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Monday 8 April 2013

The day I became a runner.....

  There are still a lot of dirty drifts around where I live but roads are clearing, the sun has shone, temperatures
Roads are clearing...
have risen and my old legs are slowly starting to defrost! As I laboriously trotted and slid through diminishing drifts this past week it came to mind what Rev David Macha said last week about it being 'very good training'.  I certainly felt stronger, so much so I began to toy with the idea of doing a bit of speedwork. After a three mile warm-up over Castle Hill, I turned into the cricket field for a few fast repetitions. Most of the snow had gone from the flat turf so I was able to run the longest stretch of the field unheeded - for 130m or so.  For a change I was wearing my Garmin which I clicked (without actually looking at it) at the beginning and end of each repetition. I'd planned to do twelve reps but felt another four wouldn't do any harm. I was feeling good. On reaching home I was rather pleased with what the Garmin told me when I plugged it into computer. During the 6.07 mile run with 276ft elevation gain I'd actually done 18 reps (never could count) every single one of them in 28secs. Now there's consistency for you! What I wasn't so happy about was that I'd run each rep at an average speed of only 6.52min/mile. OK, I wasn't pushing it, but when I recall running each and every mile of the London marathon at an average 6.36min/mile pace, then the cricket field session didn't look quite so rosy. Mind you, that marathon was 19 years ago so I suppose allowances must be made for old age and decrepitude.
  
..and so is the cricket field where I sometimes train
Come to think of it (he says with chest puffed out and broad smile) I was rather good at marathons having won an age category in seven of eight starts with an M55 course record thrown in for good measure. My baptism of fire came on a boiling hot July day in 1987 when I lined up with 373 others for the start of the notorious Pennine marathon. Never mind undulating, it had at least twenty hills which, according to Anquet, amount to 2,750ft of ascent. It roller-coasted to its highest point at 10 miles (915ft), dropped 300ft, then climbed back to 760ft at 22 miles - just where most people would likely hit the wall.  My only previous experience of a marathon had been in watching the 1986 race when a smiling Tanya Ball of Serpentine Harriers won the ladies race in a little over three hours. "Huh, I can do that" I'd thought, and the seed had been planted. 
   I'd been a jogger for only 15 months and hadn't really done much at all by way of marathon training. A few
Pennine marathon route and profile
weeks prior to the Pennine I'd been sauntering across some of the wilder parts of Scotland on a 200 mile coast to coast walk (TGO Challenge) and I'll admit to being more than a little nervous in the couple of weeks before the marathon. But come the day, the nerves had settled and I was probably as calm as any of the more experienced runners. I needed to be. Drinks stations were every three miles which some reckoned insufficient given it was the hottest day so far that year. I carried no water nor anything to eat. Approaching 18 miles I passed lots of runners who'd ground to a halt by the roadside, some just stood there, others tried to keep their legs moving, some sat with bowed heads looking forlorn and totally knackered.  Blisters, dehydration and heat exhaustion had taken their toll resulting in 58 of those stragglers failing to finish. Helpful or concerned spectators brought extra water from their houses, children offered fruit and other goodies while gardeners sprayed us with hose pipes to cool us down. I kept going, ignoring the handouts, though struggling and having to walk for a while climbing towards that 22 mile marker. I suppose I'd hit the wall but it was nearly all downhill after that.
   I crossed the line in 3:30:04 to take 82nd place of 316 finishers. Mike Critchley of Bolton United Harriers
Breaking the M55 course record in 1988
had won it in 2:34:07, a chap I've met many times since at the Arncliffe 4 mile race which he organizes each year in August. Eileen Denby of Denby Dale Travellers survived the blistering conditions to be first lady in 3:31:17. The best was yet to come. I'd wanted to go home to rehydrate and soak my aching legs in a hot bath, but my chauffeur/sister insisted on watching the prize giving before we went. I got the shock of my life when I was called to the podium as winner of the M55 category, a silver cup placed in my hand together with a voucher that would buy me a new pair of shoes and an embossed towel that has accompanied me to every race since. It was my first ever win, at anything, and it totally changed my life. That was 26 years ago but I remember details of that race as if it were yesterday. And I remember telling the race secretary, Alan Sykes, I'd break the M55 course record the following year.  Gone was the casual jogger who'd started this game to lose weight and get the old body back to some sort of shape. Things had gotten serious. A runner had been born, one that henceforth hated to lose, and God help any contemporaries that lined up beside him.

Can you tell I've just been watching  'Fire on the Track' - the story of Steve Prefontaine's extraordinary life?

13 comments:

  1. My, what a handsome young bloke up there! Honestly, you don't age very much, do you! :D Loved the story. You tell the very best stories about running.

    :-) Marion

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    1. Thanks Marion. You say the nicest things! 'Sacred thy body even as thy soul' is a motto I reckon we both live up to.

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  2. Now I have always been a runner, I can remember from a very young age saying: Time me Mom I'm running around the house, and now 40 years later I run around the mountain, over the mountain. Best of all I don't need Mom to time me, I have Ms 310 (Sister of Mr. Garmin) and we have a love affair with rounding off the km...

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    1. Yeah, it's a shame, my runner wasn't born until 55 years after me, but he made up for lost time.....

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  3. What a great memory of your first race. I wonder how well you would have done if you had started younger? Many of us can only dream of running as fast as you did in your fifties!

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    1. ...and I was even faster in my sixties! Thanks Liz

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  4. What a memory! Well done on keeping the enthusiasm.

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    1. Thanks. I'm not done yet FRG. As I said to someone the other day, "If I appear to have stopped running, stick me in a box".

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  5. What a lovely story of your introduction to marathon running.

    Maybe I should try a marathon when I'm 55...? I'm not going to push up the distance just yet as I'm still a wee bit wary of injury again. But who knows?

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    1. I'd be careful if you decide to try that marathon, your life may never be the same again!

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  6. What a great, beautiful memory! I thoroughly enjoying reading your story.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for visiting. It's nice to see new names...

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  7. I always enjoy reading how others got started. Your story is especially interesting since you took a late start to it. I can imagine your surprise at the award. The competition with oneself (and others) is a fun challenge. BTW, I don't judge anyone by their build anymore when it comes to distance races, but your photo at the bottom is certainly one of a person who looks "built for long runs" .

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