Bristol Running Resource

My first Bridge Inn for over a year without worrying about an injury or recurring cold. I was feeling up for it, and headed out of the city on the cycle path with two friends for an evening of fun an frolics near Emersons Green.

I’ve decided to dispense with big padded “control” shoes, so wore my lighter semi-trail shoes. It was great to see all the familiar faces and jostle for the 3rd row on the start line in the dark, traffic-noise ridden, cold and windy under-the-bridge area.

Then off. Neatly skipping round the pile of horse manure, we headed out. No wind - silence. It was behind us. My theory was that it would be so bad coming back, best to make the most of it on the way out. So without increasing my cadence, I thought I’d try a relaxed longer stride.

Most of the race I was in amongst some younger people - a couple of women and one man. I don’t have the results to hand, so I can’t tell you who they were. But we were swapping places throught the whole race, which was fun - in a kind of stressful, painful, panicky kind of way, with me normally gaining on the uphill (I like uphill).

On the home straight, I was thinking “I’ve nothing left - it’s just me and the wind now”, and feeling generally miserable and pathetic; that final undulating stretch is a tough way to end. But then I heard some feet pounding up behind me and this was what I needed: I couldn’t let it go, so I lengthened my stride and went for it, held the pounding feet at bay, and overtook the youngster, who I thought I’d lost.

I finished 21st out of 130 runners (a good turnout) in 18:34. Everyone was saying the wind could account for up to 40 seconds of time, so that would put me within reach of my 17:46 pb. Having only just started to get running again, that is pretty exciting.

I came away with 4 cans of lager for 3rd V45, and both my friends won more in the raffle. All in all, it’s been a productive few days, what with the £10 reward in the Mike Sully Mob match on Sunday!

Tonight saw the last Bridge Inn 5k for 2009 and so to honour this the wind decided to throw in its ‘tupence’ worth. I arrived as normal with less than 30 mins to go, the usual crowd were there. But as I started my warm up I realised that there were a few good runners in the pack as well.

Parking isn’t great for the Bridge Inn and I was parked a little way up the road from race HQ as I walked over the Bridge to the HQ the bridge was shaking by the force of the wind.

On my warm up I have to admit I was not sure how to race given the course is an out and back course. first half is with the wind the second against the wind, do I go out hard and try to match front guys or do I save my energy for the second half of the race against the wind, that’s where experience comes in and I am still very much on the learning curve.

Well the gun went off and as usual I went off with a quick start, but I soon tapered that off by the 1/2 k mark and very quickly settled into my own race, as usual I seemed to end up racing by myself, about 10m in front of me were  two runners, I used them to pull me through especially the very windy sections. By the last half K they had split but I still had one runner in front of me (Ben Morley) and I started to realise that with each stride I was gaining on him and soon made up the 10m and with 200m to go I past him, Ben seemed to respond and with 50m to go I felt I had to put one last push in and opened up my legs and finished 3 seconds in front.

The provisional results showed I came home in seventh place in a poor time of 17:13 (my worst of the year). My races over the past couple of weeks have been hard in different ways, but I have to be pleased, but still disappointed, in hind sight I should have run harder.

Something I will use in my next race which will be next year now, with the imminent arrival of baby number 2, I need to be around and support Emma as best I can that means not being out for three to four hours whilst racing. This doesn’t mean I won’t be running it just means that I will be training as best as I can (probably harder) and use this break in racing to build on my progress this year.

I will be pulling together a training schedule for the next three months and will post it on this blog and report my progress against it.

Firstly, I do have to confess, I did not make the Mob Match this afternoon, things went against me which was ashame as my legs felt good after this mornings race.

This morning, DB Max 10 at Castle Coombe, the race started at 10am, cold, wet and windy that is the norm on this one. The gun went, and I must admit I felt good for the first half k but I then my legs started to feel heavy, but your mind does play tricks on you.  The wind w.as bad today, I did have to battle through, being 6ft 6 doesn’t help. Anyway I won’t bore you with race detail as there was not much to report, but I finished in 6th place, in a surprising time of 35:01 only 2 seconds off of my pb, given the conditions I am not surprised my legs felt heavy.

So this week, tomorrow is a day off then it will be the Bridge Inn on Tuesday.