Salford Silvers Take Gold

If you’re into your omens then this weekend was looking good for my chances of picking up another British championship medal; the event was a relay and relays bring out the best in me, it was taking place in Derby where I have always run well and every club I’ve been a member of has won a national championship during my time there. But getting back to reality; I have been running well in the lead up to this race, I did some very specific training for this event during my week in Spain and I had a very solid team of Salford Harriers around me, who all seemed to be as keen as me. Looking on the less positive aspects; Leicester seem to have made the M45 category their own so were obviously going to be strong on the day, I was expecting Thames Hare and Hounds to enter and have strong teams too and, as I mentioned last week, I’d injured my lower back and it was inhibiting my ability to run during the week.

We had entered strong teams in all sections; M35, M45, M55 and M65 plus an M35 B team consisting of those who didn’t quite make it from the various other teams. We were keyed up and we meant business. There was even a mini bus bringing the majority of the team down, so team bonding was bound to be a plus on the way to the race.

But lets go back a few days: It was Monday morning when my back went into a spasm. It wasn’t that painful until I went to bed, then the inactivity meant every movement, during the night, was agony. The next morning I looked over my training diaries for the previous two occasions my back had gone into spasm and it wasn’t looking good, one showed I had to take a week off before I could start running again and the other, that I had to take two weeks. I pondered over letting the Manager know but thought I’d leave it a couple of days. The spasm hadn’t felt as bad as either previous occasion so I hedged my bets and got to work on some mobilisation work and kettlebells. By Wednesday I was running again, albeit a very slow 3 mile jog. I’d had to try as I was due to train with Lee Riley on Thursday. I made the training with Lee, we were running mile reps at just under 7 minute mile pace, a lot quicker than the previous day but a lot slower than I’d need on Saturday. Admittedly the last 2 minutes of the last rep was run under 6 minute mile pace but it didn’t give me any real indication of how I would be on Saturday, however I came through it ok, though still in a little pain. Friday was a rest day, apart from continuation of the mobilisation exercises.

Come Saturday I felt a lot better so there was no question of not being able to run so we set off, myself, Carole and my mum and dad, for Derby. I hear so many people, who’s parents died before their children made their mark, saying I wish they’d been around to see my success, so I’ve made a habit of karting my parents around various parts of the country to watch me run in National competitions, whether they wanted to go or not, in the hope that they would see me being successful. And I feel I’ve fulfilled my duty of making my parents proud of me.

Over the years I’ve done many big relay events for Belgrave, Herne Hill, Edinburgh and now Salford. 9 times out of 10 the team announced on Monday becomes a totally different team by the Saturday, this must’ve been number 10 as the team lining up on the day was exactly as announced on Monday; Deegan, Birkett, Crewe, Alsop and Lockett. So I was feeling pretty confident. Leicester were there and had a strong team, but I was disappointed that Thames Hare were a no show.

Before the race I jogged around the course with Mike Deegan, though as always in these situations the jog increases in pace throughout and we were busy chatting about the things that runners chat about so I had to go around again on my own to get a good picture of the course in my head. It was a good course, one to suit me. Mostly flat, just a couple of small rises, mostly firm going, just one bad soggy patch and a few soggy areas, it was well marked and was interesting, featuring the grass area close to the track, on two levels, and a short loop through the woods.

The first race was for ladies and really old men and this was our first chance to get in the medals. We were always in the hunt and led the O65 event briefly before having to settle for silver behind a strong Bingley squad.

Now it was time for the youngsters, a race featuring the M35, M45 and M55 teams. Our first leg runner, in the M45 team, should by rights have been in the M55 team but he’s so good we needed his talent to have any chance of winning and Mike ran an excellent leg, mixing it with the M35s and Mike Hagar. Mike brought the team home in 3^rd place, in the M45s, behind a stong starting Lincoln Wellington and Leicester, but crucially only 28 seconds behind the leaders and 26 behind Leicester. Paul Birkett was next man out and ran a time close to Mike’s, just 2 seconds down. Paul had pulled back the deficit on Lincoln Wellington to 11 seconds, however Leicester’s Gordon Lee had run the day’s fastest time, 10:16, they were now in 1^st place, 1 minute 10 seconds ahead of us.

Derek Crewe, another one who’ll soon be looking for a berth in the M55 team, was next to go. It didn’t take Derek long to take 2^nd place from Lincoln Wellington and his 11:08 pulled back 4 seconds on Leicester. It was on this leg that the Leicester runner took a slightly shorter route through the handover area, on his first lap. Whilst it was a shorter route I didn’t see the incident myself so I’m not sure if there was a gain or, in the confusion, an overall loss for Leicester, but it was a shame that such a mistake was made during a championship event.

66 seconds behind when I took over from Derek, I went off hard but my run was nearly ruined before I’d got going as a first aider walked straight across the racing line just as I reached him. I was so focussed on picking my line that I didn’t even see him until this lime green vision flashed past my peripheral vision, or rather I flashed past him. I didn’t have time to worry about what could have happened I had a Leicester vest to catch. I shot past a couple of V35 teams and just as I reached the sticky patch I heard the encouragement of the Salford supporters, this spurred me on and I shot up the hill and into the woodland. I felt I was going really fast, everything was hurting and my lungs were burning. Mike Deegan was in the woods and he told me I had gained 10 seconds, that was encouraging and it spurred me on even more, but as I left Mike I had a little reflection on what might happen if next time I saw Mike I had actually lost time. Oh well no point worrying about that now, there was a Leicester vest 56 seconds ahead of me. I finished the lap feeling tired but seeing Dave Lockett waiting in the wings for last leg gave me just the incentive I needed to keep pushing. I sped round the corner, no first aider this time, I could hear the encouragement from my family and various Salford supporters and every shout helped push me further through the pain. Next time I saw Mike he told me I had made 20 seconds on Leicester. It was not really enough and I was running out of time, I just had to hope Dave could run a blinder and Leicester ran out of steam. I wasn’t through though, coming out of the woods I put in a long sprint for home finishing gasping for air. Despite that I’d still only made up 20 seconds on Leicester.

Dave did run a blinder, running our fastest M45 leg (10:31) but Leicester didn’t run out of steam and Dave was only able to take a further 11 seconds out of them to finish in silver position, 35 seconds behind.

We’d given it our best shot, we’d shown our intention, and we’d be back for more. It was a consistent showing from the team, only 37 seconds separated the fastest man from the slowest man, but that’s what you’d expect at this level. We’d gained our first medal in this age group, in this event, finishing 4^th overall in the race. On a personal point I’ve finished the year with 1 silver and 2 bronze BMAF medals and further justified my decision to join Salford.

Our M55 team also took silver behind Staffordshire Moorlands, though if Mike Deegan had been in that race they would have won gold, which would have released Stan Curran to the M65 team where they would have won gold too. But that’s not to throw any criticism on team selection, it’s not easy to make those decisions and the teams selected were selected on making the most of our athletes on the day. So that was 3 silver medals.

The pick of the lot were the M35s who won the overall race with another consistent team performance and so were the only Salford silvers to take gold. Not a bad day, 1 gold 3 silvers, and judging by the atmosphere, morale and inter-team support, we’ll be coming back for more. Particularly as someone had the bright idea to replace the usual post race cakes with post race beer.

I will be writing up a full report on Salford’s participation in this event, which you will be able to find at www.salfordharriers.co.uk later this week.

And while we were drinking beer in Derby the other Salford Harriers were racing in the 2^nd SE Lancs league, which they won. Good day all round.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk