Passing ships in the night

A bit morbid this week but for good reasons. We all think of ourselves as indestructible, especially when young, with a lot of bravado about running vast distances, drinking masses of beer, driving fast and sundry other stupid escapades. When you get as old as me you start to see things differently - albeit I am a mere spring chicken compared to the remarkable Fred Robson, about whom more later - your outlook starts to change when you see what goes on around you.

There was an article in Ranelagh Harriers' newsletter last week that should be pasted up on every club noticeboard in the country. I will try to précis it here but look it up under News (newsletter no. 309) on Ranelagh's website for the full version. A regular club runner aged 35 from Leeds was down in London for a few days and went out for an easy four mile run. He collapsed and died during the run. He had no identification on him so the authorities couldn't contact anybody. Given the vast expanses of our wonderful Cirencester Park (4,000 acres?) and beyond to run in, where we enjoy idyllic isolation, can you imagine how bad things could get here? There are identification gadgets that can be attached to running shoes and it is clearly important to tell people where you are going to run. Since my heart scare last summer and continued associated problems, I always try to tell Claudie my running route and I now always fill in the personal details requested on the back of lots of race numbers, something I used to mock when they first appeared.

I have known of a few deaths associated with running over the years; in most cases the informed opinion has been that running actually deferred the ultimate finishing line although try telling that to the families of the handful of people who all died on the same day in the Gt North Run a few years ago. The recognised creator of the jogging boom in America, James Fixx, died whilst out running aged 52, the ultimate irony given his preaching about the healthy nature of such an activity. My very, very good friend from Australia, George Thomas, died aged 41 whilst driving home from a 10k race. He was my mentor whilst he lived in London in the late 70's and drummed into me how to get regular training lodged into my daily lifestyle.

We are now enjoying / enduring a bit of a heatwave. Great you say, a decent summer at last. I agree and like nothing better than getting out for a run with the freedom of just wearing shorts (I know, with a body like mine I should be covering up to protect the population at large, as my darling daughter Natalie told me the other day!). But the heat brings its own problems. In 2003 there was a lot of publicity about how many elderly people died in France in the heatwave that year; a number of younger people perished on an organised long distance walk in Holland as well, yet there was precious little about the effect it had in the UK. I know though because my dad was one such statistic, dying in his sleep after the hottest day of the year. We must respect weather extremes and not think we are indestructible. Take wise precautions; if doing a long run try to go out early and even drop some water off in advance at points around the course.

Two brighter matters on which to finish. I alluded earlier to 78 year old Fred Robson. He was running marathons 10 years before even I was born and he was out in Finland last weekend doing another one despite 30ºC temperatures (careful Fred!). Picture shows him having a massage after the race. He has a wonderful attitude to life and to running. I look forward to buying him a celebratory half pint of Guinness when he next appears at the pub - what a wonderful man.

Finally, can't let my reader(s) go without mentioning our esteemed club captain Adrian Williams. He missed club training last Tuesday so that he could post a decent 5km time at a race down near Bristol, a round trip of about 60 miles (I think he was actually just trying to get out of attending the club committee meeting personally), as a barometer on how his Berlin Marathon training is going. Just one problem: he got the wrong date, there was no race!

Enjoy the sunshine.

A step back in time

In the good old days, summer lasted from May to September with endless hot, sunny days; village greens sporting cricketers clad in all white gently playing forward defensive shots for hours on end; village fêtes with maypoles, strawberries and cream and WI home made cakes, and running races always starting at 3pm on Saturday afternoons. Well, on Saturday I was able to witness three of these things - cricket being the exception as it has changed somewhat; the commentators were bemoaning the WI run rate falling below nine an over for example, what on earth would Geoff Boycott make of that?
The Broad Town 5 is a lovely little race and has been going 26 years. Start & finish is in a tiny school playing field where the annual fête attracts a lot of interest for what is only a small village (not sure why it's called a town). We parked in an adjoining field where the grass grew higher than my little MG, which as a consequence was camouflaged and thus difficult to find after the race. I was surprised to find four female teammates at the race, mother & daughter Thomas plus itinerant travellers "if there is an obscure race we'll find it" Jane Stevens & Christina See. In fact the overall turnout was excellent with over 200 finishers swelling the coffers of whatever school fund / good cause the fête was raising money for.
I enjoyed most of the race if only for the fact that I was leading for 3½ miles - it's a long time since I've been that close to the lead vehicle. Aim was for a good tempo run to supplement my current heavy marathon training so I wanted to ensure a good pace. By two miles (10:35) I only had Gary O'Brien for company and he allowed me to do all the work which I didn't mind. I maintained a good pace and felt strong despite the hot conditions (3m in 15:59) ... until the big hill just before four miles. In the foothills of this mountain (which ultimately led onto the Ridgeway way above us, although we turned off before reaching the top), O'Brien eased alongside me and then as it became steeper he edged ahead. I was a beaten man and fell away like a Rich Tea biscuit in a freshly made cup of tea. I "ran" the fourth mile in 5:51 before thankfully regaining some composure on the flat and ultimately downhill finish with a final 5:35 and an excellent second overall which Claudie missed as she was watching the dog show!
My day was made when I met up with a couple of acquaintances from many, many years ago, Dennis Williams & Ian Isherwood from Hercules Wimbledon running club. They'd done this race once a long time ago and fancied a weekend away with a Saturday afternoon race, no doubt to be followed by a few glasses in a local hostelry. We spent quite some time reminiscing about old times and mutual friends. Great fun.
A couple of drinks Saturday evening then a long run (2h 15m) Sunday morning completed a really good old fashioned running weekend.

PS For ease of reference, the first WI referred to in the narrative is Womens Institute, the second West Indies. Hope that sorts out any confusion.

Contrasting 10km races

I've attended two 10km races in the last two days, one as a competitor and one as a marshal. The contrasts between the two were dramatic.

The Fairford Festival 10km, as the name implies, is run as part of a weekend of festivities in the town where I work. Both the festival and the race, plus associated 3km fun run, have been going for many years and have been highly successful. Unfortunately this year things changed. The organisers manifestly failed to market the race with no flyers distributed at other local races or to nearby clubs. As a consequence the race almost didn't go ahead because of lack of entries - this at a time when most races close entries early and have to turn people away. Of course this meant that Cirencester were able to clean up, we managed five of the top eight places and the only reason we didn't have the race winner was because Chris overslept, see his Blog for more! Jon Young's photo shows the beeming winning team of Adrian Williams, Chris Illman & me with the delightful Sharron Davies.

The next evening Cirencester promoted the Westonbirt Arboretum 10km, the course threading its way through the winding footpaths of this beautiful area near Tetbury & Highgrove. Entries closed weeks ago at 750 and organiser Dave Edelsten could easily have accepted double that number. As ever with Dave's organisation, everything went very smoothly; it was a spectacular sight seeing such large numbers spread throughout the grounds of the Arboretum. With a sapling tree for each finisher there was also a bit of novelty for all as well.

The Westonbirt results have been published this morning, just a few hours after the race finished. The Fairford results have also been published today but because the second finisher's time was not recorded all results are incorrect! Apparently the fun run results are even worse. If people pay out £8-10 for a 10km race they expect decent organisation. At Westonbirt they got it, at Fairford they didn't.