Robert Burns knew what he was on about when he coined the phrase "the best laid plans of mice and men." After thinking I'd recovered from an ankle sprain I strung together 9 days of good training before the pain returned. By now I was just over a week away from the National and as the days went on with no improvement and swimming to maintain some fitness, it became clear that even the biggest cross country in Scotland would also be beyond me. Disappointing but at the end of the day it's an individual sport and you have to look after number one sometimes. An easy 6 miles 2 days beforehand left me momentarily tempted but, on waking up with aching limbs the next day, I saw sense. 3 target races had now passed me by. What next?
Thankfully I got through a 50 mile week with no ill effects and rolled up for the club 10km road race with no ambitions other than to race, something I seemed to be fast forgetting how to do. Better weather conditions greeted the 172 runners compared to a year before.
Before long, I was in the familiar company of Robert Gilroy jousting for the lead. I knew he had run 1 hour 10 minutes in an undulating Stranraer Half Marathon the previous day decided to test him early on by leading the race out towards the Clyde Walkway. For the first 3km, I lead with Robert in my slipstream.
I try not to get too hung up on checking split times. In 10km races, I tend to wait until halfway before doing so. 15:34 for the first 5km. Course record pace and much faster than it felt. Yikes! We stayed toe to toe up to the turning point at 6km. I now felt almost spent so pleased I hadn't raced a much hillier 12km cross country the week before. Robert opened a little gap as we doubled back towards the chasing pack which he maintained to become the 2nd winner of the Jimmy Sands Memorial Shield in a time of 31:41. At least my course record from 2012 remains intact! I took runners up spot in a much quicker than expected 31:49 (16:15 for the next 5km shows the ring rustiness) with our clubmate Iain Reid completing the top 3 40 seconds later. Together we claimed the team prize, seeing me add to my growing collection of red long sleeved Ronhill training tops.
I took advantage of the free pie and tea on offer at the club, telling anyone who dared to listen how much of a crisis my running life had been for 3 months. I can laugh now but I did have some low points between the illness and 2 ankle sprains. Hopefully in a matter of weeks I'll have forgotten either thing ever happened.
Thankfully I got through a 50 mile week with no ill effects and rolled up for the club 10km road race with no ambitions other than to race, something I seemed to be fast forgetting how to do. Better weather conditions greeted the 172 runners compared to a year before.
Before long, I was in the familiar company of Robert Gilroy jousting for the lead. I knew he had run 1 hour 10 minutes in an undulating Stranraer Half Marathon the previous day decided to test him early on by leading the race out towards the Clyde Walkway. For the first 3km, I lead with Robert in my slipstream.
I try not to get too hung up on checking split times. In 10km races, I tend to wait until halfway before doing so. 15:34 for the first 5km. Course record pace and much faster than it felt. Yikes! We stayed toe to toe up to the turning point at 6km. I now felt almost spent so pleased I hadn't raced a much hillier 12km cross country the week before. Robert opened a little gap as we doubled back towards the chasing pack which he maintained to become the 2nd winner of the Jimmy Sands Memorial Shield in a time of 31:41. At least my course record from 2012 remains intact! I took runners up spot in a much quicker than expected 31:49 (16:15 for the next 5km shows the ring rustiness) with our clubmate Iain Reid completing the top 3 40 seconds later. Together we claimed the team prize, seeing me add to my growing collection of red long sleeved Ronhill training tops.
I took advantage of the free pie and tea on offer at the club, telling anyone who dared to listen how much of a crisis my running life had been for 3 months. I can laugh now but I did have some low points between the illness and 2 ankle sprains. Hopefully in a matter of weeks I'll have forgotten either thing ever happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment