Alsop’s Alsager 5s

I didn’t run many road races in my early days. It was track, cross country and road relays that my coach prescribed. So, during my best years, I never made it up to the Alsager 5, despite it being close to where my parents lived. Even when I took up road racing, in the late 90’s, there were so many events going on around London that I didn’t feel the need to travel up to Alsager, even if it did mean I could visit my parents at the same time, or maybe that was the reason all the time. When I turned 40, however, my attitude changed. I was aware of the fast times set at Alsager and I wanted to set one to lay down a foundation for England selection at the International Cross Country.

I made my Alsager 5 debut in 2005. But I was disappointed, my time was only 26:49 and I was hoping for something nearer 25 minutes. That time was only good enough for 28^th but, surprisingly, I was 1^st Master. For the next 4 years I was based in Edinburgh and for one reason or another, mostly because I was working, I couldn’t make the race. But at the end of 2009 I found myself living about 3 miles away from Alsager so the 2010 race was a definite for me.

Alsager 2010 – By now I’d turned 45, I was training hard but hadn’t raced since November. With this long gap I had no particular ambitions in the race, other than to have a good run, I was using it as a marker for the Trafford 10k. But as it turned out I ran faster than 5 years earlier, 26:33, a time that stood up as the 3^rd fastest for an M45 that year. Mind you it was only good enough for 38^th place, I was 2^nd M40, to Gordon Lee, but 1^st M45. 4 weeks later I actually went through the 5 mile mark, at Trafford, in a faster time.

By Alsager 2011 I’d been suffering with a recurrent knee injury since September. I managed to train through it to make my England debut in the November but soon after that I decided now was the time to take a break. The break did some good but it was a lengthy break that kept me out of this race. I did turn up and jogged around the course a little as Carole and Lee Riley were both racing it.

Alsager 2012 – No injury this time but still only a few races over the winter months, I felt fit though and was keen to keep my record going (1^st M40 in 2005, 1^st M45 in 2010). Unfortunately the weather was against me. I slithered and slid my way around the 5 miles, there were big stretches where there was very little road showing and it was tiring running on the snow. I felt like I was way back in the field and running really slow (mind you everybody was running slower than normal). I didn’t enjoy it at all. Coming to the finish I had enough left to sprint for the line, unfortunately there was only one clear line to run on so every time I tried to go round my nearest rival I had to go onto the ice, which meant I lost momentum. Unable to get past him I had to settle in my position, 49^th in 28:01. I thought there must be at least 5 or 6 M45s ahead of me but as it turned out the guy I was just behind was 1^st M45, if only there’s been a wider clear line to the finish.

The build up to Alsager 2013 is a completely different story, I’ve had a solid winter of cross country and have been racing and training well. I have a running client, Katy, from Alsager, and we’ve been around the Alsager 5 course many times during our various sessions, so I felt I knew the course (always an advantage, I feel). So far I’ve managed to avoid any illness, despite being surrounded by people with full blown colds, and my body was holding up well, until two weeks ago. That was when I had my back spasm. It felt so small and insignificant that I didn’t think it would keep me out of the race, the same thing had happened to me just before the BMAF cross country relays in November, where a few days rest had me back and running well. I thought the same would be true here, and it was improving every day, but I was in agony getting out of bed every morning. By the Monday before the race it was feeling a lot better, though still a problem first thing. I was going to leave it another day but I had to go to a meeting about a mile away so thought I’d trot there and back. It was ok, the next day it felt much better so I ran for 6 miles, still ok. Wednesday morning I had a run out with Katy and I felt even better afterwards. Another run out with Ray in the evening and things were looking good. Then, as I got out of bed on Thursday, I suffered an incredibly painful spasm. Enough’s enough I thought and tried to get in to see a physio, but no joy, fully booked. Well that was that then, season over, surely this is going to take a few weeks to sort out and I’ve already missed practically two weeks so all my racing fitness will be down the pan.

But I managed to get a quick session on Friday evening, with Ed at www.stretchmassage.com/

Ed had a look and did some tinkering, once again it was caused by a weakness in my glute/piriformis area. The next morning I woke up almost a new man, still a little tender getting out of bed but so much better than the previous two days. The temptation to run was strong but I had my sensible head on. I was going to go to the Alsager 5 on Sunday, anyway, Carole was running, so I’d warm up and if I felt ok I’d race, albeit a bit tentatively.

Race day, a slight niggle getting out of bed, perhaps I won’t be doing the race! But get up anyway and prepare like you’re doing it. We arrived in Alsager nice and early, got our chips sorted out and I went for a warm up. I ran for a mile, around part of the course, and all felt good, much better than earlier in the week. So I made the decision to race, though I was a little anxious and prepared to drop out if necessary. Lining up at the start it was nice to have brief chats with the large number of athletes I’ve got to know over the years, it kept me from worrying if I’d make it to the first corner ok. I was a couple of lines further back from where I would normally start, I wanted a low key start so no point in getting in the way of faster runners. And then we were off, it was closely packed for the first 800m, which meant I was having to pay particular attention to the area just in front of me, lots of pot holes. I was a long way back but turning the first corner, about half a mile in, I decided to start working and seemed to overtake a large number of runners by the 1 mile point. Still conscious of my condition I was holding back just a little but going at a pace which I hoped to maintain to the finish. First mile covered in 5:25, not really fast enough but under the circumstances I wasn’t concerned. Mile two was reached in 11:05, I was still passing a few people but now I was beginning to feel my reduced fitness level. I was now mixing it with a small group of runners, we were all going about the same pace, but I was tired. The benefit was there to be had though as I dug deep to hang onto the group, who weren’t going significantly faster than I felt I wanted. I missed the 3 mile marker but by the time I realised we only had about 1.5 miles to go. I knew I could dig deep for that length, I did, but I noticed my form was all over the place so for the sake of avoiding further injury I decided to hold off, just a little. I made it across the line, no sprint finish for me this year. My finishing time 27:45, not the time I was looking for a few weeks back but quicker than I’d have considered when I set foot on the start line. In fact I was surprised how close I was to some of my peers, maybe they’d had some issues too. The time was good enough for 52^nd place, but having observed many guys, who looked like they were around my age, finish ahead of me, I imagined I was outside the first 5 M45s. So it was a surprise to learn I was in fact 3^rd M45.

Just past the finish line I bumped into my old Edinburgh AC pal, Matt Bell. Last I knew he was working in Melbourne, Australia, but I think he missed the weather as he’s now back, a little boost to the Edinburgh AC team.

After the race my left Achilles was really sore and my legs have been a bit sore for a couple of days, it was the first time I’ve worn racing flats for some months, but, other than a little twinge as I climb out of bed, my back is feeling a lot better. Still not wanting to risk training at 100%, I’ll have to decide on the day if I’m to take part in any of the next few week’s races. In the meantime lots of rehabilitation work.



Just past the 1 mile mark, with thanks to Bryan Dale



Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Six Men Make Edinburgh’s Day

I sometimes get quite nostalgic, of course my regular clients will know this as I use Alsop’s Fables to illustrate a point. It was whilst in reminiscent mode that I decided upon this week’s blog. I was taken back to a great day when I was unexpectedly thrown into the thick of it and emerged a National Champion. I am of course referring to my debut run for Edinburgh AC, though in those days they were named City of Edinburgh (and there was another name they were referred to by our friendly rivals the Hunters Bog Trotters).

But before I go into any details about the great day in question, let me start by explaining a little how I ended up a member of Edinburgh AC. Since starting to run, at the age of 24, and turning 40, I’d only ever had one club. It was my local club, Belgrave Harriers, and such was my attachment to them, I served my time as Road and Cross Country Captain and also held the position of Honorary Club Secretary. I had no intention of leaving them but around the time I turned 40 there were a few circumstances that came together, the result of which was that I switched allegiance to local rivals, Herne Hill Harriers. Soon after this switch my marriage broke down, which was taking the Belgrave/Herne Hill rivalry a little far (my ex-wife being a member of the Belles). With the marriage over I had nothing to tie me to London, and, having worked abroad as a contractor before, I started thinking about all the exotic locations I might go to work.

Having mentioned my good fortune to my boss and in my usual honest way, commenting that I didn’t anticipate staying in London much longer, I found myself being offered a promotion and relocation to the Edinburgh office. A move which would cement my future in the Bank, I so enjoyed working for. To cut a long paragraph short, I found myself living in Edinburgh by November 2005. As I was still making regular trips back to my home in London I didn’t really do anything about getting to know the running scene in Edinburgh, in fact it wasn’t until Boxing day (I had worked Xmas day so needed to get out and do something) that I ran my first race in Scotland. The race in question was a 14k multi terrain handicap race at Beecraigs. It’s not the sort of thing I’d normally have done on Boxing Day but faced with a miserable lonely day in a small flat it was a mighty relief. Thanks to my friend, Jim Buick, who provided the transport but also gave them information on my best 10k time, achieved 12 years earlier, I found myself going off scratch. Needless to say I had a lonely run, went off course and managed to punch myself in the face on a descent of the Cockleroy. I did however finish 2^nd fastest so it wasn’t a complete failure.

My second race in Edinburgh was on New Year’s day 2006, in the Portobello 4 mile Road Race. It was nice to get out on New Year’s day, for some company, I’d spent a lonely New Year’s Eve and retired to bed early, having received my only New Year’s Eve greeting from a prostitute hanging out of a window on my walk home. Mind you going to bed early on New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh guarantees nothing other than being woken up at midnight by exploding fireworks. At the race I ran well and finished 4^th but first man over 40, so not a bad start to the year. It was around this time that Jim Buick emailed me, asking if I’d joined a Scottish club yet. My cheeky response being that nobody had asked me resulted in Jim forwarding my reply to Alex McEwen and thus contact was made with City of Edinburgh. I’ll admit to being a bit hesitant at first, after all I was in a club already, and we were successful, but I knew I would be getting down to London a lot less once I’d settled in Edinburgh and the UK Athletics rules allowed me to run for both Herne Hill and Edinburgh.

So I joined City of Edinburgh and, due to other commitments, lined up my first race at the Scottish National Road Relays on 1 April. Of course being an oldie, and knowing that Edinburgh had more than 6 men better than me I expected to play a part in their Master's team. The week before the race I had spent in London, on a course, and as I flew back on the Friday night I figured that Edinburgh’s Masters were so strong it wouldn’t matter if I wasn’t on full cylinders so decided to have a couple of glasses of wine to assist in enjoying the short flight. When I arrived back at my flat it was like walking into the Sahara Desert, without the sand. I’d moved in only the week before and my central heating hadn’t been working. I’d left keys with the workmen whilst I was in London and they’d fixed it but then left the heating on full output for four days. Despite turning it off, and opening windows, it was still the height of summer in my flat when I awoke from a restless night. So I hadn’t had the best preparation for my debut for Edinburgh. Still I was keen to run, get to know some of the local lads and set down a marker.

Still not knowing many people I drove to the race on my own, taking the long way round by getting lost twice. When I finally found the Edinburgh guys it was apparent Alex wasn’t around, he was on race marshal duty and had left the team in the hands of Mark Johnston. It was then that I was told I wasn’t going to make a difference to the Master’s team, I was actually last man into the A team for the Seniors. I looked at the team names, recognising nobody except Darren Gauson and Mark Johnston. I then noticed Martin Ferguson’s name in the Master’s team. ‘Surely’ I said ‘Martin is running better than me’, I’d seen some of his results and he was going well, I was beginning to regret having drunk two glasses of wine and sleeping in the oven. It was then I was introduced to Martin Ferguson, who had been standing next to me whilst I was singing his praises. Clearly happy to have someone say something nice about him Martin declined the place and was sure Alex knew what he was doing. I was beginning to wonder if Jim Buick had mentioned my times from previous decades and this had bumped me up the entry list. Oh well in for a penny.

I wasn’t nervous as the race started, I was on leg 5 and knew nothing of the team chances or the opposition. I had a lot of experience running and winning relays for Belgrave and Herne Hill so I was prepared for anything that came my way. Before the start I’d been introduced to the other 5 team members, but I knew very little about them and they knew even less about me. In the following few paragraphs I’ll describe the race as I saw it, with thanks to Mark Johnston who sent me a link with the full results. For any statos out there here is that link http://www.salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk/Archive/Road%20Running/Road%20Relays/Results/2000s/2006%20ALL.pdf

It was Mark Mitchell who set us off on leg one. Still only 17, Mark was highly ranked in the UK in his age group for the 800m. But it was a big challenge to pit him against some of the strong runners on leg 1. Mark ran a fantastic short leg 16:17 to bring us in 3rd, just 11 seconds off 1st.

Grant Stewart, more of a hill runner than a road runner, took over from Mark on the first long leg. His time of 30:18 was 5th fastest on the leg but good enough to gain us 2nd place. In front a 29:21 from Irvine's David Millar had moved them from 8th to the lead.

Then it was the turn of Darren Gauson. Darren had been running well and was on his way to an American college, but before that he was to take us into the lead in this relay with a superb leg of 15:41. Great as it was this was only the 2nd fastest on the leg as Kilbarchan's Ross Toole ran the day's fastest short stage at 15:39, which brought them into 2nd place. 

Half way through and we were leading, things were looking promising. Relays can fluctuate from leg to leg so being in the lead didn’t necessarily mean we had it sown up, still it does you no harm. I was one leg away and beginning to psyche myself up.

Mark Johnston was on 4^th leg and although he had an 89 second lead he had some strong opposition on his long leg. Mark did a great job, running the 6th fastest time on his leg but couldn't hold of Irvine's Lee Richardson who brought them back into 1st position from almost 2 minutes back. I should point out here that Mark was at the Beecraigs run and was fastest man, running a minute quicker than me, that’s probably why he got the long leg and me the short – but I wasn’t complaining.

Not knowing for sure how long the long legs were I was at the start line early. I was enjoying not having to small talk with people, then an old gent came up to me and said ‘are you going to win this for Edinburgh, we’ve never won before’. Well history is one of my favourite subjects but my knowledge of City of Edinburgh’s lack of success was sadly lacking so all I could say was ‘I’ll give it a go’. At last the leader came in sight, and it wasn’t Mark. Irvine had taken the lead and they seemed to be a long way ahead, though it was actually only 16 seconds. Irvine’s 5^th leg man set off and seemed to be pulling well away before Mark showed handed over in 2^nd place.

Well I’ve done some pretty good relay legs in my time and I wasn’t about to let an old Edinburgh gent’s dreams get shattered. I set off after Irvine’s man, with a vengeance. Just before the 1 mile point I was metres down. It was at that precise point that I caught a quick sight of the Edinburgh lads, with mournful faces. It was only later that I realised they weren’t too happy with me because they’d seen Mark, on the previous leg, a long way ahead and, because they didn’t know me, they’d assumed I’d just lost the lead, it wasn’t until after the race that they realised I’d run ok. I pushed into the lead and, though I tired towards the end, the cheering Edinburgh lasses helped me on my way and I brought the team in 1^st. My time of 16:26 was 2nd fastest on the leg, only 2 seconds down from one of Scotland's greatest athletes, Bobby Quinn, who'd brought Kilbarchan up to 3rd. 

Matt Bell had the task of holding onto the 44 second lead I'd given him. As usual, I went for my cool down back along the course to cheer Matt on. I had no idea if he was going to hold the position and it was a long wait before he turned up, but he was and remained in the lead running the 3rd fastest time of the last leggers with 30:35. We’d won in a time of 2 hrs 20 min 50 secs and made an old gent happy, actually make that two old gents as I was pretty chuffed too, my first race for Edinburgh and I was a Scottish National Champ at the age of 41. 22 seconds behind us William Richardson had brought Irvine back up to 2nd and a further minute and 7 seconds behind were Ron Hill Cambuslang.

A couple of interesting post notes. The Irvine man I passed on my leg turned out to be Colin Miller. He was 48 years old at the time, so he’d had a tough task to try to hold first place, even if I was only a few years younger than him. We subsequently met up when we both represented Scotland, later in the year, and have become good friends. And here’s one for my Cambuslang friends, a lot of people made remarks about how it was a slow winning time. But do I care, no, the results speak volumes, it’s City of Edinburgh who were Scottish National Road Relay Champions in 2006, beating all those great teams who ran even slower and my medal states National Champion, not National Champion from a slow race.  

Now 5 years on it’s interesting to see what has happened to Edinburgh’s team. They’re all Facebook friends of mine but we all live different lives in 4 different countries.

Mark Mitchell, still a young man at 23, he left Edinburgh at the end of the 2010 track season and is now putting in some good performances with Birchfield Harriers. I saw him on the TV yesterday, running in the UK Champs 1500m, along with another ex colleague Kris Gauson (brother to Darren). Mark ran a pb 3:44.44 to come in 8th with Kris two place back in 3:46.76.

Darren Gauson is still in America, he’s now coaching at Butler University, where he’s been joined by brother Kris. He’s still running and not bad too, having got close to 4 minutes for the mile this year. Interestingly both Darren and Kris also represent my old club, Belgrave.

Grant Stewart, born on the same date as me but 11 years later, just in time to enjoy one of the UK’s hottest summers, he’s also now a Master. He’s had some success with Mountain running but it appears he’s given up the running now to concentrate on being a Doctor.

Matt Bell was always a reliable runner, he also seemed to prefer running hill races. He’s now moved to Melbourne, Australia. Another one who has reached the age of Master, I hope he manages to find some good races in Australia.

Mark Johnston was the first to leave the club, moving to Bellahouston Road Runners within two years of this victory. Mark trained with the Bellahouston guys and felt a growing affinity with the club. He’s still running, and not badly too as he gets close to his 40^th birthday.

And of the others;

Alex McEwen is still coaching at Edinburgh and I have him to thank for helping me when I was in training to become a Level 1 coach. As well as all the other athletically minded things he did for me whilst I was up in Edinburgh. A true club man, dedicated to seeing the success of athletics in Edinburgh and the sort of club man who should be given a leg of the Olympic torch relay. But don’t give him whisky, he doesn’t drink it. Incidentally he’s marked down on the Power of 10 as 40, which is quite interesting as I’d have said he saw his 50^th birthday some time ago.

Jim Buick is now training to become a Personal Trainer and is already qualified as a Fitness Instructor and Run Leader. Jim has helped many people to pace their marathons, being a bit of a marathon expert. We still keep in touch and Jim pops down here sometimes to try out English races, I’ll have to get him along to Pennington Flash one weekend.

Five and a bit years on, what have I been up to. If you’ve read last week’s blog you’ll know that I was feeling a bit tired and decided it was time I took a little break from the intensity of my training. The desire to train easy was there, but, as I said last week, it was fitting it in around other circumstances, so my planned easy week ended up an easy 3 days. I hadn’t intended running the Pennington Flash Parkrun but after chatting to Ray, during our training session on the Tuesday, I decided to give it a go. It’d been a hard week for sleep as the removal of all the old curtains and poles, so that the sills and walls could be painted, meant we had the constant glare of street lamps and early morning rises. So I wasn’t feeling great as I drove up to Pennington Flash. We had a car full as Ray and his wife Sharon and my Carole were all aiming to run. We got a bit of a shock when we arrived as the car park was full of tri-athletes, preparing for the following days triathlon, but we managed to park ok and headed for the start. The usual suspects were there, plus a few new faces. In particular I’d noticed one guy who looked like he might be a serious contender to win. You’re never sure, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to win my 4^th Parkrun. As we set off I was surprised I was on my own again, but about 50 metres into the race I had company, yes he was a serious contender. I decided to set a good pace to see how he ran, up the first hill he was breathing harder than me. At that point I thought I might be able to break him so kept the pressure on, at the top of the 2^nd hill he spoke to me and told me he’d only come along for a tempo run. Never the quickest witted person I was fighting for something to put him down with but failing that I thought the best possible putdown would be to finish in front of him. The pace was still pretty quick but I seemed to be ok with it. Halfway round the 2^nd lap he decided it was time to push me and he succeeded, I couldn’t match him. But I wasn’t going to give in without a fight. The two times I’ve been beaten at Pennington Flash I was beaten by about 50 seconds, this time I was keeping him in my sights. It was just after the start of the 3^rd loop I decided to check my watch, it said 11:57. I’d figured it was about 5 minutes to the finish from here but as I saw my time I thought I’d either miscalculated or I was having a good run. It didn’t feel like a good run as I was starting to hurt, but I stuck to the task as best I could. As I crossed the line I was slow to stop my watch, but was amazed to see 16:57. The winner, who wasn’t registered so I don’t know who he was, though I think I’ve seen him before, ran 16:46, and my official time was 16:56. That’s another course pb by 18 seconds and meant I was only the 4^th person to run sub 17 minutes for the course. Some achievement on this tough course. It also gave me a better age graded score though I’m still lying 3^rd. I realise that to knock Jeff Whittington from top spot I’ll need to aim for a new course record, something I thought was impossible for me a few weeks ago, but now I’ve dipped under 17 minutes I’m not so sure. What’s the betting Jeff runs a 19:10 to raise the bar again. Now I’m sure many of you are reading this and wondering what the fuss is about over a 16:56 5k, well you see this is a tough course. When I ran a road 5k in Hollins Green I finished in 16:39, at that point my best around Pennington Flash was 17:33, but buoyed on by the Hollins Green run I ran a 17:14 PF the following week. So you could look at this and say that, were I to run a road 5k now I should run something between 16:02 and 16:21, which is about the time I ran last year at Hollins Green. The difference now is that I had reached my peak by Hollins Green, whereas this year I feel like I’m on the way up. Interesting for me, of course running isn’t an exact science and I know I now have to get out there and compete against my peers in some road and cross country races if I’m to make the England team. Which is what I intend to do, so it’s goodbye to Pennington Flash for a while, hello to road races.