Dead Runners society race report
Serpentine RC 100th “Last Friday of the month” 5km - friday
27th April 2001.
Another trip to the big city for a
special race, the 100th running of one of our favourite races around Hyde Park
in the centre of London.
Evenin all
Tony here with news of our trip to the big
city last friday. For the last couple of years we have periodically travelled
down to London on the last friday of the month for the Serpentine Running Club
monthly 5km series in Hyde Park. Shelley has done this more often than I have
but this month we both did it as it was to be a special race as the monthly
series had its 100th running last
friday.
Last month Shelley set a new pb of 22.17 in
spite of having to stop to tie a shoelace which came undone, she has had a
target of sub 22 minutes for the last few years and she thought that (shoelaces
permitting) this was going to be the day. My last race in this series last
summer I did the rather annoying time of 20.02 :-( I have been training hard
recently with a lot of trackwork so this time I was going for sub 20 again after
a series of 20.xx and 21.xx 5km clockings since I ran 19.38 at DRSWC6 in St.
Louis back in 1998.
Off we went down the motorway in the car and
then into the city centre on the underground train. We arrived in Hyde Park
about 1/2 hour before the start and picked up our numbers. For this special race
3 starts staggered by 5 minutes were planned, first to start were those hoping
to break 20 minutes, then 5 minutes later 20-25 minutes runners and 5 minutes
after than over 25 minutes runners. This race series is now sponsored by
Runner's World, some of the UK RW people had come to the race, Shelley had met
some of them a few years ago at a RW training weekend. We had a chat with the RW
editor before it was time to warm up.
I jogged a mile to warm up, including running
along the long (800m or so) finish straight so I would have an idea of when to
make my finishing effort. Over to the start as the sub 20 runners were getting
ready, Shelley and I were both down to run in the 2nd race. Off went the fast
runners and then we had 5 minutes to wait, they ended up combining the 2nd and
3rd starts. For this race I had a perfect right to line up on the front row
which was rather strange, the 5 minutes ticked by and off we went. Conditions
were good, cool and fairly sunny with not too much wind.
The reason I didn't go off in the first start
was that I didn't want to get dragged off too fast, the first km is all gently
downhill and I deliberately sat at the back of the lead pack for the first km.
1km reached in 3.41, bang on schedule, left turn as we ran towards the
Serpentine (lake in Hyde Park). As we reached the lake shore I took the lead!
Another fast runner zoomed past but he didn't follow the race route on the
footpath alongside the lake but ran on the road instead, I wasn't sure if he was
in our race or not. So here I was leading a road race, very strange! There were
no other runners in sight ahead of me, unfortunately there were lots of
non-runners out there in the park walking alongside the lake so I had to weave
my way through the crowds in places and shout out warnings that a runner was
coming. I could hear runners behind me, 2km in 7.45/4.04, slowed a bit, I wanted
to try and go for sub 4.00 all the way but having to get through the crowds was
a novel experience. Normally in the middle of the pack a steady stream of
runners would have come through ahead of me to clear a path. Feeling tired by
now but not drowning in lactic acid. 3km in 11.49/4.04, at this rate I was going
to get just under 20, I could still hear runners behind me. About 3.5 km we
turned away from the lake and up a fairly steep little hill which brought us
onto part of the downhill path in the first km. 4km in 15.56/4.07, I wasn't
going to give up now but it was starting to get tough. Two 90 degree turns and
into the long finish straight, I picked up the pace, I could hear runners
catching me, and about 400m from the end 2 runners zoomed past. I kept going as
hard as I could, just before the finish I checked my watch and it said 19.1x, I
was going to do it! Over the line in 19.35! :-)))))))))
They gave me my commemorative finishers
t-shirt and I crouched down on the grass to catch my breath, very tired and very
happy with my run. Then I got up watch Shelley come in.
Shelley's report:
21:51, that pretty much says it all for me,
guess what another pb, I finally broke 22. My shoelace didn't come untied,
otherwise it was pretty much just like last month, first and last k's 4:06 and
4:08, low 4:30's in the middle, not surprising since the first k is downhill and
probably a little short as well, and the last k is a little short as well. Last
k was hard for me, but maybe if I wasn't determined to make sure I got under 22,
I could have done better.
Bring on the track season, I've achieved my
road goals for this year, perfect timing! The next day I ran for my club in the
Southern Ladies track meet, but not surprising, my times weren't very good, 16.6
for 100m and I never found out up my exact time for the 1500, but it was right
about exactly 6:00 according to Tony's watch. I went out too fast, doing the
first lap in 87 because the others were so fast, and didn't manage to keep it
up. Today I was timekeeper for the children's meet, and came up with an
interesting idea. They ought to let veterans run in the under 13 races, I would
have had good competition there, rather than having to run alone.
Now back to Tony:
Another 6 minutes jogging to cool down then
Shelley and I joined in the post-race picnic organised by Serpentine Running
Club as part of the 100th race. It turned out that the runner who zoomed past
when we reached the lake shore was in the race after all, he finished a couple
of minutes ahead of me and had started with the slow runners as he had arrived
too late for the fast start. I was 4th off the slow start, there were plenty of
runners ahead of my time off the fast start although not all of these runners
broke 20. The race was won in 15.07 by Huw Lobb of Bedford and County AC,
formerly (like me) of Cambridge University Hare and Hounds, Huw was one of the
fastest of the speedy kiddies who I ran with as a student. Nice to see another
old Cambridge runner again.
After some lunch in the park we went to
Oxford Street as Shelley wanted to do some shopping, by the time we got there I
was feeling very tired as the post-race euphoria wore off and my legs started to
stiffen up. It was getting rather painful just to walk at one stage so I had to
sit down and have a cup of tea in the in-store cafe in Marks and Spencer whilst
Shelley shopped. Fortunately we had scheduled a trip to see Torben, osteopath to
the stars, to coincide with our trip to London. After Torben did his stuff on my
back and my legs suddenly my legs didn't hurt any more! I was able to walk out
of the osteopath's with my sore right leg feeling OK :-)
A good day for us in the big city, I finally
broke 20 for 5km for the first time since I fractured my left knee in 1998, this
was my fastest 5km since 1996 and I was only 1 minute outside my pb. Next race
will be 5km on the track in Cambridgeshire county championships on 12 May.
ORN for Tony: After Shelley headed off to
timekeep I went out and did 13 miles. For the first time since the Foot and
Mouth crisis started I was able to run down the river Cam into the city centre,
do a lap round Jesus Green and then run home with a detour round Milton Country
Park on the way back, last 3 miles were pretty tough but I made it round in 1
piece, not too bad considering I was still tired from friday.
ORN for Shelley: 5 miles on the treadmill
after coming home from timekeeping. Interesting session, started at 7:55 pace
and then speeded up to 7:40 on the 4th mile, then on the 5th mile clicked on the
speed-up button each tenth of a mile, getting up to 7:00 pace by 4.9 miles, and
then speeded up a lot for the last tenth of a mile, sort of like a Kenyan style
acceleration run in slow motion.
tony.... (and Shelley)
Dr Tony Bell Tony@shells.demon.co.uk Milton,
Cambridgeshire, England. http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=227580
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