Watch Out Autumn’s About

It’s staying darker longer in the mornings, as Summer drifts towards Autumn, this darkness makes it that bit harder to get out of bed, particularly on the mornings I have an early start. Which reminds me that it’ll soon be getting darker earlier in the evening as well and it’ll be time to make sure I have enough high visibility clothing. I’m quite lucky, Ronhill produce some really good high visibility clothing and accessories and, as part of their support for Roger Alsop Personal Training, they supply me with enough to keep me visible in all the sessions I do outside.

If you run in the dark, or even semi-dark, it’s important that are visible and seen aas early as possible, particularly if you are running on the road. Having moved from Edinburgh to the countryside (when I lived in Hassall Green) it made me realise that cars travel fast down country lanes, not expecting to come across a runner in the road, so it’s even more important to be noticed early, I always recommend a high visibility jacket at any time of the day if your run takes you down country lanes.

But it’s not just the dark that poses Autumn danger for runner, you can also be sidelined by tree debris. Lots of things fall from the trees, branches, twigs, leaves, acorns and conkers, to name some. If you’re not paying attention you can land awkwardly on some of this debris and cause an injury. Leaves in particular can be a problem, they tend to collect in hollows, hiding potential dangers from view, I always recommend that people avoid treading on a pile of leaves as you never know what they’re hiding. Wet leaves can also be a problem, as you can slip on them very easily, particularly if going downhill.

One other thing to watch out for in the dark, overhanging branches, with the leaves having been dropped it’s not always easy to see thin branches as they protrude into the street. On a number of occasions I’ve been running along a street and taken a direct hit in the head from an overhanging branch, blood has been drawn and I’ve even taken a nasty poke in the eye, but thankfully no lasting damage. Be alert to these dangers.

The start of Autumn isn’t all bad, it also heralds the start of the cross country season. Now I know that school cross country running has been the cause of many an adult having a psychological fear of running but there are many people, like myself, who absolutely love it. Ok love is perhaps too strong a word for me, in fact I absolutely hated every minute of this year’s National Cross Country Champs (which you’ll recall is the first blog I wrote about), but there is a certain smell about early season cross country (and I don’t mean sweaty competitors), plus you can get some really nice sunny and dry conditions and some venues are actually really beautiful to run around. But the main thing I like about it is the camaraderie, not just with your team mates but with your opposition too, sure you’re out to beat them but it’s in a nice way, like beating your mates in a kickabout. As I live about 200 miles away from my club I don’t get to do much cross country these days and it is the one thing I miss most about not living in London, or Edinburgh for that matter. In fact I want to see if I can run in a local league as a guest, but then that lacks the team element might still make it like running a road race. Having said that, and I can only really vouch for Pennington Flash, but I feel like the atmosphere at Parkruns comes very close to that of cross country as it’s often the same people week after week at the same venue, and whilst still trying to beat others you’re always happy to see someone else have a good run.

This week I returned to proper running training. I’m still not doing as much as I was 4 weeks ago, I’ve been quite busy with new clients and housey things, but at least I’m able to do quality training. I didn’t do any core or strength work during that first week  but I’ve started that this week. In fact on day 4 of my return I was doing a Yasso session with Ray. This involved running 10 x 800m with 400m recovery and the principle is that you get an idea, from it, of what you could do in a marathon. With Ray due to run the Chester marathon in less than three weeks he was keen to see what he should be aiming for. It turned out pretty good, Ray has come on hugely since I first met him, there is no way I could have considered doing this session with him 6 months ago but on Tuesday he managed to average 3:23 for the 800m reps. Now I think that’s pretty damn good, and as I was running them with Ray it gave me a good session too. Incidentally I’ve just picked up another client looking to improve from a 38 minute 10k, so I’m going to be training pretty hard over the next few weeks, just to keep up with my clients. As I’ve mentioned, in a previous blog, there’s a limit to how many clients I can run with and I’m getting close to that limit, so better book me up soon if you want to Run with Rog.

On Saturday we decided to go to Pennington Flash Parkrun, I had wanted to go the previous week but my back injury put paid to that. It was a reasonable start to the day as Ray, Carole and I set off. It had rained quite a lot over the week and we were expecting some mud, but it has been wet before and there was always a way to avoid the worst of the mud. However conditions on Saturday were the worst I’ve seen them and I have to admit to treading gingerly in a few places, almost coming to a standstill at the bottom of the grass hill as I tried to avoid falling over. This coupled with a slight loss of fitness gave me my slowest time around the 5k run, 17:50. Still good enough for 2^nd place but not good enough to avoid ruining my average. Oh well it’s only a statistic. I was beaten by youngster, Matthew Crehan, who comes from a long lineage of very good Crehan runners and I’m sure he’ll be producing some great results as he builds up his fitness. As I slip into old age I’ll be able to watch him from afar as I slip down the field. Carole had one of her better runs but it was Ray who surprised us all by setting a personal best on the course, that marathon training is turning him into a powerhouse. Unfortunately Ray twisted his back on the mud and is having to consider his training carefully, in his lead up to the marathon. Hopefully no lasting damage. 

On Saturday night I went to the Northwich beer festival. I’d arranged to go with Ray but Ray had to call off, due to his back. I’ve only ever been to beer festivals during my time living in Germany and they do them very well, so as it was local I thought I’d give it a shot. Well it was a really good laugh, some of the beer was really nice though some was a bit disappointing. Still it all went down. There was a group called Cheeky Monkey playing throughout the night and they were pretty good too, playing punkish style versions of many 80’s hits – took me almost back to my schooldays, though not completely otherwise I’d have been drunk after two pints. 

Contrasting Weekend For Me and Mo Farah

This weekend I was chuffed to see Mo Farah broke both the British and European indoor 5000m records. I don’t know Mo personally, though I have many friends who do, but he seems to be a decent level headed guy. Plus he trains hard, which is always good in my book. I do believe I once beat Mo, but it’s probably not worth putting that on my CV as it’s the equivalent to my 24 year old cousin beating me in a 30 metre sprint when I was 9, though I think Mo was about 17 at the time. I did once pass him when we were both training in Richmond Park, but it would have been more impressive if we’d been travelling in the same direction.

My favourite memory of racing Mo was at the 2002 South of England 6 Stage Road Relay Championships at Aldershot, I was running for Belgrave Harriers and he was running for WSEH, both on the 4^th of the 6 legs. At the time there was quite a rivalry between the teams and a lot was expected of Mo as he was coming to prominence in UK athletics. I’m not sure what was expected of me, but as I took off in the lead I considered the least I could do was send our 5^th man off in the same position. Mo set off some distance back but went charging after me with some intent. Half way around the first of two tough laps the crowd were getting excitable and I could sense that I was being hunted down. I didn’t look back but gather that Mo made up all but 30 metres. At 37 years of age I was about to show I wasn’t a pushover, I quickened my pace, just enough to show it would take a further effort to bridge that gap, and spent the next lap concentrating solely on maintaining that pace. The support along the route was tremendous, both for Mo and myself as spectators could see this was shaping up to be a great race. With half a lap to go Mo was no nearer and I knew that all I had to do was get up the next hill in the lead and I had every chance of holding him off. I pushed with everything I had, turned the corner into the main arena area, used the downhill stretch to pick up more pace and finally kicked up the hill to the finish. I’d done it, handed over in the lead and Belgrave went on to win the title for the first time. Only then did I look back to watch a dejected Mo coming up the hill, I’d pulled out a little distance on him and WSEH had shot their bolt. It was a great moment for me and a great day for Belgrave, but my time has now passed and I wish Mo all the best for his bid for gold at the 2012 Olympics.      

Bringing us back to the present….Whilst Mo was gearing himself up for his record attempt I was making my way to Alton Towers to make my racing comeback in the English National Cross Country Championships. When I arrived I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was like being at a pop festival, there was so much mud. I was beginning to wish I hadn’t brought my partner with me as we slithered towards the Herne Hill tent. It was definitely the muddiest I’d ever seen at a cross country and that was just the spectator area and inside the tents, not the best to encourage her to return. As I put on my number I hadn’t realised I’d dropped my chip in the mud, the last time I’d run chips were only used on road races. Thankfully I spotted the chip before a huddle of Herne Hill Harriers came in and trampled it deep into the mud bath. Actually that’s a good term for a group of runners, like a herd of cows a huddle of harriers is quite fitting.

With the start of the race approaching we were informed the distance had been reduced from 12k to 10k, due to a number of incidents in earlier races. The race was also to be delayed 15 minutes, then 5 then on time but eventually 15 minutes, communication not at it’s strongest. Thankfully it wasn’t too cold as we stood waiting for the actual start. Finally we were allowed into our starting positions and as I made my way to Herne Hill’s designated starting position I leapt up in pain as some idiot trod across my ankle, spike first. Painful but thankfully not so deep that I needed to worry about what I was about to run through. At least it gave me something to moan about while waiting for the hooter to go off.

Then the start, and a mad rush for some. The initial bit was undulating but not too muddy, but that was short lived and we were soon into the deep stuff. The course was one lap of 2k and two of 4k, and I’d say it was about 90% mud, with the majority of mud free area being on the steep hill we had to climb twice. Those who know me well would know this is not my kind of course and I fought hard just to keep going. I got a stitch at 7 minutes, my first for many years, but I kept ploughing through the mud. I was moving so slow I could even identify the people cheering me on. I’d obviously gone too fast early on as from the start of the first long lap I just seemed to be going backwards. I looked ahead and saw masses over people strung out ahead of me and thought my hopes for a top 1000 place were out of the window. Still I kept plodding forward.

At the start of the 2^nd long lap a sense of serenity came over me as I realised I wasn’t going to be lapped, every runner’s nightmare put off for another race. Then the pain, my right foot was aching, I must’ve been twisting it as I was trying to gain any purchase in the mud, both of my 4^th toes were sore too as I have a tendency to bend them over claw-like to grip in mud. By now I was absolutely exhausted, moving so slowly and getting passed by so many people that I had thoughts of Andy Lea-Gerrard passing me before the end. Up the hill for the last time and I could sense the end was nigh, for the race that is not me. I dug deep, the vision of Alex Rowe up ahead driving me on and then it was all over, just after I passed Alex I was under the finish line.

It had taken me 47 minutes and 34 seconds to run the most unpleasant 10k of my life, that’s 12 minutes and 23 seconds behind the winner, Steve Vernon of Stockport Harriers. And my finish position….well I was 500^th, a full 500 places higher than I had anticipated.

So after all that was it worth it? Well yes, I got to catch up with my club mates, it was great to be a part of such a big race again, I didn’t make Herne Hill’s scoring 6, I was 12^th man in but the 6 that scored did us proud by finishing 12^th team. Interestingly, I would have made the scoring 6 for Belgrave! Will I enter the BMAF National? I don’t know, I’m clearly a long way off achieving the 2^nd place I did last year but if other members of Herne Hill enter I could be tempted to provide the rear guard.  Will I run this race again? Unlikely, but who knows what tomorrow brings. Will I take my partner again, hmm might be better sending her to a spa hotel or shopping.

It’s now 3 days since the race and my legs still ache all over. I know some people would ask why we do it, my stock answer to that is, if we didn’t do it we might end up having to go shopping with the mrs and I’d go through any pain not to have to do that.

One final word before I go, my thoughts are with the people of Christchurch, New Zealand and in particular my good friends and famous New Zealand athletic family, the Coughlans. I hope you’re all safe and well.