www.belgraveharriers.com

Home Skipper's Corner

Tears, tantrums ... and a humdinger

There were tears and tantrums at home earlier in the week as my fiancée Dorchie insisted she wasn’t up to the job of running in the Bristol team and that she’d only let everyone down: her worst ever Surrey League a fortnight ago coupled with exhaustion at work as she copes with a switch to the “Bird Flu” desk at DFID had left her fragile confidence in tatters.  However, Bristol TM Mike Down told her she’d be fine, and I insisted the same.  What fireworks were to follow.  After Dorch got round in one piece, it was Kate Reed versus Liz Yelling head to head on the glory leg, both of them over 50-seconds down on Shaftesbury.  Marvellous.  The gap came down to 30-seconds in under a mile, and poor Gemma Turtle was written off by the vultures out on the course.  But then, with just 600-metres to go, the gap was still around 50-metres, and it was Turtle who seemed to be running easier and Reed (who’d dropped Yelling) the one who was tying up.  But Kate found a humdinger finish, and Bristol have nicked yet another national title – at least their sixth in recent years. 

I stood at the finish and saw Paula Radcliffe standing close by, radiating health and fitness, it appeared: but all of Paula’s millions couldn’t keep the common cold at bay.  As her bridesmaid Liz Yelling came past, legs gone, effort spent, despairing as both gold and silver had just slipped out of reach, was that just a wistful trace of regret from Paula that she hadn’t defied her medical advisers and given it a bash?  All those extra spectators who had flocked to the course were deprived of seeing one of the greatest runners in history – but Paula’s absence paved the way for one of the most dramatic races that ever graced the macadam of Sutton Park.

You thrilled us then and still thrill us now

And as for the men!  I won’t taint Alan’s brush with talk of them here, except to say welcome back the boys of 2001!  You thrilled us then, and you still thrill us now.  Sharpy duly nailed his 5 consecutive runs in this event, while Spen has 7 in a row.  We want eight!  We want eight!  Gnasher shall hopefully display how eight runs in a row is possible at a big event at Milton Keynes, five months hence, and I myself aim for eight National Cross-country’s in a row in Feb.  Will one of us get ten in a row?!  That’ll be worth a bottle of champagne.  Sadly the Baby B’s seem to have come into this world minus one of their limbs, but such a setback reminds us that we need to keep an eye out for our engine room boys just as much as our stars.  No engine room, no running club, simple as that.

You get out of it precisely what you put into it

The focus now switches back to our local boys, who must step up to the plate over the coming months as there’s plenty to do:  Surrey League, two South of the Thames races, and the ‘counties’.  All of these races may be won if we can only get bodies to the start line in great numbers.  Deep, dark winter looms, and if we are to believe our meteorological experts, it’s going to be the coldest since 1962/3.  Ouch. 

When I think of winter training at its worst, a three-mile stretch of road springs to mind:  From Kingston track to the Cottenham Park Hill loop on a Tuesday night.  You set out in the freezing cold and dark, knowing that what’s in store are 12 ascents of mind-numbing, exhausting monomania.  You feel awful and home seems so long away.  The route is bleak and dreary, and finally you arrive at the hills.  The session begins.  After three or four reps, fatigue has set in and there’s such a long way to go.  But something else is kicking in too.  Real determination.  “I shall finish this session – and I shall finish it strong!”

After eight reps, real exhaustion smothers you.  “This is that part of the session where the bowels start to give way,” Ben Whitby once grimly remarked.   And then finally:  the twelfth rep is over – and the long grind back to the track begins.  But oddly enough you’re no longer tired, or fluey, or unmotivated… instead your physiology sings down the streets.  The satisfaction is great, and you remember that, yes, you do love running after all.  And you remember why you love it:  because you get out of it precisely what you put into it.  Welcome to Winter 2005-6!  Wrap up warm, stay healthy and get in shape to race, and race hard, for the mighty Bels, the finest club in the land.