Dead Runners society race report
Cambridge wildlife 10km- sunday 14th
October 2000.
After a good summer of racing finally
a chance to race in Cambridge.
Evenin all
Tony here back in the city of the number 2
university after a great long weekend in the city of the number 1 university.
Tomorrow is my big day and my opportunity to escape from a job that I am not
enjoying that much at Oxford University to a better paid, more interesting and
permanent job at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (national "Big Science" lab
about 15 miles south of here), tomorrow lunchtime I am having a job
interview!
Instead of returning to Cambridge and Shelley
on a friday night last week I went back on thursday instead so I could have a
day away from work to help prepare for the interview. On friday morning I went
to my old lab in the Cambridge University Chemistry department to have a chat
with my old PhD supervisor about the job interview tomorrow, some good advice
which will hopefully be useful tomorrow. Very nice to back there again.
Earlier today I had another chance to relive
my Cambridge past when the beautiful Shelley and I ran in the Cambridge Wildlife
Trust 10km road race which started and finished at the university track. I got
to see some Cambridge runners again which was nice although I had to admit that
I now worked for the opposition :-( Shelley and I had both tapered off for this
race and were hoping for good runs, conditions looked good; cool, sunny and not
much wind. I did a mile on the track to warm up, my right leg still felt a bit
sore, it had been sore since wednesday's fast training run. About 10 minutes
before the start it was on with the racing gear and another lap of the track
before we all lined up on the track. There appeared to be a lot of runners
there, a few hundred at least, it was rather crowded on the track.
Bang and off we went, 1 lap of the track
before we headed out onto the road. I did most of this lap in lane 8 and it took
me nearly 2 minutes, it was very crowded. As we headed out onto the road I
started to work my way through, 1km in 4.23. It was to be a 2 lap road course
before finishing on the track, we were soon running along the footpath on
Madingley Road and overtaking was tough as there were so many runners around,
overtaking meant stepping into the road as cars zoomed by. 2km in 8.36/4.13,
just before 3km off Madingley Road and into the University High Cross campus and
finally a bit of wide road to run along. 3km in 12.47/4.11, the path soon got
narrow again and we were running along the Coton footpath. This is usually a
very nice place to run but it is only about 1.5 runners wide most of the way and
not the best place for a few hundred runners to race. A really frustrating part
of the race, you had to pick your moment to pass, still working my way through.
4km in 16.32/3.45 and 5km in 21.10/4.38 and finally onto the road again and some
room to pass more easily.
I was hoping for 40.xx today, over 21 at
halfway was not on the agenda. I was pretty tired by now but I kept working my way through, a young
lady in Cambridge blue was ahead of me but I got past before 6km was reached in
25.25/4.15. Along Madingley Road again, now we were sufficiently spread out so
that overtaking was easier, 7km in 29.24/3.59, through High Cross and onto the
Coton footpath again and unlike the previous lap I was running free. I passed a
couple more runners at 8km which I reached in 33.51/4.27 but I had someone on my
tail and he zoomed past at 9km which I reached in 37.37/3.46. Feeling pretty
tired by now, soon off the end of the footpath and back to the track, as I
approached the track the clock said 40.xx and by the time I got round the track
it had gone over 42, over the line in 42.19/4.42. 2nd half in 21.09, a negative
split by 1 second!
Pretty tired on finishing but not tired
enough, not a good race run by me or by the race organisers. I'm sure if I had
had more room to run consistently fast on lap 1 I could have motivated myself to
run faster on lap 2. I waited for Shelley to come in, in spite of a storming
finish on the track she did 50.27, she was disappointed with her time although
she was held up just like everyone else on lap 1.
I did a 1km cooldown run after the race and I
was chatting with some of the speedy Cambridge runners, they were up near the
front and not even they were satisfied with the course!
Oh well, we will race better next time, it
was nice to be a Cambridge runner again for a little while. In spite of all the
problems today it was still my best 10km race since I fractured my left knee 2
years ago.
bye tony....
Dr Tony Bell
Tony@shells.demon.co.uk tony.bell@chemistry.oxford.ac.uk
Weekends - Milton, Cambridgeshire. Midweek, Dept of Inorganic Chemistry, Oxford
University. http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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