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Tuesday 24 July 2012

Bentham Beagles Bash

Another quality 23 mile week culminated in an excellent 10K race inaugurated by the recently formed Bentham Beagles Running Club. Considering this North Yorkshire club only came into existence nine months ago the presentation and organization of this event was of a very high standard indeed, a real credit to members and all who turned out to help on the day.
Race route and profile
Prior to the 11am start lots of runners assembled on the sports field for some orchestrated aerobics to loosen and warm up muscles in readiness for the 'off'. It was by no means an easy race, and it began as it seemed to go on, and on - mainly uphill!  I believe I heard that dreaded word 'undulating' used to describe the course but, to my mind, anything in excess of 600ft is hilly. Moreover, the uphill bits seem to go on for most of the route whilst the downhill bit is a fast, steep descent over the last mile.
Warming up by the clubhouse
I set off as I meant to go on, at a comfortable steady rhythm I intended to maintain whatever was thrown at me.  The last three miles felt anything but steady but I was determined not to lose my placing. Cheered on by marshals and uplifted by the magnificent panorama over Wenningdale to Ingleborough, Whernside and Gragareth, I'd actually got into overtaking mode before reaching the high point at 560ft with just over a mile to go. I latched onto Julia Rolfe of Lytham St Annes for the final steep descent and we shared the pace-making to the Finish.  "Go on" I told her, "I'll follow you in". And off she went at a great rate of knots. I hadn't the heart to challenge her.  
Thankyou very much - but where's my shoe?
I finished 38th of 79 runners in 54.31 minutes with over half the field trailing behind me, including fellow octogenarians Mike Walsh of Wesham RR (61.24) and John Nettleton of Great Langdale A.C. (72.50). The animal was happy. Well, reasonably!  Most of the prize-winners were awarded an ornamental running shoe duly engraved with their category or placing, but there wasn't one for the MV80's.  They hadn't been expecting doddery old geriatrics turning up so had only ordered prizes up to MV70, or so I was told by the vivacious Valerie as she handed me a rather nice bottle of wine.  It wasn't until some time afterwards when my old brain clicked into gear, as it occasionally does, that I thought "Hang on a minute, I WAS the first MV70, so who took my prize?" Ah well, maybe next year.  Full results here:

18 comments:

  1. Yes, undulating or rolling are terms I never like in a race b/c I find they are always not true---it generally means big hills! Congrats on your placement, although too bad something happened to the prize! (although wine isn't too bad, right?)

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    1. Thanks for congrats. Wine is ALWAYS appreciated, but I'd have loved one of those little shoes!

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  2. Well done! Great result, although I hope the wine more than made up for the lack of prize!

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    1. The 'shoe' would have been a permanent reminder of this great little race: there's nothing permanent about wine in our house!

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  3. Excellent run, Gordon. Well done. Seems like you are going to have to ask race organisers before the event if they are giving an M80 prize. If not tell them to put you in the M70 or M75 category. Hopefully they will have a "shoe" made especially for you.
    Have a good recovery week! Terry

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    1. Terry I WAS told, well in advance, there'd be an MV80 prize, which prompted me to run - and I'm glad I did. It was a really well organized event and I'd some competition, for a change, from a couple of hitherto very good runners that made things more interesting. Hope I'm fit enough to run it again next year

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  4. You seem to be in a good vein of form now... are you still doing the repeats in training?

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    1. Breandán, I try to do repetitions once a week, but only up to 200m. I should really be doing up to 800's, to improve my race times, but a bit afraid they could knock the enjoyment out of running at my time of life. Unless, of course, I was running them with you along the sea front in sunny Galway!

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  5. Congratulations! You're such an inspiration.

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  6. I hope to be running times like that if I make it to 80... But as they say, one year at a time!!!

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  7. Congratulations on a fantastic time!
    I started running 2 years ago at the age of 44 and have been following your blog for the past 3 months or so. In that short time you have become a huge inspiration to me. I hope I can keep my health and still compete in the occasioal 10k in my eighties.
    Best of luck,
    Tony

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    1. Thanks for congrats Tony. I started running aged 54 as an overweight out of work couch potato. Had I not made that decision I wouldn't be as healthy as I am now. Stick at it.

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  8. I was so intent on getting the correct number of c's and s's in 'occasional' that I spelt it wrong! Sorry.

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    1. We all occasionally make mistakes. No problem!

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  9. You are such an inspiration to me and I'd love to share your story with all my readers - I know they will be equally inspired! Would you be interested in doing an interview (via e-mail) for my running blog (www.runningtherace.co.za)? If you would, kindly drop me a line at runningtherace[at]live[dot]co[dot]za and I will get in touch. Thanks so much and happy running!

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  10. Hey, nice going! I wouldn't mind winning a bottle of wine. I think that's way better than some old shoe -- ha ha.
    ❀Barbara❀
    My Running Shortz

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