Harry's Year of Running Q2

The training had gone well in the first quarter of 2019...

April 

April means Thames Towpath 10 miler - a great flat, cheap local race organised by the West 4 Running Club. If you running you first ever 10k then a big ‘event’ race will make it even more special, but if you are a regular runner you get to appreciate these more low key races more, particularly when like this race, as a club champs event there will be plenty of other eagles there.

It was the race where last year I saw my chances of making the Welsh Castles Relay team literally disappear down the towpath ahead of me as embodied by the backsides of fellow Eagles. Partly as a response I had suggested putting in a Vet’s team, to give myself a better chance racing over the welsh hills. It In the event I ran the Towpath 10 race 7½ minutes quicker than the previous year, which would have easily made the Open team.

Setting off near the start still smiling

Towards the finish

So, then it was the big one – the London Marathon. I watched again with envy as five Eagles had run their first sub 3-hour marathon at Manchester earlier in the month. The training had gone better than expected, with a random mix of tempo runs, intervals, hills and long runs at the weekend. I had splashed out on some expensive race shoes, drunk beetroot juice and strategic coffee, shaved my beard, and even shaved my legs for the first and probably last time in my life thinking it might be worth a handful of seconds if it kept my core temperature a smidge cooler. The eagles put on a coach to the start, full of nervous runners. The other members of the back seat were discussing how many grams of carbohydrate they had eaten the night before. I just knew I had had huge plateful.

Back seat of the coach

I had my pace pocket for 3 hours on my wrist, but I gave myself maybe a 20% chance of success as I nervously waited in the Blue start area with a group of eagles. As Kieran would say, the hay was in the barn, but I could not now relax with pint. I had 26.2 miles to try to do all those hours of training justice, and I knew some of those were going to hurt. The feeling is more like the feeling of dread as you sit in the exam hall waiting to be told to turn over your paper, wishing you could jump forward in time to when it would be all over.

Loos and queues at th blue start

Nervous as hell

I jostled for position in the first pen in the blue start, nervously taking off my disposal clothing a bit early. There were some elite looking runners who had been running a warm-up were let in ahead of us, before the final count down. I was over the start line in just over a minute from the gun, and was off a bit too fast, particularly on the downhill stretch to Woolwich. However this made it easier to match my pace pocket to the big overhead clock on each mile marker from then on. On the way round I must have been one of the first runners with their name in big letters on their vest, so I was met with an almost continually shout of ‘Go on, ‘Arry!’making it hard to spot the people I knew. Every 5 km timing mat I was conscious of the people who would be following my progress online. I had gels secreted about my body to take every 40 minutes or so. I got confused in Depford where I seemed to be a gel down, which I finally found when I showered after the race.

Trying to keep it loose coming through Depford

I substituted one of the gels handed out near half way, which did not go down well. I went through halfway at 1:28:11, not far of my previous half PB. So far so good.

Still smiling at half way on Tower Bridge - a good sign

Having run it twice before I was ticking off the landmarks as the miles passed under my feet, trying to keep a loose but fast rhythm. At 20 miles the real race starts as the legs start to hurt, and my watch told me my pace was dropping fractionally. My strategy is to focus on making it to mile 23 and the amazing Eagles cheer squad and my family. The physical effort makes you quite emotional, and I was almost in tears as approached. The wall of sound and hands is such a buzz but in a flash it is all over, though by now you have a unspoken with camaraderie with runners around you.

Mile 23 cheers squad - why I ran my first marathon

Even the family had come out to cheer me on

Now just a Parkrun to go and still a minute in hand. Keep it loose, don’t cramp up now. With 800 m to go I work out if I push hard I can beat 3 hours on the race clock. I bump past some runners closing a gap and into the finish straight, and cross line. 2:58:42.

Coming down the Mall to the finish

I thought I would be very emotional at this point, elated perhaps – but to be honest I was just physically drained and in pain. The pain in my legs if anything got more intense as I progressed through the medal and baggage collection. I met the family and bumped into the other Eagles who had finished ahead of me on the way to the pub. It wouldn’t be the same without being able to share the experience with the other eagles, whether running or supporting. The highlight in the pub was Kieran demanding all and sundry ask me what time I got. And then finally my tired body could think of nothing else but getting home and horizontal. Perhaps it was the early start.

May

May meant a couple of 10k racers – first the Ealing Eagles 10k two weeks after the marathon. It seemed odd lining up near the start line, but no-one else seemed keen. I was a bit disappointed not to beat my time at the start of the year – particularly when there was a V40 mug at stake.

Heading out for the Ealing Eagles 10k

Over the Brent River

Another 2 weeks later and I lined up almost within touching distance of Mo Farah at the Vitality 10 km, along with a bunch of other Eagles. He had beaten me in the Big Half and London marathon, and was going for the triple crown. I had never raced in a such a large 10k field. There were plenty of Eagles running, and at the halfway point there were four of us together as I matched my 5k PB for the first half. In the second half I beat it by one second for a big PB of 37:47.

Photo after the finish

Also in May was the inaugural Eagles Blondin Relays, organised by James Linney and Andy Guy. This was teams of two racing four 800m legs around Blondin Park, and I had Frank Doyle as my running mate, also in great form. It was great to see family members of all ages competing in the same race.

The inaugural Blondin Relays

The Parklands Relay is a similar tag relay – though this time each runner does a single 4.4k leg around Spankers Hill in Richmond Park. I took first leg for an eagles vets team, which meant a mad dash off the start to get a good placing before the trail narrows, and then try to settle into a rhythm without fading too much by the end. As usual the weather made the setting look fantastic. I missed out on the 3 bridges relay this year – a similar competition, but this time each leg starting and finishing opposite the houses of parliament.

Parklands relay in Richmond park.

The Green Belt Relay was also in the May. I had really enjoyed running this the previous year. It is like the Welsh Castles Relay, but each runner doing a leg on the Saturday and the Sunday. The Eagles put in three mixed teams on a ballot system to give everyone a chance to take part. There are some marshals, but also opportunities for taking the wrong turn on some legs, depending on your map reading skills. My tip is to mark the distance to each turning on the map, so you can use your GPS watch to know when you should be looking out for the turn, and don’t assume the runner in front knows where he is going.

To find out how the Welsh Castles relay and the Round Norfolk Relay went read Harry's Year of Running Q3