The Whittington Legacy

If you run races, whether they are track, road, parkruns or whatever, once you’ve raced a few over the same distance you tend to get some rivals. These are people who finish around the same place as you, either in front or behind. You recognise them before, during and after the race and because they’re there, and around the same ability as you, you want to beat them. That’s what rivalry is all about, and it’s generally friendly, but more importantly it’s one of the things that helps you to improve.

Since I started running, some 23 years ago, I’ve had many of these rivalries, some of which are still going strong. The nice thing for me is that, even though I’ve been determined to beat these guys, whether I beat them or not, many of them have become great friends. To my knowledge none of them have become enemies, at least I don’t harbour any ill feelings.

The first rivalry I can remember was with one of my own Belgrave colleagues, it’s often said that your greatest rivals are your own team mates. This was Don Anderson and I wanted to beat him because he was the man who occupied 10^th place in the Belgrave scoring Surrey League team. When I did beat him it meant so much to me because it meant I’d achieve a scoring position with Belgrave and also I must’ve run well to beat someone I had great respect for.

As I progressed I remember many such rivalries with the likes of Victor Maughn, Mike Boyle, Graham Adams, Martin Lewington, Dave Robinson, Paul Simons, Gary Bishop, Andy Weir and many many more local and national athletes. In Scotland I also had some great racing rivals, the likes of Andy Little, Ian Johnston, Jeff Farquhar, Ian Stewart, Craig McBurney and many of my EAC team mates. Now back in Cheshire there are some local guys I come across regularly and I’m sure they want to beat me as much as I want to beat them.

All these rivalries have been with athletes finishing around the same time as me, but I have one other rival that gives me some purpose every time I turn up at Pennington Flash. This is a man named Jeff Whittington. Jeff is in his 60’s and has four outright wins over the course, so he’s no slouch, but we’re not that close, physically, in races. However when you take into account age grading, we are often as close as a few inches. Jeff holds the current record at 85.65%, with a time of 19:24. My own best time of 16:56 is only good enough for 84.62%. So you see I have some way to go before I can claim the scalp of Jeff Whittington. Obviously we don’t run those times every time we run so there is always a possibility that I might beat Jeff’s age grading for any particular parkrun that we are both doing, that’s what keeps me pushing hard if I’m at the front with a big lead, at that point I’m not bothered about the guy behind me, I’m more concerned about how fast Jeff is running and therefore push for every second. It’s a good motivator and helps me to keep from slipping below the 18 minute mark. Naturally this rivalry with Jeff is of the nicest possible nature and it will be even nicer when I finally get the beating of him…..

I produced my 16:56 around this time last year, the closest I’ve got to it since then has been 17:13 and with times this year of 17:48 and 17:36 I’d pretty much given up on being able to catch Jeff, at least until I turn 50 and my age grading changes, mind you by then so will his. However, consistent hard training has shown a sudden rise in form and with that rise in form it’s given me some added confidence. A win at Princes parkrun in 16:45 had me believing Jeff’s age grading could be beaten. Admittedly that time is only 11 seconds better than my Pennington Flash time, on a much easier course, but confidence is a wonderful thing. And this made me start plotting for an assault on the Jeff record.

I was training with Ray on Wednesday and told him I was planning an assault on Saturday and that I was going to aim for 16:40. Ray was due to race a triathlon in Nantwich on Sunday so he wouldn’t run but he was keen to marshal. So come Saturday morning we drove up to Pennington Flash, I even considered wearing my racing flats but decided not to bother. The forecast was hot, suits me, but windy, um not very good, oh well all you can do is try and I was in the mood whatever the weather.

Normally I treat these parkruns as an indicator of my form, I don’t deliberately ease off and I’m pretty chilled before the race. This time I was a little bit more serious, ok I didn’t ease off on my training and I was wearing training shoes but I was more focussed, I’d thought through what I was going to do and I was psyching myself up a little. We actually arrived a little early, and boy was it hot. There weren’t many people around when we got to the start, but parkruns are notorious for people turning up at the last minute. Being so sunny and hot I kept under the trees and did a bit of shade bathing, checking out people as they started to appear, wondering if there was going to be a sub 17 minute runner I could latch onto, but nobody looked like they were in that shape. Then Jeff’s son, Harvey turned up, and he had in tow his brother Russell. Russell had been once before and won, so he knew the course, he’s also a Scottish international and shares, with Jeff, a world record for running the fastest father and son marathon. So Jeff wasn’t here to give me a race but Russell was, I couldn’t remember what time he’d won it in previously but I believed it wasn’t that much slower than mine so I was expecting a stiff fight. We had a chat, more friendly rivalry about to commence and then it was time to get ready for the off. I was so focussed at the start I wasn’t even listening to what Bill was saying in his pre-event chat, but I’m sure it was interesting, as always.

Then we were off and I’d decided the best way to achieve my goal was to go hard from the start, which I did. Last time I ran at Pennington Flash I won in 17:36 but I felt like I was out of breath from the top of the first hill, not this time, I felt good and pushed on. A quick look at the top of the 2^nd hill to confirm Russell was my nearest rival. He didn’t look too far back so I was thinking that if I’d got the pacing wrong I was going to get beaten. Oh well if he’s going to beat me he’s going to have to work for it. I pushed on and at the top of the hill on the 2^nd lap Russell looked like he was the same distance back as on the previous lap. He was obviously running well so I’d better smash it some more. With one more lap to go, which would take just under 5 minutes and then the finish I was confident I could push harder, so I did, pushing all the way to the finish.

No I didn’t break Jeff’s age grading record, I was a bit off in my time goal, but I did win in my second fastest time around the course, 17:01. I wasn’t unhappy, I still have something to aim at. Then my customary jog back around the course, cheering on the other 99 competitors and thanking the marshals, and off to the hut for a cup of tea and a chat with fellow competitors.

Ray ran his triathlon on Sunday, with a 1:23 finish. That probably doesn’t mean much to you but he finished the final 3 mile run in sub 24 minutes, not bad considering what had gone on before and the weather.

Rich ran in Edinburgh, the marathon, along with a number of my Edinburgh Athletic Club friends. He found it hard in the heat of the day, he was aiming at sub 3 hours, I thought we were close based on his training and half marathon time, which put us between 2:58 and 3:05, on my calculations. He ended up with 3:03, we were close and still a good time.

I should also point out that two week’s ago Lee finally got his official time for 400m, carrying 40lb on his back, down to 59.44. There’s a video of it on Youtube.

Great news for the Crewe fans in my family, in Crewe and loyal supporters around the world. Crewe were playing at Wembley on Sunday, in the Division 2 play-offs, and won. They’ll start next season in Division 1. Good advert for visiting Crewe, even if you’re not a train spotter, Terry Lawton.

Unlike other members of my family, I wasn’t down at Wembley, instead I was in Delamere Forest for an off-road and endurance training day. Now you might wonder what somebody of my experience and knowledge was doing on such a course, but you never stop learning so I was prepared to see what else I could pick up, and I did pick up some good tips, but I also got some great training and met a large number of Cheshire athletes, perhaps I won’t feel so lonely at races in future. Having made my comeback from injury, last year, in the National Cross Country Championships, it was good to chat to and pick up some tips from the winner of that event, Steve Vernon. I also got to try out orienteering, which was much more fun than I’d anticipated. We finished off with a ‘7’ mile run incorporating the forest and the sandstone trail, after which I was completely toasted, it was hot and the hill session with Steve Vernon had taken a bit out of me. Then it was back home to watch the Monaco GP, which after all the excitement of the weekend was a bit of a let down.

This week the torch relay comes through Cheshire, it’s been to Chester today, on Thursday it’s visiting the places I have a number of clients, Crewe, Congleton and Knutsford, but I think I might get away without any disruption to my travel plans.

Knowing that I’m running well and having gained some confidence in my running I’ve taken the plunge and entered my next big competition. I realise that if I’m going to achieve my goal I need to get my legs turning over more quickly, which means going back to doing dreaded track work. But no, my nearest track is at Winsford and, last time I went there it was full of ruts, so I’ve devised a plan using the treadmills at Cottons. I was there this morning doing the first of these sessions. I’m not going to go into details, just yet, don’t want my rivals to get any insight into my very specific training but I was running very hard for long periods of time. I was actually quite nervous, still suffering doms from Sunday, but once I’d done the first rep I felt much better. So I’m on target with my training, just need to fit it all in around my clients and, avoid injury. I’ve a few races lined up before the ‘big’ one, hopefully they’ll bring me on just a little bit more.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk