The Nightmare On Boggarts Hole Clough

It was an, almost, unique weekend for me, on the rare occasions where I’ve raced on both days the shorter Saturday race has helped me to a good race on Sunday. However, just because it’s happened on those rare occasions, I don’t go out of my way to seek double race weekends. There has to be a compromise somewhere and I do try to put family first, sometimes. Having said that, my relationship with Carole has blossomed to the point that she no longer gets frustrated when I focus my whole day on a race. And it’s a change I’ve taken complete advantage of by choosing to race just about every weekend this winter. She has developed an understanding of my desire to race and is starting to incorporate herself into my race weekends rather than be opposed to them. She’s even starting to enjoy standing around in mud for 40 minutes whilst I slog my way around a cross country course, now that’s true love. Or is it? I receive a post from one of my Pennington Flash pals, Shelle Bradley, who stated that her husband had run a race alongside another lady but, instead of going through the finish line with the other lady, he had turned round and gone back for Shelle and shared her finishing time. Now if that isn’t true love I don’t know what is, but no matter how much I love Carole, there is no way I’m ever going to share her finishing time.

I hadn’t originally planned to race both days, I had thought the cross country race was on Saturday, luckily one of my Salford team mates reminded me the race was on Sunday. So this prompted the idea to go to the Congleton parkrun, on Saturday, after all it was time Carole ran it. I’d also persuaded one of my clients, Katy, to go along. I’ve always thought that Katy and Ray were about the same standard, now was a chance that I would be proven correct as Ray and Sharon were also planning to go along.

The week prior had been pretty dismal, weather wise, this, combined with the fact I had a busy gym week with clients, led me to do my quality sessions on the treadmill. It was great for getting my legs turning over faster as, despite warm ups, warm downs and recoveries between reps, I was comfortably running 10k in 35 minutes. But the down side is that treadmills make my calf muscles tighten and no matter how much I stretched or rolled them they were still a little tight on the Saturday morning, still it was only a parkrun, not that important, until Malcolm Fowler turned up!

I hadn’t wanted a hard run but there was no way I was going to let Malcolm get the better of me again. But it wasn’t Malcolm I had to worry about today as he damaged his hamstring somewhere around the course, I wasn’t aware at the time I just kept pushing to the finish as I knew Malcolm would pounce if I slowed and offered any sign of weakness. But the run was won by Tom Bush, another local rival. He and his wife, Olivia, just seemed to have a bit more pace than me, on the day, as I finished in 3^rd place.

Carole and Sharon both had good runs but as I jogged around after the finish I saw Ray and Katy coming towards the finish, neck and neck. My theory proved I was intrigued as to who would come in first, and then Katy kicked. With only 2 seconds between them I’m looking forward to lots more inter-client showdowns.

So Sunday and Boggarts Hole Clough was the setting for the Manchester Area Cross Country League. I’ve never been there before but I guessed it would be a tough course. Still it’s all good strengthening work for me. On arrival I started checking out the course but when it got a bit muddy I decided it could wait until the first lap. As I walked back to where all the athletes congregated I bumped into James Jackson, James and I competed against each other on many occasions in the Surrey League, back when we were youngsters, when James moved up North he joined Salford Harrriers, but he hasn’t run for them for some time. Looks like he’s rekindling his competitive spirit and thinking about getting back into the Masters running scene. It’ll be some team with my old rivals from London, James and Paul Simons, plus the current crop of talented oldies and the addition of my mate Rob Tudor. So look out for Salford.

Just before the start of the race I went for a short jog and ended up getting my left leg entangled in a bramble, as the bramble untangled itself it ripped some interesting patterns into my skin, brilliant 4 minutes to the start and I’ve got blood oozing out of my lower leg. This reminded me of my comeback race, three years ago, I was just heading to the start line of the National Cross Country Champs when some idiot ran his spikes down the back of my leg.

Then we were off and I was immediately swamped by a horde of faster starting runners. The first part of the course was winding through boggy grassland and I was caught in a big huddle of runners, having my pace dictated to me. I could see Graham MacNeil up ahead and about to pull a big gap on me, but I figured that three laps would pull me through the field. The 2^nd part of the course was through wooded trails, and this is where I got caught out. The trail was so narrow and twisty and yet covered in thick sticky mud, with tree trunks running through it. I was in danger of having my shoes sucked. This was real hell for me, I really struggled through this patch and it even stopped me dead at one point. Back to the first part of the course and I managed to get into my stride, the field having elongated. I was passing people all the way round here but dreading the muddy patch I now knew was coming. Second time around, although bad, I managed to navigate the tricky muddy part by adapting my style to that more akin to a ballerina (I don’t have the most attractive running style at the best of times but I was grateful Sid Sacks wasn’t here taking photos of me. Then it was onto the 3^rd lap and, although my legs were no feeling tired from all the races, training and ballet practice, I was still picking people off. As I navigated the mud this time round I remember thinking how horrible this was, I may not be a star cross country runner but I do enjoy it, however, frankly, this is one course I could never grow to love. I pushed hard towards the finish but had nothing left to sprint with at the end.

Despite what I thought was a bad run, I finished in my highest position in the league, 27^th and 2^nd M45. This is probably because loads of people didn’t turn up, having raced Boggarts Hole Clough before. I’m currently lying 2^nd overall in the M45 section. No chance of winning that as Rob Downs has won all the fixtures, but I do have a chance to slip down, the scoring is based on your best 3 races so I’m sure the likes of Ian Wetherall, Malcolm Fowler and Dave Lockett will have a say in that, they haven’t finished 3 races yet so the last race is crucial. With Dave missing out today it also gave me maximum points in the Salford Harriers cross country Masters champs. So I do have a chance to win that competition after all, but I’ll have to beat Dave to do so. Although I genuinely hated the course at the time, and probably for a couple of days after that’s actually the sort of thing that will make me turn up again, I can’t have a cross country course be the master of me, I have to master the cross country course. I’m not saying I’m in a hurry to return and I’m not promising I will be back, but don’t rule me out.

This week’s been quite interesting. On Monday I was interviewed by a journalist who is writing an article on older runners, for Runners World. I don’t know when it’s coming out, nor how much of what I said will make the final article. But it was an interesting chat. The other big event of this week is my birthday, today. And what treat did I line myself up with….a double fartlek, Katy in the morning and Ray in the evening. Thanks to everybody who has wished me a happy birthday and don’t let the cold snap get you down.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Teamwork

This week’s blog follow’s on from last week to further emphasise the benefits of team work. There are people who like to think they don’t need help to achieve their goals, sometimes I think I’m one of them, but the reality is that we all need a helping hand along the way, to a lesser or greater extent. The reality is that with a team around you, you have a greater chance of obtaining goals you wouldn’t even consider as an individual.

That’s not just in sport but something that’s also relevant to your working life. Within sport even the likes of Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe have a team around them to help them obtain their goals. When it comes to using the gym a lot of gym users turn up, do their own thing and leave. But their routines may be more effective and interesting if they work out with a friend, though it can cause disruption if you’re not well matched, plus there may be times when you need a spotter. Actually I am a bit of a loner when I’m doing my gym work, when I turn up at the gym I know exactly what I want to do and why I’m doing it and, as I’m usually short on time I get on with it and get gone.

When it comes to running, although I do most of my training alone, I’ve always been a team man. At first I was rubbish so having a team to aim to break into gave me an incentive to train hard. As I became better the incentive was to break into the top team of my club and then the county, area and national teams. I’ve been reasonably successful as an individual athlete, winning quite a few medals at major championships, but I’ve gained about as many again as a member of a team. But it’s not just about winning things, I really enjoy being part of a team, I find it motivates me to get fit because I want to help that team to achieve success, and if we don’t we can always have a laugh together.

Of course it doesn’t always work out and there are many times in the past when the team I was representing turned up one runner short of a full team, and that can be pretty disheartening. Mind you, in 2008, I turned up for the East District Cross Country Championships as the runner short of a set of spikes, I’d left them in my hallway as I rushed out to pick up various other Edinburgh AC athletes. Luckily the ground was frozen hard and I managed to run ok in my trainers, and, surprisingly, I still managed to help Edinburgh AC win the Masters title.  

There was a time, when I was a member of Belgrave Harriers, when we had some fantastic runners in the club, but they would never all turn out at the same event, so for a number of years we would languish in lowly positions in major championships, instead of challenging for medals. My coach at the time would often talk to me about it, his thinking was that they were good individual runners but not the best in the country, however, if they all turned out together they could make Belgrave the best team in the country and then they would become a National Champion themselves, something they probably would not achieve as an individual. That always stuck in my mind, I’ve been a decent athlete, but never the best, so I have my best chance of becoming a National Champion as part of a team. Admittedly I have actually been a National Champion as an individual but that’s been a bonus. Yes it does mean a great deal to become an individual winner, in fact it’s very satisfying, but it’s also extremely satisfying to be surrounded by your team mates, knowing that each one of you contributed to the team becoming winners. Speaking of which here’s a picture of me with the Salford M45 team who came 2^nd in the National Cross Country Relays, I have to say not only do we look happy but we don’t look bad for our age, particularly Paul Birkett who looks about 26.

Incidentally if anyone has been waiting to read the official Salford write up on the BMAF Cross Country Relays, it’s finished but looks like it will be published on the Salford Harriers website over the next weekend, along with pictures of some old men. That’s www.salfordharriers.co.uk

Moving on to more domestic matters, I’ve been feeling a little lack lustre, some might say indifferent, in my training over the last week. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe it’s the Olympic effect, I focussed on the BMAF relays as my event for this stage of the year and now it’s over I find it hard to get going again, maybe it’s the cold I had about 5 weeks ago, which seems to be lingering, or maybe it’s just the rapid approach of my 48^th birthday (remember: running gear or single malt whisky). Whatever the reason it wasn’t a good week of training. I finished the week off with a hill session with another Cheshire athlete, Rob Tudor. He’s been injured and not run as much lately so I promised to go gentle on him. I was still promising that as I followed him up the first hill, and the 2^nd and the 3^rd. By the 6^th I’d realised the hill was too short, naturally Rob, a 1:50 800m runner was going to feel more comfortable up a short hill than me, a 1:59 800m runner (note these times were posted more than 20 years ago but serve as a useful comparison), so I suggested we head across the river and do a longer hill. After following Rob up these longer hills a couple of times we decided to move on to a more steady run through the woodlands and chat instead. I was still feeling a bit lacklustre yesterday, when I started my training session with Lee, but I perked up as we progressed through the session and we finished with a rep at 5 min mile pace. That was a good way to finish Lee’s last really hard session before he attacks the 10k world record with his 40lb pack. This morning I was out at 07:30, running a hill session. It went alright, I felt good and seem to have found my mojo again, or perhaps it was just that I didn’t have Rob Tudor running in front of me.

Speaking of Rob Tudor, he’s an England Master’s representative, National Champion and is someone who has yet to finish behind me in a race, therefore he’s on the list of those athletes I must beat before I retire. It’s a large list and growing all the time.  

Ray was out on Saturday, running his first cross country race, ever, at Sefton Park. I think he found it tough, it was quite a big race with some top runners entered, including a team from my old club, Belgrave Harriers. So he’s had his baptism of fire, and will no doubt be back for more.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a parkrun, now that I have a team to run for I have other races to do and I don’t like to race every week, but I do miss the atmosphere at Pennington Flash. They’re a friendly lot and it’s always a challenging run, which are two good reasons for going along. Hopefully I’ll be along to one soon, but I’m getting calls from other directions so I don’t know when. While we’re talking parkruns, I’m led to believe there will be new ones starting shortly at Delamere Forest and Congleton.

Because I’m a travelling PT, rather than basing myself in one gym, I always carry a book around with me, it gives me something to do if I turn up early for a client. I have my preferences as to type of book, but I’ll pretty much read anything. I’ve just finished ‘Over The Edge’ by Jonathan Kellerman, which is a really enjoyable read, I’ve just started ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac, which has now been made into a movie. I’ve been interested in reading some of the books from American authors, of that era, but couldn’t seem to find them, now thanks to the movie this one is back in print. Another book I’ve always wanted to read is ‘Don Quixote’ and I managed to find that on one of my random searches through my kindle, but boy it’s a tedious read. Well actually there are sections that are tedious and sections that flow along really well. I’m about 77% the way through it and I’ve hit a tedious bit, but I’m desperate to get to the end so I’ll keep plodding along. Whilst on the subject of books, my friend Gabrielle Collison’s book, about British Marathon Running Legends of the 1980s, is now on Amazon, might be worth a punt as a Xmas present for a running friend who doesn’t need any more kit, it’s getting some good reviews.  

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk