Dead Runners society race report
Regents Park 10km series, London - sunday
7th January 2001.
As we did on the first sunday of
December another trip to the big city to race in one of London’s great
parks.
Evenin all
Tony here in Oxford pushing back those
frontiers of science at the 2nd best university for another week. As usual I
spent the weekend with my beautiful girlfriend Shelley and yesterday we went off
to London to the "first Sunday of the month" 10km in Regent's Park, we did this
race for the first time last month. Here is our combined race report.
Shelley> I did this race for the second
time yesterday. Last time was the dress rehearsal. This time was the
performance. I set out to see how close to 7:30 pace I could make and at least
beat my age now that I am 47. I didn't quite make the 7:30 pace, but I did beat
my age, and it was a pb as well by more than a half a minute. 46:51 on my watch,
46:54 official. So those who are keeping track of pbs can decide which of those
to record.
Tony> Shelley's old pb was 47.28 set about
3 years ago, she did 47.38 in this race last month.
Shelley> I find this a really nice race.
It is one of this regular low key events that a lot of the same people come to
every month, a 2 pound entry fee and no prizes, organized by one of the London
clubs, the Mornington Chasers. The only problem with it is that it starts at the
kind of uncivilized hour that US races often start at and we are usually spared,
9:30. Here 10:30 is an early start, with 11:00 being more usual. It wouldn't be
so bad if we lived in London, but we don't. Getting up for a 9:30 London race
involves setting the alarm for 5:30. So the alarm went off and I wanted to ask,
whose at idea this was, but didn't dare, because I knew what the answer was.
This was my race. Tony was just going along for the run.
Tony> I have got a big race up north in 2
weeks time at the Helsby half-marathon, I didn't want to ease off my training
for this 10km so I did 12 miles for my sunday long run on saturday.
Shelley> But when we got there and I saw
some familiar faces and we also found that it was for a change warm enough so
that we could get by with shorts, they race began to feel more believable. We
got our numbers and then made our way to the bathrooms and led some new people
there. Again like last month, they were late starting, because of people being
still in the lines for numbers, so after warm-up, there was a bit of waiting
around with the jacket still on struggling to keep loose and warm. But finally
the race did start, closer to 10 than 9:30. Perhaps we could have stayed in bed
a little longer if we had known?
Tony> I did about 3/4 miles jogging to and
from the bathrooms and another 1/2 mile up and down the hill where the race
started before a rather long wait before we started 16 minutes late at
9.46am.
Shelley> One thing that I was quite please
with in this race was that for once I paced it pretty well, at least for me.
Last month I went out too quick, so this month I was determined to not start any
faster than 7:30 pace. I even practiced the pace on the track the day before
over 200m a few times, and it seemed to have paid off. I ran the first mile in
7:29.92. One thing that was a little surprising was that after we got going I
noticed that Tony was not very far in front of me at all, so I was a little
concerned that maybe I had started too fast, but the pace felt all right, so I
kept at it partly hoping that maybe I was fitter than I had thought, but more
realistically suspecting as it turned out rightly that Tony was just having
trouble getting going so early in the morning. When I got to the first mile mark
I realized that this indeed was the case.
Tony> It was a rather slow start for me,
it took me 1/2 mile to get ahead of Shelley, my legs were rather tired from a
tough week of training. My legs eased off a bit as I got going and I started to
work my way through. I got to 1 mile in 7.23, 2 miles in 14.34/7.11. I felt
quite tired by the 2nd of 3 laps and around 3 miles 21.41/7.07 I got passed by a
South African runner proudly wearing his green Comrades marathon number sewn
onto his club running vest. This was quite an international race, I saw 3 or 4
South Africans and there were quite a few Americans there other than Shelley,
not bad for a little sunday race in London.
Shelley> I kept up the pace quite
consistently for the first 3 miles, but unfortunately lost my concentration a
bit in the 4th and 5th miles. The splits were 7:29.92, 14:57.55 (7:27.63),
22:26.40 (7:28.85), 30:04.25 (7:37.85), 37:48.80 (7:44.55) :-(, 45:23.93
(7:35.13), 46:51.50 (1:27.57). This is a 3 lap and a bit course that goes around
Regents Park. It is mostly flat with just one fairly gentle hill at the
beginning of each lap. One thing that was helpful for me was that for some
reason on the second and 3rd times around it seems like the hill is
at the end of the previous lap, so that it always seems like I get through it
before I expected it to be there, so that by the time I start the next lap it is
already over, although last month when I started too fast it was a lot more
noticeable. Also knowing the course was quite helpful. I knew that since there
was a bit tacked on the end that the mile marks for the different laps were
separated a little, I think a little under a minute apart at my pace, so when
mile 1 came on the second lap I had a pretty good idea how far away mile 3 was,
and perhaps more important when mile 4 came on the 3rd lap I know the end was
pretty near.
Tony> The S.African comrade gradually
pulled away but I kept going on lap 2 and passed a few more, 4 miles in
28.48/7.07 and one more lap to go. I tried to stride out down the hill at the
start of lap 3 and passed a couple more runners but at the bottom of the hill
someone came past me quite fast. Just before 5 miles I lapped the last 2 runners
and at the same time I was just about to overtake someone else on the same lap
as me so I put in a little burst to get past them and this brought me back to
the runner who had just overtaken me. 5 miles in 35.59/7.11. I pushed on a bit
to make sure that I didn't get repassed and suddenly felt quite good, I started
to pass a lot more runners, someone tried to go with me up the hill at the end
of the lap but he didn't last long, I felt as if I was flying along. I passed a
runner wearing a walkman at the top of the hill just before mile 6 42.35/6.36!
to end lap 3 and then down the hill to the start/finish area finishing full of
running. My finish time was 43.54 by my watch although officially I did 43.58,
at 5 miles I was worried that I wouldn't get under 45 minutes! Pretty tired on
finishing, but I had the energy to look out for Shelley as she came down the
hill to the finish.
Shelley> Toward the beginning I was almost
tempted to catch up with Tony, but I disciplined myself and resisted the
temptation. But it did sort of help me keep up the pace to try to keep him in
sight, which I managed for most of the first lap. At mile 3 I was feeling pretty
happy about having paced it so well and being nearly halfway through. I actually
thought I was speeding up then, but I guess the tiredness was creeping up on me.
One interesting thing that happened in that mile was that I got lapped toward
the end of the second lap at about 28 minutes from the start of the race, and
had to think about whether that was really possible, and yes it was, he was
going pretty fast with nobody else near him, so this could indeed be the winner
of the race, and I was feeling envious of him for being nearly finished. By mile
5 I was feeling pretty tired and a bit worried about the fact that I was
slowing. I really tried to pick up the pace, but by then I was definitely
getting tired, and 2 miles was still a ways to go. I tried to at least not slow
any more, but I did, and when I say that the 5th mile had taken 7:44 I was
getting that if I didn't pick up the pace I might not even break 47 or worse
still might not even get a pb out of it, so with worries about slowing to
something daft like 9 minutes for mile 6, I really pushed myself telling myself
that this was the mile that the whole race depended, and even entertained
delusions that if I really worked hard I might be able to gain back the time I
had lost. But by then the legs were pretty trashed, so it wasn't going to
happen. But I was relieved when I got to the 4 mile marker for the previous lap
both that the race was nearly over and that it seemed I had gotten there quicker
than I had gotten to the mile 2 marker when approaching 4 miles, so I picked up
the pace then and was relieved when I got to the mile 6 mark when I found that I
had done mile 6 is 7:35, so at least I should have a good shot at breaking 47.
For most of the last .2 mile you can see the finish, but it still seemed to be a
very long .2 miles. At the end, though, I still managed to trash my legs into a
desperate sprint with Tony yelling for me. Tony tried to hug me at the end of
the race, but I had to turn him down, because I couldn't breathe.
Tony> We had plenty of hugging after
Shelley got her breath back though :-) We did another 1/2 mile jogging to cool
down as the tail enders were still coming in before getting some more clothes
on. Conditions were pretty good for racing, cold sunny and only a bit of wind
but we soon got cold afterwards.
Shelley> After the race I was a little
disappointed that I hadn't made 46:30, but I was still pretty happy to have
beaten my age and to have gotten a pb, and shown myself that I really was still
capable of improving in a 10k. I even felt like I liked 10ks after it. Yes, 10k
is a nice distance to race, not so far that it trashes the feet, and yet a lot
less intense than middle distance. It seems like the trick is to go out at a
good steady pace with the joy of running in you, faster than jogging, but not
fast enough to be seriously out of breath, and then be able to keep up the
concentration well enough to not drift into a more comfortable pace in the
second half when you start getting tired. Next month I am hoping to start out at
the same pace, with the knowledge that I can do under 47, and push it a bit
better on the second half and get under 46:30, like really race it hard from 3
miles on, and if that means I fall apart and don't even break 47, it won't
matter because I'll already have done that.
Tony> A great race for Shelley and a good
hard run for me, after the race we stopped off in one of the cafes in the park
for a bite to eat we met up with the race organisers who told us our race
results. I was 72nd and Shelley was 112th, 252 finished.
Shelley> After the race we changed clothes
and did a bit of shopping in London, and I was reminded of how much I like
London and also of the fact that I don't think I have been there in January in a
good while, and that the thing to do in January is to go shopping. The only
problem is that we have been doing a bit too much shopping lately, because there
are too many tempting sales, so we are a bit shopped out, so all I bought was
some socks at the Niketown store.
ORN (Tony) I ran with Oxford University
eurodead Bob Wells at lunchtime around Headington Hill Park for the monday 6 x
1/2 mile session with some of our Oxford running buddies from the real world
(not the University). You have 4 minutes to get round each hilly 1/2 mile loop
including recovery. As we arrived in the park they had just started the session,
Bob caught up almost right away, it took me 2 laps to catch up. I did 6 laps of
the park, Bob did a 7th lap to make up for missing the start. Not a bad run
today for a day after a race.
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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