Author: MarathonMannUK

Before 1954, some thought that running a mile in under 4 minutes was impossible.  Then, at a track in Oxford, Roger Bannister ran it in 3:59:04.  With the track in mind, the Rodillian Runners turned up at the Thornes Park athletics track to see if we could follow in Roger’s footsteps.  One thing we did have in common with that day is that some thought that for us, running a mile in under 4 minutes was impossible. Unlike 1954 though, in this case, they were right!

Running on a track is a bit unusual for my friends and I, who major on roads and trails, but I think we enjoyed the experience.   We had some good times though but 4 minutes remains out of reach.  Our fastest man was Edd who managed a mile in just 5:36.  Edd, all you have to do is keep that up for 26.2 miles and you’ll get a half descent Marathon time!  If you think that’s fanciful, Josh Griffiths, who stunned the athletics establishment by, as a mere “club runner”, being the first Britain home in the London Marathon, sustaining about 5:15 minute miles.

The point of course is, that, as the saying goes, it’s all relative.  We all as individual athletes, have our own 4 minute miles, the achievement of each is personally just as significant and involves no less personal effort.

I expect other runners are like me in that we all have our own fitness benchmarks.   These are times which we expect to be able to achieve when we are fit, not absolute PBs but times that we can achieve with moderate or “threshold” effort.  When I am not able to achieve one of these benchmark levels, I tell myself that when I get back, I shouldn’t beat myself up for not achieving personal bests, but be thankful that I am fit enough to achieve what in my book, are good times.   One such benchmark for me is a 24 minute 5K, which I was able to do at Wakefield Thornes parkrun last Saturday.  This pleases me because it means I have a good level of fitness and a platform for my upcoming Marathon training.

“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving”  1 Timothy 4:4 (NIV)

The Leeds Half Marathon was the first organised running race I ever entered.  My wife Helen and I both did it back in 2008 and to be honest we didn’t really know what we were doing.  We weren’t part of a running club at the time so we didn’t have access to any advice so as far as training was concerned we did what we thought; we basically “winged it”.  Nearly 10 years later we are still at it and what an incredible journey running has taken us on.

I can’t imagine what life would have been like if we hadn’t taken up this incredible sport.  It is so much part of us now and like a drug it always seems to demand more.  Unlike a drug, the lifestyle and health benefits are incalculable; it makes you feel really good when your GP tells you she can’t recommend any improvements to the way you live your life.

Back to the half marathon.  This is quite a misleading description for a race.  It gives the impression of something “half baked” or “half as good” something that takes half the effort maybe.  I don’t want to take away from what is required of a full marathon, which is to be fair, another level, but a Half Marathon is something to be taken seriously.  To put it in plain English: 13.1 miles, (and don’t forget the .1) is a bloody long way to run!

There is an expression among runners that “the first mile is not to be trusted” meaning that when you start off and feel fresh, you can run at a really fast pace and it doesn’t feel like you are expending much effort.  You feel like you could carry on at that pace indefinitely and unless you have your wits about you, you can convince yourself that you can.  Today, I managed to keep up with the 1 hour 50 minute pacer quite effortlessly until about mile 2 when it was obvious that while I might think i’m fit, I wasn’t that fit.

The Leeds Half presents you with a really nasty surprise after around 3 miles, where you have to tackle the “Killer Hill from Hell” that seems never to end.  After that you get rewarded by a fantastically long drawn-out downhill stretch which in some measure makes up for this.  Regardless of this, today I couldn’t make up all the ground I lost on the uphill but I was still able to keep going at a respectable pace.

When you are used to running races like half marathons, you can’t help your brain becoming a pace computer.  As  you approach the closing stages of the race and pass the distance markers you start working out how fast you need to run in order to meet your goal and you make a mental calculation as to whether its still achievable or not.  The danger is that if you decide not, you can effectively give up and just plod through until the finish.  Today at about three miles to go, I decided that getting under 1 hour 55 minutes was still on and it was this that kept me going.  By then the going was tough, the heat of the day played its part and my legs were feeling the pace but this goal kept me focussed.

The end of the Leeds Half is deceptive to the uninitiated, you see the start gantry ahead and if you don’t know, you might assume its also the finish. What you then realise is that it isn’t and you have to turn left into a 200m  finishing straight to a finish line that seems an infinite distance away.  I looked at my watch when I turned into the finish and I saw I had a minute left to achieve my sub 1:55.  Of course I knew I could do this but this didn’t stop that inner tension so I focussed and “sped” down to the finish line.  Final time 1:54:24.

So, it would have been nice to get sub 1:50 but I had told myself that wasn’t going to be real today so I am really happy with what I did.  Leading up to the Marathon in October I am in a pretty good place and, I will alway remember never to underestimate a half marathon.

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” James 1:6 (NIV)

Two months ago I had reached the level of fitness to be confident enough to run from home to my local parkrun (Temple Newsam), do the parkrun and then run home again.  This is a total distance of around 11 miles with a fast 5K in the middle.  Unfortunately after about one mile I had to turn round and go back due to a pain in my foot that wouldn’t go away.

Two months later, and after visits to the physiotherapist and two different chiropodists, I can finally run pain free again and therefore I resolved to attempt the parkrun trip again.  When you have to try again for something like that after such an unfortunate experience, it takes on a special significance; it looms large, becomes a demon that must be slain.  Last night I even had various nightmares about it and didn’t really sleep soundly.

I needn’t have worried because it was a good morning.  I even managed to do the parkrun in my best time this year by a few seconds.  I encountered a former “sparing partner” the extremely able runner, Debbie Bland who used to race me years ago at Woodhouse Moor parkrun.  True to form she pushed me all the way today, hence the best time this year!

Onwards and upwards; I now have a training programme building up to the Yorkshire Marathon in October.  Next stop: the Leeds Half in a couple of weeks.

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” Luke 10:17 ESV