Harry's Year of Running - Q1

Background

2019 was a year of running for me. My vague goals were to train hard for the London marathon, and then try to keep the fitness going as long as possible for other races including club champs, Summer league and cross country. I had struggled in the heat of the 2018 London Marathon but had lucked out with a public ballot place and felt I owed it to all the unsuccessful applicants to give it a proper go. I ended up running further and faster than I ever thought I would in various races. There are faster runners than me, but I suspect few who were as surprised as I was to be lining up near the start of races. Spoiler alert: I ended up running a lot of races. So be warned, this is quite a long blog split into 5 parts. (to skip to the other parts: Q2, Q3, Q4, Epilogue) I had put off publishing it as it focuses on my achievements, and is not very British to blow ones own trumpet. However, 2020 has not been as good, for me or for running races, and this blog might be interesting reading for those who miss racing and race reports, or might inspire those who have not tried different forms to try them in 2021; it is all here from parkruns, cross country, relays, and marathons.

January

I had used the Christmas break 2018/2019 to put in some decent miles and the new year started off well with a big PB at the Serpentine’s New Year’s Day 10k, back under 40 minutes. This is a reasonably flat, cheap race run by the Serpentine Running Club.

New Year's Day 10k in Hyde Park

I started targeting 100 km week as I tried to fit in a run whenever I could, typically along the canal into work by Paddington station.

Canal towpath near Perivale at dawn January

The Met League Cross Country continued at Wormwood Scrubs – local and flat but with some tricky mud along the back. Running cross country is very life-affirming. There is no worrying about times or PBs, you are just racing for the club, chasing the runner ahead, on interesting if challenging courses. There is the camaraderie of the tarp’ and the post run tea. Everyone should try it. Most are surprised at how much they enjoy it. There a some races at the beginning and end of the season where you can get a away with trail or even road shoes, but for the proper experience in the middle of winter, a cheap pair of spikes are a worthwhile investment.

Wormwood Scrubs XC

The Southern XC Championships at Parliament Hill was a highlight of the season for me with a massive field 1154 runners. A gun shot initiates a bonkers mass scramble up the hill followed by almost 14 km of energy sapping mud and hills. The marathon training was paying off, and I finished a creditable 666th.

London XC Championships at Parliament Hill

February

February was the end of the Met League Alexandra Palace, finishing 14th V45. After last year’s error I wasn’t going to forget that we had to go up the steep hill three times. It is great fun throwing yourself down the muddy track on the way down.

Ally Pally XC flying down the hill

I took my favourite running photo in the bar afterwards, packed with Eagles enjoying some well-earned refreshment. Perhaps other clubs do this, but surely not as well.

Ally Pally XC after party. Spot the Eagles.

I continued to stretch out the distances on the long weekend runs, building the necessary endurance that would hopefully carry me home at the business end of the marathon. The true effort starts at mile 20. On the way back from a ‘full Hampton Court’ I slipped on the edge of puddle on the towpath navigating round some dog walkers. I hit the deck hard before I knew what was happening. The adrenaline got me home, and apart from some scrapes and bruises, I could continue the training.

Aftermath of theThames towpath slip. They resurfaced the Petersham meadows stretch shortly afterwards. 

March

I can be a bit competitive, so when at the start of March my running peers put in some great times in the Cambridge half, I was a bit envious. I always enter a couple spring half marathons to break up the training, see how I’m doing and hopefully bank a good time should the marathon go awry, and I now had two in two weeks. First was the Big Half, run by the same organisation as the London Marathon along part of its route in reverse. It was the first runout for the £210 Nike 4% shoes, which felt like cheating until I noticed that approximately a third of the runners around me were wearing them. I walked to the start with Colin who lent me a spare bin bag to keep warm, and we lined up in the pen behind the elites. It was so windy it blew me sideways on Tower Bridge and ‘Big Ben’ went viral when the fancy dress runner was blown backwards in the Canary Wharf wind tunnel. I spent most of the first half trying to remain tucked into a peloton. The wind was behind on the long run in to Greenwich, and while Canary Wharf had confused the GPS on my watch, I knew from the mile markers and the race time I was on for a huge PB, helping me push through the pain of the last few miles.

The following week was the Fleet half marathon along gently undulating country lanes. This has a long history as warm up race for the London marathon. I was more relaxed as I had a good time in the bank. This may have helped, along with less wind and the added fillip of club champs status, and I somehow managed to run even faster with a 1:22:30 – now a full 5 minutes off my previous PB. I never thought I would ever run that fast, and from the incredulous sometimes expletive ridden reactions of other Eagles, neither did they. 

Striding through Fleet town centre

Sprinting in at the Fleet half marathon

Putting my Fleet time into a marathon predictor came out around 3 hours give or take. I hadn’t considered it as a credible target before, and I still only took as the faintest of possibilities. But what is the point of going out at 3:05 pace? And it motivated me to redouble the training effort.

Find out how the London marathon went in Harry's Year of Running Q2