Today is my 63rd birthday and that leaves me exactly 2 years to meet my target of running 100,000 miles before my 65th. Unfortunately progress towards this has taken yet another hit with further injuries but the current total is 95545 mile.
In my last post I said I would pick random dates to look back at, to see what races I had ran on that date. Admittedly 17th May is not a random date - did I mention that it is my birthday?
But why not?
I have raced on the 17th May on two previous occasions. The first was in 2007 for my 40th, in those days that is when you entered the Masters (Veterans, back then) ranks, not at 35 years of age, as it is now. As Blaydon had entered teams in the BMAF National Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, my target was to run the first leg in the M40 race and come back in first place. The course was advertised as 3.2 miles but if you check out the BMAF website you will notice that they record the course as being 'long'.
At any rate, I remember lining up at the start of the race, a bundle of nervous energy and when the gun went off I hit the front of the field right from the start, pushing the pace throughout. I felt quite comfortable until a section of the course where you doubled back on yourself at the bottom of a hill and headed back up. I didn't have a large lead and it was quite frightening seeing the whole field lined up behind me as they came down the hill. However, I remember trying to relax and push on.
I maintained the lead until about 600 meters or so from the finish when a Redhill runner (I think it may have been Dave Wetherall) came past. So I tucked in behind him until we turned into the run-in which was uphill and with about 200 to go, surched past to handover in first place - job done!
Unfortunately Blaydon slipped down the field as the race progressed with Redhill taking first team from Sunderland and Tipton. My time for the first leg was 16.20 (9th fastest of the day). With the fastest time of the day of 15.30 going to Nigel Gates.
It was 10 years later and my 50th birthday when I next raced on 17th May. When I set off for Ragensburg in Germany and the European Masters Non-Stadia Championships where I ran the 10km road race.
The previous day had been warm and sunny, but as we lined up for the start of the race it was a cold wet, blustery day. Although I don't think I ran too badly it was one of those races where you can't seem to settle and finish knowing that you haven't done yourself justice.
I finished in 13th place in 35.28, 2nd out of the 12 British runners racing, first Brit being Alex Rowe in 5th place overall with a time of 33.48. The race was won by Germany's Johann Hophner in 31.39.
In my last post I said I would pick random dates to look back at, to see what races I had ran on that date. Admittedly 17th May is not a random date - did I mention that it is my birthday?
But why not?
I have raced on the 17th May on two previous occasions. The first was in 2007 for my 40th, in those days that is when you entered the Masters (Veterans, back then) ranks, not at 35 years of age, as it is now. As Blaydon had entered teams in the BMAF National Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, my target was to run the first leg in the M40 race and come back in first place. The course was advertised as 3.2 miles but if you check out the BMAF website you will notice that they record the course as being 'long'.
At any rate, I remember lining up at the start of the race, a bundle of nervous energy and when the gun went off I hit the front of the field right from the start, pushing the pace throughout. I felt quite comfortable until a section of the course where you doubled back on yourself at the bottom of a hill and headed back up. I didn't have a large lead and it was quite frightening seeing the whole field lined up behind me as they came down the hill. However, I remember trying to relax and push on.
I maintained the lead until about 600 meters or so from the finish when a Redhill runner (I think it may have been Dave Wetherall) came past. So I tucked in behind him until we turned into the run-in which was uphill and with about 200 to go, surched past to handover in first place - job done!
Unfortunately Blaydon slipped down the field as the race progressed with Redhill taking first team from Sunderland and Tipton. My time for the first leg was 16.20 (9th fastest of the day). With the fastest time of the day of 15.30 going to Nigel Gates.
It was 10 years later and my 50th birthday when I next raced on 17th May. When I set off for Ragensburg in Germany and the European Masters Non-Stadia Championships where I ran the 10km road race.
The previous day had been warm and sunny, but as we lined up for the start of the race it was a cold wet, blustery day. Although I don't think I ran too badly it was one of those races where you can't seem to settle and finish knowing that you haven't done yourself justice.
I finished in 13th place in 35.28, 2nd out of the 12 British runners racing, first Brit being Alex Rowe in 5th place overall with a time of 33.48. The race was won by Germany's Johann Hophner in 31.39.
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