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.
