Training on Xmas Day

Let’s get this straight from the start, this blog is not about the religious or commercial aspects of Xmas day, if you want a Christian message my mate, Terry Lawton, does it well, at the same time telling humorous tales about his life on the beat, his time entertaining children of all ages and his fight against cancer www.triumphtraumaandhope.co.uk. My blog is about training.

It’s now less than a week until Xmas day, though I’m not feeling as Christmassy as I used to. Years ago, when I worked in an office environment, we used to put decorations up, making sure we followed very strict guidelines as to whereabouts they should be placed. Eventually those guidelines became so strict we bah humbugged the whole idea, but we still had the Xmas party. All that changed for me after the Xmas party of 2007, luckily I wasn’t working a shift that day or night so was able to go along to the one that RBS IT threw in Edinburgh. This was to be the last works Xmas party I would attend as RBS put a ban on people having fun, following a silly mistake made by an employee called Fred. As I’m now self employed it doesn’t seem the same organising a party for one. Oh well at least it won’t get in the way of my training as I put in the preparation for my next race.

Xmas to me is a family time, it’s about the family getting together in one place to enjoy each other’s company, play silly games, eat and drink too much and have some lively discussions. Last year Xmas day was spent at our place, I cooked for 9, it was great fun that very nearly didn’t happen as Northwich suffered a power cut in the morning, thankfully it came back on just as I needed to get started. All my family are either older than me or the children of my older siblings, so I don’t have any child ties to stop me from training on Xmas day. However I would say to people who have young families, it’s perhaps not a day to train unless you do some fun type activities that can provide a relative level of fitness but also be all inclusive of the family.

In his heyday Daley Thompson declared that he trained twice on Xmas day, in a bid to get one over on his competitors who took the day off. Was Daley really that dedicated to his training? I’m sure he was but I certainly couldn’t have trained after my Xmas dinner. But for those who aren’t looking at the Olympics perhaps making Xmas day a rest day is the answer to making Xmas day special for your family.

Generally I will train on Xmas Day, last year I went for a run along the river Weaver and came back with my face covered in frost, mind you I had to get up early so I was back in time for the cooking. Apart from the years when I’ve been injured, or the years before I ran, I’ve mostly gone for a run on Xmas day, but, with all the other activities going on, just going for a run doesn’t seem that special. I prefer something different which is why, when I could, I ran in the Lauriston parlauff.

The Lauriston parlauff is an event which takes place every year on Wimbledon Common, organised by the good crowd at Lauriston Cottage. Being a parlauff it requires teams of two runners to run around opposite ends of a lap on the Common, with a jog across the middle of the lap to meet your partner for your next half lap. The event goes on for 30 minutes, which means you’re running hard for roughly 15 of those and jogging the rest. It’s a great spectator event as the whole course is visible and, because it’s fun, runners tend to bring their families along to watch. Everyone has a good chat and afterwards there is a fire, food and mulled wine. It’s the sort of thing that you would only know about if you were a runner, so obviously I was unaware of it in the heyday of the runners I first trained with. Over the next few years, as I Xmased away, I was told various tales about how people had done in the parlauff, including a bunch of famous Kenyans who turned up one year. In 1992, my training partner, James Ryle, won the event partnering Marcello Bizio.

In 1993 I made my debut at the event, you don’t get to choose your partner, names are pulled out of a hat. I can’t remember who I got that year but he wasn’t the fastest partner in the hat. I was treating it as a hard training run so really pushing myself on my bits and I’m sure my partner was too, but we seemed to be going backwards through the field. Still it made for a good hard training run for me and it’s not really important to win anyway, it’s more important to have fun.

1996 was the next chance I got to run the parlauff, I was running hard but seemed to only be firing on 3 cylinders. It wasn’t until January that a doctor informed me I’d strained my heart at the Surrey XC Champs, back in December. I was recovered by the 1997 parlauff, but not the same athlete as I used to be, just as well that I got a good partner in Dennis Williams and we came 3^rd. I couldn’t repeat this in 1998, when partnering Nicky Harvey, but in 1999 I came 2^nd with Melanie Jones.

That was the last time I can remember doing the parlauff, I spent a lot of the following years away and then in 2005 I moved up to Edinburgh. 2005 was my most depressing Xmas ever, I hardly knew anyone in Edinburgh and those that I did know were with their families. I’d only just started renting a flat near Hearts football ground, so didn’t really know any neighbours and I couldn’t go back to my family as I was working 12 hour shifts on 23, 24 and 25 December. It wasn’t much fun at work on Xmas day and, with it being my 3^rd long day on the run I was having my rest day, so I didn’t even get to go out running on Xmas day – the one thing that could have kept me from having one of the worst days of my life. But don’t get too depressed reading this as I made up for it on 26^th, my friend, Jim Buick, took me along to the Beescraigs 14km handicap event. Unfortunately he also told the organisers I was a 30 minute 10k man, neglecting to tell them that I’d run that 12 years earlier. So I was last man off, a long way behind the next man, Mark Johnston. I ran hard, a good way of getting out some of the frustrations in my life at the time, but I didn’t know the course and although it was obvious to people who run there all the time it wasn’t for me. Each lap consisted of a long loop, cross a road to a small loop but the small loop involved climbing a steep hill and then descending the other side. On one of these descents I wasn’t quite balanced enough and went A over T, punching myself in the face as I did so. My teeth were sore but not as sore as my pride, I carried on, finishing 2^nd fastest but a fair way down on Mark, and I’m not even sure that I saw many people during the race. It was nice to get out and run my first race in Scotland and it was a friendly enough crowd – but I won’t be doing that race in a hurry.

So my idea of a great Xmas day starts with a run, preferably a race. But what if you feel the urge to do something on Xmas day, to justify that extra mince pie, and you don’t run. My suggestion to you is to think up a circuit, say 10 exercises, you don’t even need equipment to do an effective session. You can spend 5-10 minutes on each circuit and perform it as many times as you want – probably 3 is as much as the Xmas mind will allow. And the best thing about that is you can get the whole family doing it together, particularly if you’re not using equipment. Alternatively you could just unwrap the latest Wii or other such electronic gadget/toy and just play with that. Whatever you do, make sure it’s fun.  

This last weekend has been a cold and harsh winter weekend, certainly in my neck of the woods. It was snowing on and off as I was with clients on Friday morning, treacherous enough for me to abandon a planned run with one of my clients, thankfully she has a treadmill so all was not lost and the added bonus was I got to rest, my knee has been niggling a bit this week so a rest was welcome. As I drove home the snow was falling by the bucket load, not the best start to the weekend. On Saturday Ray, Sharon, Carole and myself had planned to do a parkrun, but, with the weather looking decidedly dodgy on Friday afternoon, and my knee niggling, I decided it was best to skip it. It was still icy on the paths and roads around us on Saturday morning, so I decided to do a big session in the gym. Carole joined me, little realising that she would have to do my session, not one I’d designed for her. Sunday morning and I was ready to run again, I got dressed up in my winter gear and stepped out the door, the roads and pavements had looked in a reasonable state, from the window, but as I stepped onto them it was clear there was still enough ice to cause a potential issue. So, not wishing to risk the knee and having history with ice, I went straight back in and changed for another gym session. Carole was much braver and, as I walked to the gym, she set off for her run. A couple of minutes later, as I was just setting up the healthrider, she popped into the gym, perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to run! Her running loss was her fitness gain as Carole experienced another one of my sessions, lucky girl! In the afternoon we went out for a walk in the Northwich Woodlands but the paths were covered in sheet ice and it was freezing cold so we didn’t stay out long.

Sunday night was another cold one and when I woke up on Monday it was clear it was a black ice day. I had a long drive to my clients around Cheshire but I was going to be careful. Black ice is no respecter of careful drivers, going slow I only just managed to stop at the first junction, I continued to drive slow but the next junction is slightly downhill and a tight turn and that was it, the ice took over driving and I became a passenger, we veered over towards the pavement and went up the low kerb. It was all happening in cinematic best slow motion and I was resigned to meeting up with one of the two lamp posts in my way, but before that happened my left hand tyres bumped into a raised bit of kerb and that sent me back in the right direction. Phew that was a close one. It was still a little icy when I got back, so I cancelled my plan for a quality session and just did a 5 miler instead, but today it’s all gone and I was back to doing proper training, boy it felt good.

A Soft Spot For Derbyshire

I’m going to start this week’s blog by stating something that may surprise a few people. I’m quite an emotive person, I have deep feelings and this includes a lot of sentimentality plus I don’t forget the good things that people have done for me. The reason I feel you might be surprised is because I do put on a bit of a front. I’m of an age, gender and grew up in a location whereby it was not the done thing to show your feelings. I sometimes come across expressionless and emotionally challenged but my emotions run deep though they tend to stay deep. There occasions where I’ve found it hard to suppress those feelings and they have slipped out at times when I least wanted them to, don’t believe me if I say I love you when I’m drunk (it’s not a lie, I’m just confusing love with lust) but if I’m sober you know you’re onto a good thing as I’m against lying. I rarely make any emotive signs when I win a race, it’s not because I’m unhappy it’s just I don’t really like to overly express the joy of my victories in front of the people I’ve beaten, preferring to congratulate them on the effort they themselves have put in. Mind you I will smile if I’ve had a good run.

So now I’ve explained all that, what does any of it have to do with Derbyshire. The point is I’m sentimental, I have soft spots for most of the places I’ve lived and Derbyshire is one place that I have strong feelings for. My family comes from Derbyshire, many generations of Alsops lived their lives in the county and there is even a place called Alsop-en-le-Dale, with an Alsop Hall built in the 16^th century. These were the posh Alsops that had an estate there since the 12^th century, I’m from the other branch of the family. My dad grew up in the Derbyshire countryside and my mum was born and bombed in Derby. I, and my brother and sister, were all born in Derbyshire, but when I was 4 we migrated abroad, to Wales. With relatives still in Derbyshire there were regular trips back to visit, so I grew up with a love of my home county.

My life choices took me to London, at 18, so the visits to Derbyshire stopped for a while, until I met the girl who would become my wife. She had been born and brought up in Derby and so the visits back to Derby and the surrounding countryside began again. I did some good training in Derby, either heading out into the countryside or running around the estates in the Oakwood area but I never seemed to race there and I was keen to, after all it was my heritage.

Patience is a great virtue and although my mum thinks I haven’t got any she’s very much mistaken. Eventually I started to enter races in Derbyshire. My first one was in 2002, so if you’ve been following my blogs you’ll know that I was well past my sell by date by then. It was December and I’d just finished 5^th in the LARA 10k at Horton Park, in fact I’d just missed out on equalling my season’s best by one second by running 31:56. After the race I got talking to David Denton, who organised the LARA races in Surrey and Derbyshire. I’d mentioned that I was going up to Derby for Xmas and he suggested I did the Queens Head 5k in Belper, which was taking place on 27 December. So it turned out, two days after sitting down to a generous Xmas dinner with the in-laws, and rest of my extended new family, my wife and I headed north to Belper.

It was a nice change for me, after so many years competing in the South, to turn up to a race where I knew nobody and nobody knew me. Faced with this situation I had no inhibitions and come the start of the race I shot off. Another chap also shot off, but he shot off slightly faster than me. I tried to keep up with him, but clearly my 37 year old muscles and joints couldn’t match the youthfulness of my opponent. It was an out and back course and by the time I reached the turnaround my opponent, Martin Whitehouse, was already well on his way back. It was a pleasant undulating course and I was pleased with the time of 15:37 for 2^nd place, Martin ran 15:12 in 1^st place. My wife was first lady in 20:10 so not a bad little outing for us. As always, David’s races seem to be associated around a local hostelry, so it was only polite to stay for a swift one.

The following year we weren’t up for Xmas but made it for New Year. It just so happens that David also organises a New Year’s Day race at Whatstandwell, so my wife and I decided to try that one. I didn’t know much about the area so didn’t know what to expect but I do like to race on these special days. As we approached Whatstandwell it was clear it was cold as the hills were snow covered. As is usual before I race I went to check out the finish, which was down a very steep hill, steeper than I like to run down, but hey it was the same for everyone, though if I was going to win this one I’d have to make a break early in case someone else was a braver downhill runner than myself. I chatted to Dave and he told me that there was a record for the first mile, I can’t remember what time he told me but it was around 6:15. I decided not to take a look at the first mile but just to attack it. Just before we set off David made the usual pre-race announcements and then stated that although the race was supported by adidas the prizes hadn’t arrived, but there were two adidas sponsored athletes present, pointing to myself and the wife (we weren’t sponsored by adidas but Belgrave were). It was a slightly embarrassing moment for a shy guy like me and meant I now had to win to justify my sponsorship! As we set off I went for it, David soon came past in his car, so he could get a 1 mile split. It was a tough first mile but I clocked what I thought was a new record on my watch (wasn’t confirmed by David so I still don’t know if it was), don’t ask what the time was as I can’t remember but it wasn’t that much under the old record and certainly wasn’t under 6 minutes. Then it just got steeper and the second mile took me over 7 minutes (which is getting into Mow Cop Killer Mile territory). Thankfully, soon after, I reached the top and we were onto a relatively flat bit, actually it was undulating but relatively flat compared to the rest of the course. As I came to a dip between two hills I could see that the road was covered with water apart from one strip in the centre. After my experience with the puddle at the South of Thames there was no way I was going through the water, certainly not in the freezing temperatures I was experiencing, but with a car coming towards me I had to make a choice, did I stop or risk my life. I chose the latter and put my hand up to gesture to the driver my intention, luckily they were either in a good mood or just so shocked to see me and they stopped, allowing myself a dry passage. Then it was downhill to the finish. Understandably the first bit was steep, not only that it was icy. Having risked my life with the car my nerve ran out and I decided to walk over the icy bit, I had racing flats on and they didn’t have much grip. I’m not one for walking in races, I’ve subsequently had to walk up a hill in a hill race in Holyrood Park (but then so was everybody in front of me, including the international hill runners) but it’s pretty embarrassing to admit to having to walk downhill. Still I can get over that, it’s not the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me, and I was still in the lead, but I was sure I’d lost ground. Once over the ice I set off again and reached the final mile. By now I was sure I’d have a host of hill runners charging me down so I couldn’t afford to take that last mile easy, I went as hard as I could allow myself and came in the victor in a time of 28:54. 2^nd place came in about a minute back. My wife could only manage 2^nd in her race, I think the cold affected her more than me. What a great race though, certainly not an easy one. For someone who was essentially a track athlete it was definitely an experience and, like all David’s races, the atmosphere was friendly. Incidentally I’ve found a description of the course ‘A one lap AAA certified course...uphill for first 2.6 miles then good downhill running....and good lunches & beer at the pub’.  

The following May we were off on holiday to Wales to walk some of Offa’s Dyke. We decided to go via Derby, coinciding with the Derby 10k. The race started outside Derby County’s new ground at Pride Park, heading towards the city centre, a brief run though the shopping district, along the River Derwent and then back towards a finish inside Pride Park. I had a good run, coming 4^th in 32:47. Following the week in Wales we called back into Derby on the way home, main reason being that David Denton had one of his races in Wirksworth and coincided with the Wells Dressings taking place in the village. The race was described as a 4.2 mile trail run and I was keen to find out what a trail run was. Coming from Wales we were a bit pushed for time so I didn’t get my chance to scout out the finish. We lined up and were off. The start through the town was downhill and this got me off to a quick start, but I was joined by one of the local runners. I was feeling pretty confident so when we got to the trail part I pushed hard up it, up being the operative word here as it was another steep muddy hill with some big rocks almost blocking parts of the path. Not my idea of a trail run, particularly when I had my best racing flats on. I soon burned off my company but as I reached the top the climb had taken it’s toll on me too and I was a bit knackered. Now we were running in the countryside and the views were stunning, but no time for that I had a race to win. Coming back down towards the finish I was unsure which was to go and the marshals weren’t exactly helping, they must’ve assumed it was an obvious route so just stood there without directing. This slowed me down a little as I approached each junction. I came across the finish almost unexpectedly so never really got into my finishing burst but I’d held on for the win in 23.06. It was another tough race but another enjoyable route from David. I was chuffed to bits to win again, particularly as I was in the middle of Alsop country and I thought it was fitting an Alsop had won. I also bumped into one of my old pals and former Belgravian Ray Foley, who was also in the race, having moved to Wirksworth.

And then that was it, the following year I tore my hamstring so was unable to take part in the same races, not much after that I moved to Edinburgh and without a wife I no longer had a strong reason for making the journey back to Derbyshire. That is, until this weekend. Carole and I were thinking of taking a weekend away, we usually go somewhere for her birthday but this year she was on a work trip to San Francisco (some people have it tough), so we delayed it. I’d read some stuff about how Derby had changed over the past few years and I was keen to see it again, so we decided we’d go this weekend. With my cold not having affected me at the previous week’s parkrun it took it out on me the following day, my head throbbed and I was sore all over, it stayed with me for most of the week which meant less quality but some longer runs. I still wasn’t right by the weekend so decided to take some time off training whilst in Derby, though I did take my kit in case I changed my mind.

We started off shopping in Derby, the obligatory lunch followed, and then we separated so that we could buy each other’s xmas presents. Carole went to the Westfield Centre whilst I started down the side streets. This was just what I was looking for, non standard high street shops where I could get Carole something different. A quick jaunt around the shops and a few purchases later I headed off to the Westfield Centre. After what I’d read I was expecting it to be similar to the Arndale Centre or the Trafford Centre but I was a little disappointed with what was on offer, so I’ll have to finish my shopping in Cheshire.

Back to the hotel we stopped at a pub, Derby has built up it’s reputation for real ale and I fancied a pint, in fact I fancied it so much I had two. In the shops I’d got chatting to a shop assistant and she’d recommended a couple of places to eat but one was shut and the other was fully booked. I took away a couple of numbers and called them from the hotel, they were also fully booked. So we decided on a quick change and back we ventured into Derby to find dinner. We’d seen a bar/diner called Revolution, part of a chain and there is one in Edinburgh that we’d been in before so we decided to try there. There were people in drinking but there were tables available. It was now about 19:05 but when I went up to the bar I was told they were only doing food until 19:15. They didn’t have any of Carole’s first choice main but she found something else. 10 minutes later the barman came over and said they didn’t have my choice of starter so I had to pick again. A further 25 minutes and two waiters showed up with our starters and main, completely baffled I asked them why the starters and main had come together, they said it was because they had a big party coming in. You can imagine what our response to that was. It was now getting close to 20:00 and we hadn’t eaten anything and were aware of the situation in Derby re. getting a table but to be honest the food they were presenting looked pretty dire so we decided we’d try somewhere else. The saving grace was that they didn’t charge us for the wine we’d already drunk, which we were prepared to pay for. For the next hour we walked around Derby trying to find a restaurant that was open and had space for us, finally we ended up in a Thai restaurant, we did enjoy the food but it was a reminder to us that we need to book on a Saturday in cities, we hadn’t because we wanted to take a look at the restaurants before we decided and the literature I’d been reading was intimating that Derby was full of restaurants.

Sunday morning it was role reversal as I was keen to stay in my bed and Carole was wanting to get up for a run. After a couple of minutes of discussion she managed to persuade me to take her out. It was cold and windy but I’ll do anything for Carole. We set off at a comfortable pace, well it was comfortable for me, the route was nice and flat so I decided to take a turn to the right up Breadsall Hill. When you first see the hill it looks like any other hill in a residential area but as you turn the corner the full extent of the climb becomes apparent, it’s a good hill, one I would embrace and could enjoy using for a hill session. Now it was time to get Carole to embrace it, she worked hard but was clearly struggling, a bit of coaxing and coaching and a couple of cracks of the whip and she was up it, sadly the view at the top wasn’t worth the climb, which is usually my justification for getting Carole up a hill. Still it was all downhill back to the hotel. After breakfast we headed to Keddleston Hall, for some culture, and then intended walking in the hills, but as we emerged from the Hall it started to rain, that horrible big cold persistent rain, so we decided to drive through the hills instead.

And that was that, thankfully the break seems to have cleared my cold and I was back in hard training yesterday, 8 x 3 mins hard with 30 seconds recovery, it felt good. I’m about to enter my next big race, the first of the new year, so it’s important I get some good quality training in over the next few weeks, at the moment I don’t feel confident enough to win my category, but some hard work will change that, plus it’s important I get a faster time over 10k than Richard Meade, thereby justifying my decision not to eat chocolate, otherwise it’s all for nothing.

More good news this week when a local therapist, who treated me during one of my injuries last year, donated an exercise cycle to my gym. Fantastic, not only does this give me more scope to train my clients, it also gives me another excuse to push my body to the limit in a bid to get back to my best.      

Incidentally anybody who has survived reading this blog without falling asleep and is interested in taking part in any of David’s events (they’re not just in Surrey or Derbyshire), or renting his place in India, should visit www.runningwithdavid.com

And finally, here’s one for my non facebook friends, a picture I picked up from a New Zealand trail running page

Why Do I Run?

While I was assisting Lee with his recent world record preparation he asked me the question ‘why do I still run’. He didn’t mean anything derogatory by this, i.e. ‘you’re so old why are you still running’ or ‘you’re so slow why do you still run competitively’, he was genuinely interested in what made me tick. I gave Lee a couple of honest answers to his question but went away pondering on the question, because although I believed the answers were genuinely honest perhaps they weren’t altogether correct. So I’ve broken the question down a little to see if I can come up with the answer/s.

Why did I start running in the first place –

I’ve always loved playing sport, but I’m not actually that good at it. At primary school I was so slow at running (we only ran sprints) that every year, on sports day, I was demoted to the sack race. It didn’t get any better at grammar school, although I improved I was no footballer and couldn’t make the house team, let alone the school team. I did make the cricket house team, but more by lack of interest from others than by any talent on my part, which was apparent when I was out for two golden ducks in the only match I played. The one area that I did display any talent was in long distance running, I appeared to be one of the better runners in the year, despite only running on sports day and on maybe two or three other occasions.

In adult life I was again unspectacular at any team sports, better than average but no star in the making. I tried hockey and football but when it was clear I lacked any real talent it was time to revert to the only thing in which I had any potential. I’d been thinking about running for a few weeks and then I caught sight of an old school friend, Andrew Geddes, winning the AAAs indoor 1500m title. Well that was it, I was kicked into action and went along to join my local club, Hercules Wimbledon. Unfortunately they were shut, which is why I ended up around the corner at Belgrave Harriers.

My first training run with Belgrave Harriers was an absolute disaster as seasoned distance runners did to me what was all too common in clubs in those days, ran the new boy into the ground. Why did I go back to run again after such an experience? Something made me go back, I’d enjoyed the run, while I could keep up, and I felt I had something to prove. Besides I thought they’d been a bit rude to do that to me so I vowed to myself I’d do the same thing to them, which I did within a couple of years.

In my first year at Belgrave I tried many different running events and was pretty useless at all of them, but perseverance paid off and I became less useless over time. It didn’t matter how useless I was, there were always others more useless, or not quite as useless as me so I had company and someone to compete against. As I improved I started to beat the ‘not useless but not that good either’ crowd and with further improvement I started to beat people ‘who used to be good’. In time I improved further until I found myself able to compete reasonably well with some of the top athletes in the country but there would always be someone better than me, I never scaled the top of the peak. But it was this constant drive to climb up the ladder a few more rungs at a time that kept me going.

There were things I hadn’t even dreamed of achieving when I started running but as I improved so my goals became bigger. I didn’t achieve them all, but as my form declined so my years advanced and suddenly I was presented with a new lease of life as I entered masters athletics. So I hadn’t been the best in Britain, at my best, but I could be the best in my age group. I got close but still I haven’t achieved that one, however, with every year you get another chance and then at every 5^th year you’re at the start of a new age group. So ultimately there’s no telling how long I will continue.

Injury may eventually force me to stop, I really thought my time had come in 1998, when I couldn’t run for over 5 months, but somehow I managed to come back, and achieved much more since then. In 2005 I left Belgrave because I knew it was only a matter of time before I would struggle to make the A team, whereas Herne Hill had a number of other runners in my age group. I knew running with Herne Hill would keep me motivated and training hard to make their masters team, whereas I would only train hard to fail to make Belgrave’s team, so, just like the change from football to running it was time to move on from Belgrave to Herne Hill. I was proven right, being part of a successful squad has kept me motivated to train hard and we’ve achieved a lot together.

But what now, I’m miles away from London, so rarely run for Herne Hill, I have no team in Cheshire to compete with, how do I maintain that motivation. Well it’s all down to self believe, I still believe I have more to give, I don’t believe I have run my best, ok I ran my best times and some great races when I was younger but I still feel I have more to prove against my peers. Of course, every time I win a race outright, rather than just an age group win, it helps me to stay motivated. I find it hard to believe that, at almost 47 years old, I’m still able to give youngsters a good run for their money and the age grading of results helps to compare against those that finish significantly ahead of me but are around 20 years my junior. 

I now coach people to run and the people I’ve coached have had their own success. I don’t have anyone going to the Olympics but there are many people who can say they have benefited from the advice and training I have given them. Then there is Lee Riley, who has set three world records under my guidance. It’s a great feeling to be able to help others to achieve their goals, and even better to help them achieve beyond their goals. But, although I know I’ve helped, I can’t be absolutely confident that it was down to me, someone else could have guided them to their achievements and after all, it was them that ran to that achievement, not me. So this keeps me running still, everything I achieve in running, I know is down to me.

In life and work I’ve been reasonably successful, above average I’d say, but it’s running that has been the stand out success in my life. It’s also the cornerstone to my latest career choice, the more I run, the more I can use those experiences to help and inspire others to run or get fit, the more experiences I gain the more I have to talk about or blog about. And the more times I come back from defeat to attain success, the more I can motivate others to do the same, whether that be in running or other aspects of their life. But most of all I run because it keeps me alive, having something to aim for inspires me to work hard towards it, and that leads to all the other fringe benefits.

Why do I blog?

I started blogging back in February at the suggestion of a friend of a friend, who was into marketing, he was confident it was a way of getting people to know about what I had to offer. Whilst I’m not sure it has brought me any potential clients I know that some of my existing clients read the blogs and they have acted as inspiration for them. There are people who have picked them up via google searches, but that doesn’t mean they’ve read them and been inspired by them. The bulk of my readership comes from Facebook and I’m pretty sure most of those are my running friends. Thank you for reading, I know some of you are far better runners than I ever was so it’s nice that you take the time to read my tales of how it was for me. One of the things that keeps me writing about my life in running is that nobody knows the whole story about me, even my best man got some of his stories wrong at my wedding, so I’m putting the stories out from my point of view. Since February I’ve written 40 blogs and had 2500 viewings of them. The more popular ones seem to be about running with the top 10 viewings going to, in descending order;

2011 British Masters Road Relay Championships, a Personal View – probably thanks to my Cambuslang friends

The Mile

The Marathon

Why I Like Northwich From a Fitness Perspective, etc

Marathon the Final Tune Up

Illnesses and Injuries – to Train or Not to Train

Supplements

While I was Away

Memories of the Surrey 10000m Championship

Inspirational Athlete – Paul Evans

I’ve mentioned, over the last few blogs, that I’ve been fighting off a cold, it’s not really manifested itself properly, up to now. I was feeling a little run down at the end of last week but I felt ok to train. Ray and I had planned to go to Pennington Flash on the Saturday taking our respective ladies, it’s been a while since I made it up there. When I woke up on Saturday morning my throat was feeling quite sore and I thought I might be better off not running, however, after breakfast I was feeling well enough to give it a go. The weather was looking pretty miserable, it’d rained on and off for the whole week and I was sure it would be muddy at Pennington. But mud doesn’t deter me, I just thought it would affect the times. We arrived in the car park just as the heavens opened and chucked a lake full of water onto us, thankfully it didn’t last too long. When we got to the start, there was Bill and very few others, what a shame, xmas parties, xmas shopping and the weather must’ve had an effect. But as we waited, and tried to keep warm, runners came streaming round the corner to the start area, including an old friend of mine, Alex Rowe, who was down for a meeting of the Northern Masters. It was good to see Alex, but it also meant he would be aiming to beat me. I also noticed a young guy who looked like he might be talented but I lost sight of him as I talked to Alex, it was only when Bill set us off I realised he must’ve been standing next to me. As we set off I was joined by Alex, as expected, and this other chap. It was a solid start, the cold was playing no part in slowing me down and, in fact, didn’t affect me at all in the run, though the mud and strong wind did slow me down a bit (I had thought that conditions were so bad that this might be the first time I ran the course slower than 18 minutes). As we got to the gate, which signifies the start of the lap, the young chap upped the pace and soon pulled away, he seemed to have a graceful style that is somewhat lacking from my own running, he was long striding and confident and I confidently predicted it would be an end to my 5 race winning streak. Tom Doe was the young chap and he just pulled away from that moment on. Despite drifting further and further back I never gave up on the chase, after all I still had to beat Alex and while I was expecting to run post 18 minutes I still have a reasonable average time around Pennington. At the finish I was clearly 2^nd, nearly a minute and a half behind Tom, who smashed the course record (a fantastic achievement in those conditions), and almost a minute ahead of Alex. Not only did I run under 18 minutes, with 17:47, but it wasn’t even my slowest run around the course. I’d never heard of Tom before, I don’t follow general athletics, so I did a bit of research, which helped me to understand why he’d run so well, he was 5^th in the UK Steeplechase Final this year and has a 10k pb of 30:06, better than my pb, set 18 years ago, and 4 minutes faster than I have done this year, (though I took that from Power of 10 which isn’t always accurate, certainly they don’t hold my best times). Perhaps we’ll see more of Tom at Pennington, or maybe on the TV.