Dead Runners society race report
10th St. Ives 10km race - sunday 22nd July
2001.
A local race and a chance to meet up
with some runners from our past.
Good afternoon folks
Today the beautiful Shelley and I returned to
St. Ives for the annual 10km race organised by our former club, Hunts. AC. We
travelled to the race with our italian clubmate Claudia, we were hoping to get
another lady out so we would have a ladies club team but this didn't
happen.
10 minutes easy jogging pre-race to warm up,
the last 2 days runs had been pretty slow and I didn't feel so good when I awoke
this morning but I felt OK warming up. Then there was 15 minutes to wait before
the start, I lined up with Pete, one of the other men running for Cambridge and
Coleridge AC. I knew Pete was going to beat me but I wanted to beat 2 other
clubmates, Glyn and Julian.
Eventually it was time to go, it was fairly
crowded at the start but I soon got going and was working my way through. First
km was downhill with the wind behind so I had to be careful not to go out too
fast. As the pack gradually thinned out I could see Glyn and Julian running
ahead, 1km reached in 3.59. In the next km I kept working my way through and
gradually closed in on my clubmates, 2km in 8.02/4.03. The course was an out and
back along the road and then along the edge of the airfield at the local RAF
base, after 2.5 km we came off the road and into the base. Just after getting
onto the airfield I overtook Glyn and Julian, I tried to push on harder to get a
gap. Julian dropped back but Glyn tucked behind me as we ran into the wind along
the very exposed airfield taxiway. 3km in 12.00/3.58, moving well but feeling
tired. Slowed a little to 4km (16.09/4.09) when Glyn got ahead, I was in contact
until the little turn around loop but by 5km (20.23/4.14) the cord had broken
and Glyn got ahead :-( Now we headed back the way we came, I could see Shelley
and Claudia coming towards me as they approached the turn.
I struggled a bit to 6km (24.43/4.20) but I
kept pushing hard and in the next kilometre I gradually started to close in on
Glyn. 7km in 28.46/4.03. Then finally off the airfield and back onto the
undulating road. I was catching runners on the uphills but losing places on the
downhills, very tired by now but I kept pushing as I knew I was on for a decent
time. 8km in 33.02/4.16, kept pushing hard but after a downhill wind assisted
start on this out and back course I knew it was going to be a tough finish. 9km
in 37.20/4.18, I was running along a road I knew very well from Hunts. AC
training runs and looking out for the turn off for the sports centre and the
finish. Glyn was still in sight about 60-70m ahead but he wasn't coming back, I
was working hard to stay ahead of a lady runner. Finally a right turn, a marshal
said "200 yards left", along the road and then onto the cricket field at the
sports centre to cross the finish line in 41.39/4.19, 62nd place and 1 place
ahead of the lady.
Very tired on finishing, that was hard work.
Glyn finished 3 places ahead of me in 41.22, Julian was 8 places back in 42.01.
I was not pleased with letting Glyn get away, I should have tucked in behind
when I caught him instead of trying to blast straight past but in these windy
conditions and on a fairly slow course I can't complain with 41.39. My best time
since my leg injury 3 years ago, my fastest time since 1997. Hopefully I will
get a lot closer to 40 minutes next month at the Birchwood 10km up in my home
town of Warrington.
Claudia finished in 47.28 and Shelley in
49.02. This was Shelley's first run of any length since she injured her ankle
2.5 weeks ago, she has not run much in the intervening period. A decent training
run for Shelley considering but she was not so pleased to have run so slow after
all her fast track running earlier in the summer.
After the race we hung around for the
presentation in case Shelley had won an age group prize but it was not to be,
Glyn won the o/55 prize though so we had someone to cheer. A nice morning out
for us anyway with a chance to meet some of our former clubmates.
bye tony....
Dr Tony Bell, Milton, Cambridgeshire,
England. Tony@shells.demon.co.uk http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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