Dead Runners society race report
Thirsk 10 mile race – sunday 3rd June
2001.
After all of the recent short fast
racing a trip up north for a nice long road race.
Evenin all
Tony here with a report on yesterday's trip
up north for the Thirsk 10 mile race in North Yorkshire. We went to this race as
I wanted to run in the "Road Runners Club" championship held as part of this
race, in April I ran in the RRC half-marathon held as part of the Linton half
marathon near Cambridge. In October I plan to run in the Abingdon marathon which
also incorporates the RRC marathon championship, there is a prize for the best
overall performance in all 3 of these championships.
Yesterday we got up very early for the long
drive north but we arrived in plenty of time for the race at Thirsk (horse)race
course. Shelley entered the "5km fun run" held before the main race, she is
running in a veterans track meeting on wednesday so she didn't fancy a 10 mile
race. As is usual in these fun runs she lined up with hordes of tiny kids in
front, off they went with Shelley in pursuit of the kids who always go off too
fast. I went to the finish line to see her come in, the winner finished in just
over 14 minutes, a faster time than the Kenyan who won last weekend's Stevenage
5km. Shelley came in 7th, 2nd female behind a 12 year old girl in 18.15 after
getting to 2 miles in 13.40. Either a potential Olympian was unearthed with the
race winner and Shelley finished at Gebresellasie speed or the course was short.
We estimated that it was about 4.2 km, Shelley was pleased with her run but not
so pleased to lose to the 12 year old girl as she was with her at 2 miles. Local knowledge might have helped the
girl get away, Shelley thought she still had 3 minutes left when the finish
appeared.
Then it was my turn, I did an easy mile to
warm up, just before the start I bumped into my old Oxford running pal (and
eurodead lurker) Bob Wells. Bob also ran the Linton half marathon and he lives
on the Abingdon marathon course, I am not the only one with the idea to go for
the RRC championship races prize! Nice to see Bob again.
Off to the start, (excuse mode on) I was only
here to support the RRC championship and to have a hard training run, I was
pretty sore from 2 races in the previous week. Sub 70 minutes would do me today
(excuse mode off). I lined up near the back of the bunch, the starting horn
sounded and nobody moved, this was for the wheelchair races. A couple of minutes
the horn sounded for the runners and off we went.
I took it easily at the start and gradually
worked my way through, first mile 7.13, 2nd mile 14.14/7.01. Felt OK and passing
lots of runners, we then finished a small loop round the town which Shelley had
run on in the fun run and set off on a big loop out into the countryside, still
feeling OK although my legs were sore. The next 3 miles were into the (fairly
strong) wind, I was still going fairly hard and passing runners. 3 miles in
21.18/7.04, 4 miles in 28.35/7.17, I passed one of the wheelchairs just before
halfway. 5 miles in 35.43/7.08, now time to see if I could speed up. The only
real hill on the course was a railway bridge just after halfway but this felt
easy, I was pushing on harder and passing more runners. Finally at about 5.5
miles we turned left and out of the wind, it got noticeably warmer! 6 miles in
42.49/7.06, finally sub 7 to 7 miles (49.46/6.57). Another turn into a little
village, now the wind was behind but I was feeling tired, really working hard to
pass runners but they were still slowly coming back to me. 8 miles in
56.55/7.09, by 8.5 miles the first runner to pass me for 6 miles cruised past, I
tried to go with him but my legs weren't keen. Turn onto the main road into
Thirsk, the runners could now "smell the barn" and the pace picked up. Still
passing the odd runner, 9 miles in 63.59/7.04, pushing on very hard. In the last
mile I passed a runner wearing a "Cambridge University" t-shirt, the horse
racecourse was now on our left, not far to go. A sharp left turn at the
racecourse entrance and 2 runners zoomed past me before I crossed the line in
70.50/6.51.
Very tired on finishing, right leg and ankle
very sore. Not that bad a run in the wind but I would have preferred 51s faster.
The Cambridge t-shirt finished 1 place behind me, it turned out that he was a
student at the number 1 university several years ago. I accepted yet another
race t-shirt but declined a bottle of beer in the finish funnel, I got a drink
of water and then I found Shelley.
After Shelley's encounter with Sonia
O'Sullivan last week she met another world-class athlete this week, wheelchair
champion Tanni Grey-Thompson. Tanni finished 2nd in the wheelchair race to her
husband Ian, those who saw this years BBC London marathon coverage know all
about the rivalry between Tanni and Ian, Tanni has won lots of gold medals but
hasn't yet defeated her husband in a race.
Bob Wells had another good run, he ran 59.33
to finish 40th/509, I was 203rd. Bob was 2nd in his age group and he also won an
age group prize in the RRC championships so we hung around for the prize giving
and had a nice chat with Bob. Then it was time to go and for the long drive
south back to Cambridge. My legs were very sore once we got home but I didn't
feel too bad on today's run round the park, I obviously didn't run hard enough
in the race! After 3 races in 8 days I think I will have a break from racing for
a while and get some good training done.
bye
tony....
Dr Tony Bell Milton, Cambridge, England. Tony@shells.demon.co.uk http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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