Dead Runners society race report
Preston Harriers 10 miles- sunday 19th
November 2000.
I didn’t get the Rutherford job so I
had to keep working at Oxford. Next race was another trip to my past to run one
of my favourite old races.
Evenin all
Tony back in Oxford now after a fun but
tiring weekend back up north. You will have just read Shelley's report on the
Big List about her 79.34 pb for 10 miles. This is what I was doing whilst "the
beautiful Shelley" was setting her new pb.
I lived in Preston, Lancashire 1985-90 for my
first job after graduating from university (for the first time) at the
Springfields Nuclear Labs near Preston. In this period I ran for the works
running club (Springfields AC, the club no longer exists :-() and one of the big
races of the year was the Preston Harriers 10 mile race every November, I was
also a member of Preston Harriers towards the end of my time in Preston. I broke
70 minutes for 10 miles for the first time in this race in 1985 and 2 years
later broke 65 minutes for the first time, this race has always been a good one
for pbs. In 1990 I left Preston and moved the 40 miles or so south to my home
town of Warrington but I kept going back up north to run for my home town club
of Spectrum Striders 1990-94, only when I moved south to Cambridge in 1995 did I
stop doing the race.
As Shelley mentioned in her post saturday was
my father's birthday so we headed north to meet up with the family to celebrate
another lap round the sun for my Dad. Shelley was looking for a good 10 mile
race and by a happy coincidence sunday was the Preston 10 so I had a chance to
go back down memory lane and relive my younger faster racing days.
Sunday morning we got up early and picked up
my old friend Bernard, ex Springfields worker and ex Springfields AC runner.
Bernard was my old training partner when I lived in Warrington and he still runs
for Spectrum Striders. A chance for us to relive old days as we headed north. We
got there in good time and made it to the race HQ at Hutton Grammar School, lots
of familiar old faces from the past were there. On with the race gear, it was
cold with a bit of a breeze but not too bad so I got ready to race in my singlet
and shorts with nothing underneath. I did about 1/2 mile jogging pre-race to
warm up then it was time to line up.
Off we went, a bit crowded at first but it
soon thinned out and I gradually started to work my way through, it was a 2 lap
course and I didn't want to do the
first lap too fast. 1 mile in 6.38, 2 miles in 13.25/6.47 and 3 miles in
20.18/6.53. Going fairly hard but not too bad, just before 3 miles we left the
back roads of suburban Preston to head back to the start along the A59 bypass
road which had a bike path along side. I got some encouragement from an old
Preston running buddy as I hit the bypass for 2 miles, this was tough, I was
still moving well and working my way through but seeing all those runners out in
the distance was a bit discouraging. 4 miles in 27.24/7.06, slowing there
although there was a little hill, finally off the bypass and back towards the
start/finish. Just as I approached halfway someone with a good memory shouted
"come on Springfields" as I ran past :-) 5 miles in 34.10/6.46.
Halfway reached just about on pace, now time
to race! I picked up the pace a little and tried to race the runners around me,
I wasn't just working my way through anymore. 6 miles in 40.57/6.47, I had a
couple of runners on my tail but I was racing now and by 7 miles 47.34/6.37 the
heavy breathing behind me gradually subsided. I was working very hard now and
still passing runners, onto the bypass now and I felt very tired, I was feeling
the pain of racing hard over a long distance which I haven't felt that much
recently. 8 miles in 54.32/6.58, do I *really* have to do this, can't I just jog
in? No you can't, it's a race! Kept plugging away, I passed a Clayton-le-Moors
Harrier (Ron Hill's club although it wasn't Ron I passed) up the little hill,
Clayton came back on the downhill but I repassed him at 9 miles 61.32/7.00. 1
more mile to go, I was already outside my 10 mile pb although that time was
never in any danger. I was really pushing hard now for the finish and to shake
off Clayton, just before the finish I was passed by a Penny Lane Strider (yes,
they come from Liverpool) but I repassed him just before the finish straight at
the school and ran in hard to cross the finish line in 68.16/6.44.
Very tired on finishing, that was a good
race, my best race of the year I think. I got myself a drink and my finishers
medal before jogging very slowly over to the changing rooms to get some more
clothes on. By the time I had got my rainsuit on and got back to the finish it
was raining, then Shelley came in for her new pb :-) But you know about that
already.
We were both happy with our runs, I wanted to
do about 68 minutes. One of my targets for next year is to get under 1h30 again
for half-marathon at the Helsby/4 villages half next January. 68.16 for 10 miles
is 1h29.30 half marathon pace so an encouraging run. It was also nice to show
Shelley a bit of my past and to see some faces I haven't seen for years.
ORN 4.75 miles rather slow at lunchtime today
here in Oxford, my legs were complaining a lot going up and down the steep bits
but that was worth it after a good race yesterday!
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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