Dead Runners society race report
Linton Village College half-marathon,
Cambridgeshire - sunday 1st April 2001.
At the end of March I finally escaped
from Oxford and returned to living permanently with Shelley in Cambridge. I also
joined Shelley’s new club, Cambridge and Coleridge AC and (after 11 years)
resigned from Spectrum Striders. My first race for my new club was a local half
marathon.
Evenin all
Tony and Shelley here in England where spring
is here!
We have been doing some racing over the last
few days. On friday we went to London for the "last friday of the month" 5km in
Hyde Park, London. Shelley did the race and Tony just jogged round the
Serpentine (lake in Hyde Park) as an easy training run. Here is Shelley's race
report.
Well, first off, this was pb number 9 since
November, so another one for whoever keeps track of these, 22:17 for 5k,
previous was 22:27. But also partly a little disappointing. It was a real well
run race, paced just about perfectly for breaking 22, except for one thing. I
forgot to triple knot my shoelaces at the beginning, and one came undone just a
little before 2k, and I knew I wasn't going to make it the rest of the way
around with a shoe lace untied. 1st k 4:05, this is downhill, so not surprising,
2nd k 4:46, that was where I tied my shoe, 3rd k 4:33, 4th k 4:33, 5th k 4:13.
Oh well, there's always next month, and now I know I can do it, and next month
should be a good occasion for it, since it is a special race, the hundredth
running of the race.
Now back to Tony.
Today it was Tony's turn to race, we went
about 10 miles south east from Cambridge out to the village of Linton for the
Linton Village College half-marathon. One of Tony's targets for the year is to
get back under 1h30 for the half before he thinks about another marathon. Tony
hoped to do sub 1h30 in the Helsby 1/2 marathon last january but that was ruined
by snow, no snow today, it looked like a nice sunny spring day.
Tony's race report.
I did about 5 minutes jog with Shelley around
the fun run course at LVC before jogging off to the race start in the centre of
the village about 1/4 mile away. I felt OK and was hopeful of a good run today,
my first week back in Cambridge since I finished working in Oxford had been
fairly easy and I was nice and rested. A bit of waiting around at the start and
then off we went.
I didn't try to go off too hard, I started to
work my way through as the field thinned out as we went through the village of
Linton and out into the countryside, by 1 mile (6.45) I was moving well and on
pace to break 1h30. There was a long way to go though and I slowed in the 2nd
mile (13.53/7.08) going uphill, I speeded up on the way downhill in the next
mile (20.43/6.50) but by now we were already well spread out and I was having to
work hard just to maintain the gap between myself and the runners ahead, I was
making no impression on the pack ahead. In the 4th mile (27.49/7.06) we entered
the village of Balsham and I was starting to get a bit worried about 1h30, I
kept plugging away and I was still moving well. We were now on a loop of about 6
miles which we would run round before heading back to Linton. 5th mile was
downhill (34.27/6.38) but I knew what goes down must come up, these hills were a
lot harder than I thought they would be.
I was a bit tired by now but still moving
well and I was finally pulling back the gap to some runners ahead, on an uphill
after 6 miles (41.39/7.12) I passed a lady from Newmarket and an old man from
Hunts AC (our old club). 7 miles (48.55/7.16) I passed a lady from Haverhill but
she tucked right behind me and I could hear her breathing behind me for the next
2 miles. I was pushing quite hard now just to try and keep 7 minute pace going
but it was hard work now running into the wind, 8 miles (55.51/6.56) and 9 miles
(1h03.04/7.13) and we re-entered Balsham. Suddenly a big pack of runners came
zooming past me, a bit disconcerting, I kept going hard with Ms Haverhill still
breathing down my neck. 10 miles (1h10.13/7.09) we were swallowed by another
pack, I could see one of my new Cambridge and Coleridge AC clubmates ahead
starting to come back to me so I was thinking that I might catch him. However,
it was my turn to go backwards now, the pack and Ms Haverhill went away from me
and that was it, a steady procession of runners started to come past me from
then and I just had to jog in the best I could. 11 miles (1h17.35/7.22) and 12
miles (1h25.14/7.39) brought me back into Linton and a few twists and turns
through the village brought me to the college, 13 miles (1h32.53/7.39) brought
me to the finish straight in the college grounds and I crossed the line in
1h33.42.
Very tired and disappointed at the end, that
didn't quite go to plan, the hills and the relatively warm weather didn't help
but I went out too fast for the conditions. Still it was my best 1/2 marathon
since January 1998 when I last broke 1h30 for half marathon so it wasn't all
bad. At least I was fortunate to get a race today, the Foot and Mouth epidemic
hasn't reached Cambridgeshire yet so the race didn't get cancelled, plenty of
races have :-(
The race was won by Cambridge University
runner Dan Leggate, one of the "kiddies" I ran with (well I ran a long way
behind most of the time) during my student days at the number 1 university.
Dan's wife Ellen finished 2nd in the ladies race a week after running in the
world XC championships in Belgium. It was also very nice to meet with my old
Oxford running pal and eurodead list member Bob Wells. Bob took home some
hardware in the V50 category finishing over 14 minutes ahead of me, Bob has also
recently escaped from Oxford, he now works at Manchester University.
Back to Shelley now.
While Tony was doing the big important race,
I did the 3k fun run, which was, you guessed it--at least provided it really was
3k, which I was told it was pretty close to -- pb number 10 since November,
12:14, and I was first lady. I missed the prize ceremony, though, so I will get
it in the mail. It was a three lap course on grass, with the last lap slightly
shorter than the first two. I thought the last lap was going to be longer, so I
wasn't alarmed when I did the first one in 3:59 and when I did the second one in
4:15, I was worried that this was really slow, so I made a real effort on the
last lap and raced with a little boy who was getting away from me until right at
the end when if I hadn't thought we had to go around the building before
entering the finish I would have caught. As it was, he finished just ahead of
me, probably very pleased that he hadn't been beaten by any girls.
I only hope I can do as well next week when I
do a 3k on the track at the Watford open track meet.
bye tony and shelley
--
Dr Tony Bell, Milton, Cambridgeshire,
England. Tony@shells.demon.co.uk http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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