scores around the 80% mark .

My first few races after joining NHRR were a baptism of fire in the Midweek Road Race League. I was not accustomed to entering races where everybody was a club-runner, so the faster general pace was a bit of a shock initially. On the plus side, the quality of the field did tend to drag your own pace up with it. I also managed to fit in a 10k at Staines where I improved my PB to 41:15. Incidentally, this is the flattest race on my Hill-ranking table.

The 10k League race at Bishops Stortford stays in the memory thanks to an almighty thunderstorm that broke during the race and left the roads/tracks looking more like small rivers! My time was a more modest 42:09, but was significant for making me the 12th and final scorer for the men’s team. This was something I had not expected to achieve and naturally I was very chuffed indeed.

After Staines 10k, I imagined that a sub-41m 10k was imminent – I was wrong! Over the Summer, I entered several more 10ks, but the times were significantly slower than I'd achieved in early May. This was to prove a useful learning curve in the setting and achieving of race goals; improvement does not always follow a straight path...

I had set myself a target of a sub-40m 10k by the end of the year, but I couldn’t even get back to near 41m. I concluded that my mind and/or body had had enough of 10k racing. My 5k and half-marathon times were still improving, so I decided to concentrate on these (and keep training hard) and to diary my next 10k for November.

I achieved a major landmark in October with my first ever sub-1:30 half-marathon at Leicester (1:29:25), despite suffering from achilles discomfort in the build up to the race. Later the same month I set a new 5k PB of 19:01 on the tough Serpentine course.

Things really came together in November 2007. The month started with a new Half-marathon PB at Stevenage (1:28:12), followed by a 5k PB (18:24) in race 1 of the Stevenage series. The 5k time gave me the confidence that the Holy Grail of the sub-40m 10k could be achieved the following Sunday at Chelmsford. Unfortunately, the weather was not kind and the last 4-5k was into a gusty headwind. Nonetheless, I clocked 39:35. I was absolutely elated! No matter what else I achieve race-wise, this first sub-40 10k will always be really special. I’m sure many runners would echo those sentiments. This was the second time that Chelmsford had provided a good 10k PB and 2008 would follow suit.

I had only been at NHRR for 7 months, but had already achieved race-times I hadn’t honestly thought possible - certainly not so soon at ant rate. It just goes to show the value of hard work, good coaching, support from other runners, avoiding injury and (not least) sheer bloody-mindedness! Regarding the latter, before I joined NHRR, someone told me (quite bluntly) there was no way I was ever going to run a 10k in under 40 minutes. I never forgot that conversation!