Dead Runners society race report
Teddy Hall relays, Oxford - wednesday 7th
March 2001.
One last race in Oxford for old times
sake.
Evenin all
Tony here in Oxford where the temperature is
finally starting to warm up at long last.
Today I ran in the Oxford University Cross
Country Club "Teddy Hall" relay. I had run in these relays in 1996/7/8 for
Cambridge University when I was a student at the number 1 university. As an
employee of the number 2 University I wanted to run these relays again for old
times sake before I get kicked outxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx leave Oxford at the end of my
contract later this month. I ran for the OU staff running club "Mansfield Road
Runners", I was in charge of organising our teams, we ended up with 3 teams in
total running for MRR although we had several other members running for teams
representing local clubs or OU colleges.
The dreaded Foot and Mouth disease nearly
scuppered this years event as part of the course passes through Christ Church
Meadow (city centre farmland) and another part of the course is along the River
Thames towpath. Both of these had been closed off for the race but they managed
to find suitable detours through the streets of Oxford. The race was now all on
the road apart from the start/finish on the famous University Iffley Road track
where the first sub 4 minute mile was run in 1954. It was a shame not to be able
to run on the course which I had run on in my student days and on which I had
been training on every week since I started here but at least we had a course to
run on. The changes in route lengthened the course from about 3.5 miles to just
under 4 miles.
So after a morning of pushing back the walls
of ignorance in the lab it was off to the track for the race in the afternoon. I
registered our teams and picked up the numbers and then waited for our other
runners to arrive. We had 2 teams of 4 men down to run and also 1 mixed team of
2 men and 2 ladies. The club selection committee (me) had put me in the mixed
team on leg 2 as one of our ladies wanted an early leg as she had to leave early
but they wanted men only to run first leg for mixed teams so I had to run 1st
leg. The race was scheduled to start at 2.00pm so at 1.40pm it was on with my
old Cambridge running gear and time to warm up. I did 4 laps of the famous track
in somewhat longer than 4 minutes, then I did some stretching before it was time
to line up.
And off we went, I knew from previous runs
that the start of this race is ludicrously fast due to the presence of very fast
young men at the front and the presence of runners of somewhat limited
experience who try to follow them. 200m on the track before heading out onto the
streets of Oxford, I was going hard but trying to hold back. It was pretty
crowded running along the pavement at first with lots of pedestrians, bikes and
lampposts to dodge never mind all the runners around me. Over the first of the
three bridges over the Thames (Magdelene Bridge) after 1/2 mile and now I was
starting to work my way through. Then came the first of the detours along Merton
Street, a very scenic old street by some of the ancient colleges but it had
cobbles! I tried to run down the middle of the cobbles to overtake people but it
was so uncomfortable I soon got onto the pavement. Through some twisty back
streets, overtaking was quite hard here with all the twists and turns but I
managed to get ahead of Colin, a MRR member running for Headington Road Runners.
A sharp left turn onto St. Aldates and there were loads of pedestrians to dodge
here waiting for buses, I was still trying to overtake. A young man just ahead
of me kept putting in surges to hold me off and there weren't many places to
overtake. Down the hill past the police station where 2 runners were now walking
having no doubt gone off too fast. Over the 2nd bridge, Folly Bridge and finally
room to pass and I zoomed ahead. After about 1.5 miles my race was effectively
over as the nearest runners were about 100m ahead. Feeling pretty tired by now,
time for the 2nd detour along Abingdon Road instead of going down the river. I
kept pushing hard to the turn into Donnington Bridge road, by now I could hear
feminine heavy breathing behind me, on the gentle climb up the third of the
three bridges the first 2 in the ladies race (started at 2.02pm) came past. Over
the bridge and back onto the old course down Meadow Lane, I could hear someone
catching me but I knew I was in the last mile and I was still moving well and
slowly catching the 2nd lady. Up the nasty little hill to Iffley Road just
before entering the university sports centre, the heavy breathing behind me was
getting closer as I returned to the track for the last 200m. I ran in as hard as
I could and there was almost a 3-body collision at the handover between me, the
young man catching me and the young lady in 2nd place but fortunately no-one
fell over. I managed to hand over to our next runner before staggering over to
the infield to catch my breath, very, very tired on finishing.
I did 24.59 (my watch) for my leg, much
better than I expected. I must be getting fitter at last. Last time I ran this
race in 1998 I did 23.11 on the old course and a month later I ran 3h09 in the
Boston marathon. Last summer I was doing 26/27 minutes for approx. 4 miles in a
summer road race series so it was a very encouraging run. I ran the race in my
Cambridge University running vest as the first race I ever did in Oxford was
this race in 1996, I wanted to go out as I came in. There were Cambridge
University teams competing today but no-one I recognised. However, a couple of
minutes after I finished a former Cambridge runner from my days at the number 1
University finished, she is now studying at Oxford. Nice to see some one from
the past. After I finally got my breath back I put on some more layers and did
another 1/2 mile jog to recover.
I watched the rest of the race from the stand
at the track and cheered on our runners as they came in. The Mansfield Road
Runners "A" team, including eurodead Bob Wells, were running well and at one
stage seemed to be in the top 10. Then off to St. Edmunds Hall (OU College,
hence Teddy Hall) for the post race tea and presentation and MRR won the first
OU sports club prize! Some excellent team selection I think :-) All in all a
good afternoon, much better than working.
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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