Two mob wins in a row

Thanks to a car load from Cirencester turning up and running second claim for Ranelagh - Wrighty, Chris Illman, Keith Firkin & Claudie - a second mob match win on the bounce resulted in a flooded Richmond Park. It has to be said that Claudie's input was relatively minor, a bit of retail therapy in Kingston whilst the boys were swimming around the park, but she did her bit in the car, motivating us towards an epic win whilst explaining how much she intended spending on jewellery!

David Rowe's picture of the delights of Richmond Park was taken two weeks ago, hence lack of water.

Spent half of the run contemplating what I'd write about Andy Bickerstaff, affectionately known as DH to those in the know. Definitely his week for the treatment given his mocking before the race. Fairly easy really: after many years of his captaincy, Marc Snaith has taken over this season and the mob match victories are flowing. DH's record as skipper was Won 8, Lost 20! He didn't even come into the pub for a celebratory drink after the race, albeit he had a good excuse, but DH not drinking, what has the world come to? Checking back, it appears that we haven't won back to back mob matches since 1988 so we can't blame DH entirely. Bring on Blackheath!

PS So that DH continues to talk to me I'll plug his excellent website that promotes training runs all over the country: have a look at http://www.goodrunguide.co.uk/

Feeling guilty

After a good week's training, albeit with various aches & pains, my first back after a few weeks active recovery, I had a difficult choice at the weekend. Should I run the Oxford League at Culham Park or not? This was a tough decision and I changed my mind a few times. My big problem with any sort of testing xc course (and Culham Park is very testing!) is the pressure on my ailing Achilles. It is no longer possible for me to wear spikes and running on muddy / hilly courses becomes virtually impossible. Against that is my very strong views on the whole team ethic of these league races. This is a very individual sport but we are part of a team and as such should support the main team event of the winter. So what did I do ... ?

The long run at the weekend is sacrosanct whether racing or not so I went out on my own on Saturday morning, Adrian being busy with family, and had a lovely cold run to Siddington, a lap of the water park, Poole Keynes, Ewen & Siddington again, about 14 in total. It was very sunny and I ran early - this meant two problems, namely a very low sun in the sky which blinded me at times and icy country roads. As the day went on I started to think that if I could make the scoring seven I should run the league race, even if wearing flats. Claudie wasn't impressed with the idea: "you'll get injured again" she said. Then Chris texted. He is coming back from injury and building up his training very sensibly. Could he have a run with me Sunday morning he wanted to know. This swung it, I had a reason not to go to Culham. Sorry Adrian, sorry team. I thus ended up with a second long run of the weekend - this time only about 11 miles although at a decent clip - which for my running was perfect but for my conscience ...

Mob match & traffic

One of the great pleasures of living away from London these days is the lack of traffic jams. Went up to Richmond Park with Claudie & Keith Firkin for Ranelagh's first home mob match of the season . We were aware of the England v NZ rugby at Twickenham so adjusted our timings accordingly yet still had a nightmare of a journey, which included doubling back onto the M4 at one stage, just getting to the venue in time.

On a cold, murky day Ranelagh turned out 62 to Thames' 42, usually a sure fire sign of ultimate victory as mob matches allow the club with greater numbers to shed their slowest runners in the final scoring. However, Thames are not Surrey League leaders for nothing and they have immense strength in depth as the trail of white vests down Queen's ride on the first lap attested (clear in David Rowe's photos). I went off far too fast, it just felt really easy. A combination of slipping around on the muddy sections - I was wearing "slicks", road running shoes - and struggling as ever on the hills, especially off no real warm-up, meant that I paid the price on the second lap. Thames managed 12 of the first 13 finishers before I managed to stem the flow and lead home some blue vests. I was absolutely knackered but managed to hold on to not only defend my McDowell Salver club V50 championship but also win the club's Hastings Cup V40 champs!

Highlight of the day from a club perspective, other than a rare win, was Clive Naish completing his 100th mob match to join what is now a club of seven (I sadly lead the field with 133). Remarkably, given Thames' dominance up front, Ranelagh won the 39 a side race by 100 points, a tiny margin in mob match terms. Celebratory beers were quaffed into the evening over some convivial conversation with old friends from both clubs at the Dysart Arms. This was, of course, the location for the famous meeting referred to in John Bryant's history of the London Marathon, where five people sat down and discussed the possible birth of such a race. The five were Messrs Brasher, Disley, Rowland, Hanscomb & Wright. Yep, you can blame me for all the suffering on the streets of London each April!

Late in the evening I started getting texts from Cirencester's annual dinner: I am club athlete of the year. This really came as a big surprise - thought I might get the vet prize - and hadn't even occurred to me. Bittersweet indeed.

A remarkable renaissance

No races this week as I try to repair my broken body from the ravages of some sustained hard racing the results of which have left me bemused, overwhelmed and amazed. I will try to put into words how my times over the last couple of months have been nothing short of remarkable, relative to my recent history, although don't expect that rational an explanation for the cause of this renaissance. I'll go through my races chronologically to illustrate the development.

Having had some scary health problems in July/August, the Beacon 10km on 7 Sep was probably the start. I'd just got back from a holiday in France where I enjoyed some lovely runs along the coast of Brittany and I had no great expectation for the race. There were very few Cirencester runners there as it wasn't part of the club championship and it clashed with Tony Curry's charity race in the park (I managed to do both with some fairly nifty driving!). As ever I started steadily but very quickly realised that running with the guys from local clubs, with whom I've generally had good races, felt too easy. I could have stayed with these guys - it's too easy to "know your place" in a race - but I pushed on and eventually caught Lee Christmas from Stroud, much to his surprise, and ran straight past him. I've never done that before! The time wasn't sensational (35.22) but I knew that something had changed in my fitness levels. A week later I lined up for the Chippenham ½ Marathon. Again a steady start but I got into a good tempo after about two miles and sustained it through to the finish to exceed my expectations by minutes with 76.47. After some prevarication, I was selected for the Midlands 6 stage relays on 20 Sep and, despite being isolated on the last stage, produced a time that shocked a few watching team mates. Picture from relay shows from left: Paul Barlow, Marc Fallows, Adrian Williams, Bill Leggate, Chris Illman, David Wright. I was very competitive in our own Cirencester Park 10km (28 Sep), taking particular pleasure in cruising past old adversary Mike Smith, and more people were starting to ask where I'd got this new found fitness from. On 5 Oct in the Cricklade 10km I even had the temerity to go off with the leaders and really enjoyed the buzz of this competitive edge that I'd not experienced for decades, eventually finishing 2nd in 35.00.

After a week's rest from competition I set myself the task of three more races before I could take a well earned rest; these turned out to be the best of the lot despite aches & pains percolating through my entire body. On 19 Oct I revisited old haunts in Twickenham at the Cabbage Patch '10' and easily beat all my Ranelagh teammates in running the 5th fastest V50 time in the country this year (56.24); I followed this up with the equivalent performance at the Stroud ½ Marathon (26 Oct), running 75.21. Funnily enough I didn't feel good in either of these races, weariness was setting in, which actually makes me think that there's quite a lot more to come off my times once I regroup and organise my winter training. To top things off and to ensure that I won the Glos Road Race Series I ran the Tewkesbury '5' on 2 Nov on a wild, windy day, finishing 7th overall, having had a good race with Ronnie O'Sullivan the snooker player the day before when running for Ranelagh in Epping Forest in a Mob match v Orion Harriers (see photo). At both Stroud & Tewkesbury I was the perfect gentleman as I "allowed" Wendy to finish a few seconds ahead of me (not sure quite what her comments would be on that, especially as it's not quite true, I was hanging on ...!).

In all the above races I was first V50 and in most of them I ran times not approached by me for up to 15 years. It's difficult to be sure why things went so well particularly as I had a number of personal issues to deal with in the summer, but clearly consistency of training was key - effectively a steady 50+ miles a week every week - as was my memory bank: once I got into a good sustained pace I wasn't frightened about going too fast but merely excited by the competitive buzz from years gone by. Probably the most important thing to have learned from this is to get out of the comfort zone and have belief in one's abilities. I will expand on some of these points in the coming weeks but that will suffice for now.

My first post

Nearly five years and 60 editions after initially setting up the Cirencester Athletics Club monthly newsletter I am about to cease my editorial duties. My reasons for this are many and varied and I don't intend getting into them at this stage. However, I have decided that this is therefore the perfect time to set up a personal blog. Yes, it's me being a bit self-indulgent for the first time in my life, but I think also that it may serve to help other runners in whatever small way that can be derived.

I intend posting on a weekly basis reflecting on my running experiences during that week. I will also reminisce about my long and varied running career, I have after all been racing for 40 years. So sit back, enjoy and be ready for a switchback ride! I will welcome feedback of any kind - constructive criticism is often the best way to improve things so all suggestions welcome. It will take time for me to fully develop my site so, reader(s), please be patient.