It’s been a busy week for me, we’re moving house and it’s not going to plan. We found a house we like, in a place we like, and so set the wheels in motion. On advice, we delayed handing in our notice for the place we’re renting, only giving it when we felt we had an 8 week window, with 3 weeks for minor delays or to get in and tidy it up (paintwork, carpets, repairs, etc.) That 8 week window came and went on 5th May, the 3 weeks contingency came and went on Tuesday this week, we did manage to get an extension until today, but with the new tenants moving in tomorrow our options were limited. So I’ve spent since Sunday, packing, shifting and cleaning. We have employed the help of a removal company and a professional cleaner, but I still feel like I haven’t stopped. Has it affected my training? Are you kidding, I’m a master of improvisation and slotting in sessions when time is tight, runs have been short but I’m ticking over, Kettles have been checked about and you can still do an abs workout while having someone vacuum around you. Haven’t done any weights but then all the box lifting and cleaning have more than compensated for that.
Luckily I now have an internet connection, very poor but working, and my computer set up so I can keep my income and expenditure up to date and naturally write my weekly blog. I’m very grateful that when I moved away from this area, 18 years ago, I didn’t take my family with me and now have the benefit of Alsop family storage services, though my sister no longer carries the name she’s still providing the benefit of space for us, with the proviso that it’s gone before my nephew, Stuart, returns from his teaching duties in South Korea. Anyway I’ve waffled enough now onto the real blog.
If you read last week’s blog you’ll know that I was looking forward to competing in the BMAF Road Relays, which took place in Sutton Park last Saturday. Well because time is short, I thought I’d just write this blog on how it went, from the perspective of a competitor. Naturally others who competed would have completely different views on how the day went, but this is my blog so blog out.
Road Relays are fantastic events to take part in, and for that matter are cross country relays. I first feel in love with the concept in 1989 when I took place in the Reigate Priory cross country relay. I was new to running, new to Belgrave, had new spikes on and knew practically no one. I was on leg two, taking over from Matt Kinane, who I was introduced to about 10 minutes before the start of the race. Matt was obviously better than his team placing, due to him being 2nd claim (not going to explain that all here). I wasn’t expecting him to be in so early (surely the C team man should be the 3rd Belgrave man home), I was standing around at the handover like a lemon and Matt was standing around wondering why I hadn’t gone off. It was me who suffered though as the ticking clock was added to my overall time. Since then I’ve taken part in many relays, I really loved the South of England 6 and 12 stage and as for the National 12 stage, what a fantastic day out that is and I’m lucky enough to have been at the sharp end of that race. Not forgetting my involvement in Edinburgh AC’s Scottish Road Relay win, but I’ll maybe blog about that another day as it makes an interesting story, at least for me.
Back to BMAF, it was my love of road relays that became the deciding factor in my switch from Belgrave to Herne Hill, in 2005. I was becoming old and slow and was struggling to get into Belgrave’s mighty 12 stage team. Non of the other elderly men in Belgrave seemed to be that bothered about taking part in the Masters equivalent, with the exception of Charlie Dickinson, but Herne Hill had some good oldies and one more could make the difference between being a contender and being a winner. So, after discussing the situation with Andy Lee Gerard, and taking a lot of time soul searching (afterall Belgrave had been my only club, I had been captain of the road and cross country team for a few years and club Secretary for two. I’d also played my part in the success story that was Belgrave Harriers in the 90s and 00s.). So I switched to Herne Hill in time for the 2005 event, but as I mentioned in my previous blog, I was one of a number of the team who was injured and we were unable to make the start line.
The five years since we finished 2nd, 2nd, non starter, 1st and 1st. Again last week’s blog gives a more in-depth read on these events. This year we entered again as defending champions but even as we entered we knew it was unlikely we’d have a 3rd victory. Of the 8 men who carried us to victory the previous year, we were missing 5 of them and those that remained were running slower, for one reason or another. However as the rules have changed this allowed us to bring in two of our under 40 stars and we welcomed into the team; Simon Coombes, Basil Wallace and Ben Paviour. So as the team was organised, during the week, I still believed we had a chance of a medal.
Simon Coombes and Ben Paviour are in good shape so made up for the loss of Iain Lockett and Dave Robinson, though if anyone can ever make up for the loss of the icon that is Dave Robinson on last leg I’m not sure. With Basil Wallace, an unknown quantity to me but surely able to take the place of Francis Marsh. Mike Boyle back in the team after years of injury, multi-International medal winner and co-star of a very good video of the 1993 Surrey 10000m championships, surely he could dig out the necessary to replace Keith Newton (Keith the almost ever present in this and the South of England Masters relay champs, I still don’t believe this event escaped your diary). Victor Maughn, the Dorien Gray of Herne Hill (perhaps someone has a photo of an aged 20 year old Vic running an 800m) can always be relied upon to give his best and Kofi Agyei another master at aging gracefully, surely they won’t be much slower than last year. Tony Harran was drafted back into the team, after 2 silver medal performances, maybe not quite in the league of Carl Feri but we could probably afford 2 minutes in the medal hunt. Finally there was me, I’ve missed a large portion of the winter, due to injury and still carry niggles with me, but I’m slowly getting some form back, even so I reckoned I was in 15:55-16:15 shape, that’s 45 seconds lost on the previous year. Could we do it, well we’d give it a good go.
As I relaxed on Friday night I got a text from one of my Salford pals, Paul Simon. Was he joking, or was somebody winding him up, he told me Bristol & West didn’t have a team. No way, in the past 6 years they’d accumulated 4 golds, a silver, a bronze and a course record. Surely they must have a team. Then again we were unable to field a team of 4 at last year’s South of England Masters Relays and we’d won that for the past 7 years. Perhaps we didn’t just have a chance of a medal, perhaps we could actually win again. Ok so I am an optimist but this wasn’t one of my THICK goals, if we all ran our socks off we had a chance. Then half an hour later, the next text told me Tony was out. However, this time we had a further contingency, former HHH President Valdis Pauzers had agreed to run. Now Valdis, or Waldy to his mates is a great bloke, great team man and fantastic companion down the pub but Waldy isn’t in peak fitness and was likely to be about 3 minutes slower than Tony. So the win was off, but medals were surely still an outside chance, if we all pulled each other’s socks up.
Not being one to give up I travelled down to Sutton Park, still believing we had a chance. I’d thought that the win would go to Cambuslang or Salford but I’d received another message from Mike Deegan, telling me he was in their M55 team – which made me question the quality of the Salford M35 team, as Mike was probably one of their best.
I met up with my team mates, and we discussed the team order, or more importantly where to put Waldy. I should point out that I mean no disrespect to Waldy but he was clearly our slowest runner so thought needs to go into where best to hide him. In the end we plumped with leg 3 and put Ben on 4 so that he had plenty of people to chase down. I seem to have been given late legs the previous two years and was hoping I might go early to get dragged around by the competition but I ended up 7th.
The race started and this is about the time I went for my warm up, I like an early warm-up, irrespective of what the text books tell you, it works for me. As I jogged around the course in the opposite direction I could see the field coming up. There seemed to be 2 runners ahead of the main field and, would you believe it 1 of them was Simon. Not only that but he looked comfortable. Further back were Salford with Cambuslang distinctly further back than I’d expected. Simon maintained his form, coming in 2nd.
Mikey Boyle took over with his distinctive style. Now Mikey hasn’t been in the best of form for a while, due to injuries, but was making a serious bid to get back into form. I expected a lot, I always do and Mikey didn’t disappoint, yes he dropped us down 3 places but he is over 50, running against spring chickens.
Now it was Waldy’s turn, he dug deep but clearly lacking fitness meant a net loss of 15 places. Still we only had those places to lose because we had 8 men willing to turn out.
Ben was next, and did just what I thought he would, scything through the opposition running our best time of 15:28 and gaining 10 places in the process. He actually must’ve gained 11 but lost one as Ian Hudspith caught him just before the line, running an incredible 14:08 for Morpeth.
Vic was next, 49 and still going, despite his comments about retiring 4 years ago. Another great time from Vic, not as special as last year but solid nonetheless.
Basil followed and ran a similar time to Vic. By now the gaps were big and it must’ve been hard for Basil to take over in such a position. Between them Vic and Basil had gained 4 places.
This meant I went off in 6th place, but there were big gaps up ahead. I knew 1st and 2nd had gone, Cambuslang were well clear of us but there was hope the other 3 teams had run out of steam. As I set off my legs felt really strange, a feeling that’s hard to describe other than to say they didn’t want to turn over so I had to force the issue. They were still acting up as I reached the top of the initial climb, then all of a sudden they seemed to come out of their trance and I was running normally again. Up the hill I’d spotted the Morpeth runner ahead, but turning the corner I could no longer see him. I pushed harder and as I came into the open I could see him again, he was closer. This and the added incentive of a shout from Ben and Waldy made me dig deep again. As I approached the turn I could see all the guys lined up, not far ahead; Highgate, Wells and Morpeth. I kept digging, I figured they were within my grasp and if I could get into 3rd Kofi could hold it. After the turn, however, they looked a lot further away. Still no point in giving in, every second counts. I kept digging all the way to the finish, my abs were screaming at me to slow down but I wanted that medal. I finished with a net gain of zero, but there were 3 guys much closer for Kofi to chase. My time 16:29, I was horrified, 59 seconds down on last year, that 59 seconds would have gotten us into 3rd place. Now it was down to Kofi.
As normal I got straight out onto the course to cheer on Kofi, but when I saw him it wasn’t good news. Cambuslang were now clear winners despite a last leg from Martin Cox of Salford. Salford were clear second. But 3rd place was between Morpeth and Highgate, two of my contemporaries were battling out for 3rd. Chris Beecham of Highgate, who I’d seen often in races, and Terry Wall, who I believed had left Morpeth but must’ve rejoined. As I write this blog I can see a picture my mum and dad have of me leading the 12 stage in 1994, just behind me is Terry Wall who kicked past me to take Morpeth into the lead that day. Once again it was Terry who got the better to earn bronze for Morpeth. Kofi was a little way back but had brought us through into 5th place.
All in all a good team result and I hope we’ll be back next year to have a go at retaining the trophy. There are those who spoke out against the inclusion of M35s, but in reality, had it been an M40 team, we wouldn’t have had a team. We couldn’t even get a team of 6 for the M45s, which was won by Leicester. You can look at the times and say that Cambuslang were much slower than the course record or even slower than what Herne Hill won with last year, but times are irrelevant, winning is everything and I say well done to Cambuslang (I’m not just saying that because 2 of them are Facebook friends), they had the right attitude and the right blend of team work to make it happen. I look forward to seeing them again next year, where no doubt they’ll run quicker in an attempt to retain their trophy.
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