Archives // PB

The Last Race of the Night

Thursday 25th June 2015

No sooner had I hauled myself to my feet than I was back on the track again. Unable to stand up, I lay on the warm tartan once more and took in a welcome lungful of sweet oxygen. The second attempt was more successful. Assisted by one of my competitors, I got to my feet for just long enough to stagger off the floodlit track and to a nearby railing. Mark had crossed the line by this point and patted me on the back, congratulating me on a hard-earned win. These moments are always best shared with friends.

Three minutes earlier I could smell blood. Increasing the pace every lap, I had picked my way through the field from 12th after one lap to second after ten. The leader was in sight and with a kilometer to go I realised I had a strong chance of catching him too. I was already on the limit though. Dan had just called my 4k split and it was faster than I had ever reached that point in a race before. A personal best was in the bag; now I wanted to win the race. With 800 to go I was within striking distance, by 600 I was on his shoulder. I went straight past and made one last push for the finish. In the last three weeks I had led at the bell on two separate occasions but been beaten. I was determined not to let it happen again.

Richard and some of the others from the club were at the finish line, roaring me on as the bell sounded. The announcer was now saying my name, not someone else’s. It was a big boost.

My winning time was 15:09, an 8 second improvement on my PB. This is the biggest chunk I have taken off my 5k time for a while and it now puts sub-15 within my reach. I need Tuesday’s conditions as well as the nerve to commit to the pace from the gun rather than giving away seconds in the first few laps. I’m delighted with my improvement; it is hugely satisfying on the rare occasion when everything clicks.

How great it would be if the next post here contained the number 14.

Two Seconds Quicker

Monday 21st July 2014

On Saturday I ran my first PB in over a year in the 5000m at the Oxford BMC Grand Prix. This was satisfying for a couple of reasons. The first is that it is my first PB in 13 months, definitely the longest I’ve gone without improving any of my times. I’m not including new events like the steeplechase and the 10000 in this, by the way. The second is that I missed several months of running due to injury at the end of 2013 and this confirms that I’m finally back to where I was pre-injury.

This personal best was only 2 seconds faster than my previous one, so not a massive improvement but an improvement none the less. But, like a drug addict falling off the wagon again, I’m ready for another hit. I’ve entered the next BMC Grand Prix in 4 weeks and am hoping I can go quicker still. If I can just push myself slightly harder in the 3rd and 4th kilometres I reckon there’s another 10 seconds to be sliced off.

It’s good to be back.

Training – Week Beginning 29 April

Monday 6th May 2013

Took two days off due to fatigue but it paid off as I ran a PB for 10k. Splits of 15:58/16:02. Does my time count as sub 32?

Monday: 14km easy (14)

Tuesday: 1000 – 8×200 off 30s – 1000 – 3×400 off 30s – 1000 – 8×200 off 30s: 3:03 – 33 average – 3:04 – 68 average-3:00 – 33 average (21)

Wednesday: ran home + loop round park, easy pace (17)

Thursday: easy run, 4km barefoot on track (18)

Friday: Rest (0)

Saturday: Rest (0)

Sunday: Bristol 10k, 40th in 32:00 PB (11)

Week total: 81km

White Horse 5k

Friday 22nd July 2011

I really like the 5k at the moment. I think it’s my new favourite distance.

Yesterday evening, Rich and I went down to Gloucester to run a road 5k that is renowned for producing fast times. The course is pancake-flat and has very few turns in it. His aim was to break 16:30. Mine was to run a personal best.

We thought that the one thing that could have slowed us down was not knowing the course but fortunately we got there early enough to be able to jog most of the course and see what it had in store. No nasty surprises there though. We entered the race, resisting our stomachs’ urges to can the race in favour of a chinese (the White Horse pub doubles up as a chinese restaurant) and made our way to the start. You know you’ve travelled a long way for a race when the organisers don’t recognise your club name.

After the entertainment provided by a very grumpy race official and a drunken man on a bike, the race got underway. The course had mile markers rather than k markers, which I always think is a strange way of marking the distance. Surely it is easier for competitors if the markers are for a fraction of the race distance. Two runners from Bristol and West went off fast at the front, followed by a pack of about 5. These guys were running at a quicker pace than I was comfortable with so I hung back, trusting my pace judgement after Tuesday’s 3 x 1 mile session at 5k pace. Rich tucked in behind me. The first mile marker was behind me before my watch showed 5 minutes. 4:58 on the clock. I was pleased with this as I felt I still had more to give.

As I suspected, the pack of 5 began to slow in the second mile, paying the price for some enthusiastic early pacing. I gradually reeled them in, trying not to rush things and wear myself out bridging the gap. When I got just behind the group I remembered what our club’s team manager for the road relays always says: when you catch someone up, go straight past them and don’t let them hang on to you. So I did. 9:56 for 2 miles.

This put me in third behind the two Bristol guys. One of them was clearly a class act and was pulling away for the win but the other was tiring. By this point, another runner from Cheltenham was shadowing me after surging out of the group behind. I chased down the Bristol athlete with about half a mile to go and the Cheltenham athlete went with me.

Looking at my watch as it displayed 13 minutes, I decided to launch my finishing kick early. We had come off the loop in the course and were back on the stretch of road we started on, running back towards the start/finish. I put in a surge, thinking it would be enough to break the Cheltenham athlete. But then with about 200 metres to go he came back at me, charging towards the line. I tried to respond but the hard running had taken its toll. I pushed on towards the line and was the third person to cross it. The timer shouted “31” as I did and I knew this meant 15:31, a new personal best; 15 seconds faster than I’ve run on the road and 5 seconds faster than I have on the track.

Rich crossed the line a few positions back in 16:26. He held his position well, and like me, achieved what he had set out to achieve.

It was worth the journey, and worth getting back at 10 o’clock on a week night for. A flat course is one thing, but having people to race against is another. The main attraction of this race was that we knew there would be lots of depth around our level. Our local parkrun is fairly quick but it is still hard to run fast there without people to race against. Perhaps we need to start venturing further afield to find races like this.