Giving and Taking Advice

2 Sept 1990 – a Sunday morning. I was at Belgrave Hall getting changed ready to run my first half marathon, the Wimbledon. I’d been running for a year and a half now and I’d improved some, my 5k pb had gone from 18:12 to 15:57, but I’d never run as far as a half marathon, not even in training. There was only one reason I’d entered, my girlfriend’s brother was running it and their parents were coming to watch him. Having tried hard to gain their respect for four years here was an opportunity to turn things around in one race. As I got changed there was the usual clubroom banter going on, between guys doing the half and other guys just there for their usual Sunday run.

Amid the banter one old guy came up to me and introduced himself as Charlie Dickinson. I’d never heard of Charlie, not surprising as he’d been travelling around the world since I’d joined Belgrave, but now he was back and about to show the Masters (or Veterans in those days) scene what he could do. But the one thing that stood out about Charlie was that he was full of advice, whether you wanted it or not. I was just trying to relax, enjoy myself and beat my girlfriend’s brother but Charlie kept on giving me snippets of advice I wasn’t really interested in, afterall my dad was old and I’d never listened to him, why should I listen to an old man I didn’t know. I told him I thought I could run 1:20 and he told me I should stay behind Fred as he was definitely going to run 1:20.

With Charlie’s advice firmly in my head I began the race, headed off without Fred and finished in 1:18.50. The last three miles had been hard work and I was knackered. I’d beaten my girlfriend’s brother by about 25 minutes, had I gained any parental respect, probably not as I suffered post race flatulence for the rest of the day and fell asleep mid afternoon. However I had gained a begrudging respect for Charlie, who didn’t abandon me, like I abandoned his race plan, and kept popping up at various places on the course to cheer me on. A year later I started training with Charlie, under the guidance of Arthur Bruce, by now I was a more willing recipient of his advice and we became great friends, how could you not with someone who runs his 5000m pb (15:14) at age 44.

As I improved I started dishing out advice in Charlie fashion, but after a while I realised that people didn’t want to be told what to do all the time, so I stopped. Of course I was happy to dish out advice but now I waited until I was asked. I generally follow that path still, though recently I can be accused of giving one of my Salford colleagues some advice he wasn’t asking for, his response reminded me of this tale.

But I often do give advice to people when they ask, naturally you can get advice from many different sources and often those sources will offer differing advice. That’s natural and it’s up to you to understand the advice and choose whichever course you feel is best for you. I did get annoyed with one client who I gave advice to, they then went to get advice off other sources and spent days questioning why my advice was different to theirs, but that’s another story.

Someone else I took advice from, when I was a beginner runner, was Belgrave’s John Mather, John’s recently opened up a group on Facebook ‘I was, or am a runner!’ There are some great pictures and cuttings being uploaded into the group, from many of Britain’s finest athletes of the past, some still going, worth a look if you can get it.

Moving onto more current times: it’s almost two weeks since I underwent a series of running firsts, it’s amazing how many there are available to me, despite all my years in running. The event was the Northern 12 Stage Road Relay, held at Heaton Park. It was the first time I’d taken part in the Northern event, having been a regular at the Southern event with Belgrave and Herne Hill previously. It was the first time I’d been in a 12 stage B team, when I previously hadn’t been good enough for the A team there was no B team entered, mind you on this particular occasion I’d have been happy to be in the C team. I also thought this was the first time I’d been the slowest short stage in the team during a 12 Stage, but on closer examination I realised I was the slowest in Belgrave’s National 12 Stage team that took Silver in 2004, though on that occasion I was still able to hold my head up with 3^rd fastest on the leg, the two guys faster than me, marginally, were from the two teams I was chasing (we were lying in 3^rd when I took over, and when I handed over), Kevin Quinn of AFD and Duncan Mason of Salford, Kevin I’ve known for many years, we trained together for a while, Duncan, I met for the first time proper at the Northern 12 Stage. Needless to say, on this occasion, I didn’t set the Salford tent alight with a scintillating time, but I did ok, most importantly I came through without making my injury any worse, though I did run into a rock on my warm up and suffered a painful bruised knee for about a week. Salford’s A team were always in the hunt and were just shy of the medals, coming 4^th. The B team were always up there challenging for a National qualification and were well placed with two legs to go, but then we went a man down, a disappointing end to a great day, but not one to dwell on.

Anyone know where leg 11 is?

2010 in the Herne Hill A Team, having a good run sweeping past the Belgrave athlete as I approached the Belgrave supporters, can't remember receiving any cheers for old time's sake!

After the race I went to Spain for a few days, a planned trip to try to sharpen up in the sunshine in anticipation of a National 12 Stage leg. Following our non qualification, my inability to really turn on the pace and the weather forecast, I was wishing we’d decided to go to the Lake District instead, for some serious walking. But as it turned out, the weather in Spain was great, whereas in Britain it was not, and my injury pains started to subside, thanks at last to all the hard physio related exercises I’ve been doing, and I was able to start running a bit faster. In fact, despite only being their four days I was able to train reasonably hard on three of them, the old Rog is coming back. In fact since I’ve returned from Spain my training has gone particularly well, I’m moving freely again, virtually without any pain and with a much improved pace, even on the short sharp reps. Now time to start planning my next race, I think.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Trafford 10k

21 February 2010 – I had a terrible night. I don’t know why, it was just one of those nights where you can’t get off to sleep. The next morning I was due to run the Trafford 10k, having been 1^st M45 at the Alsager 5 two weeks previous, running faster than I had 5 years earlier when I was 1^st M40, I was keen to see what I could do in a 10k. But, when my alarm went off, I felt rough as anything. I got out of bed all the same and went to the window, before me the road was covered in a thick layer of snow. We were renting in the countryside at the time, Hassall Green, there was no way the road would be clear by the time I needed to leave. I supposed the main roads would be clear but I knew the race was around country lanes too. Frankly I felt terrible and really didn’t feel like it, so I did something I rarely do, I decided to skip the race and go back to bed.

Later I heard the race had been rescheduled, due to the weather. The rescheduled event took place on 7 March. I’d had a good winter of training and a long period without injury so I was looking forward to my second bite at this particular cherry. Still new to Cheshire, having only been down since November 2009, I didn’t know many people and, being quite shy, I spent my time, before the race, relaxing with a book. It was a cool but sunny day, perfect for a race, and Chris Thompson, of European 10000m silver fame (though that was to come later in the year), took full advantage, setting a blistering pace from the start. His winning time of 28:02 was phenomenal and over 1 minute 30 seconds ahead of 2^nd place, pretty impressive in this strength of field. In 6^th place Andy Ward was also impressive, 1^st M40 in 30:22. Gary Priestley, prior to him joining Salford Harriers, was in 16^th, 31:46, just ahead of 1^st Salford Harrier, Simon Bruton, 18^th in 31:49 and two places further back was 1^st M45, Roger Alsop, still a Herne Hill Harrier, in 32:19. I’d had a great run, I was flying and best of all it felt so easy. But I couldn’t hang around to bask in any glory or try to make friends with the locals, I was due back in Sandbach to have lunch with the Foster’s, an old school friend and his family.

Move on four years and the Trafford 10k is now firmly established in March. I haven’t been able to run it since 2010, enforced holidays and injuries seemed to get in the way, but I’ve been wanting to for a while. This year the enforced holiday was early and I was keen to have a road race to focus on so I entered, and, in retaliation for all the enforced holidays, I entered Carole as well. I was really looking forward to the race, sure I knew I wasn’t anywhere near the shape I was in in 2010 but I felt I was just about getting over my injuries and starting to train reasonably well. However, then the injury and illness struck again.

Unable to train with any real quality, over the last three weeks, I set myself a realistic goal of trying to run sub 36 minutes. Seems an easy target to beat but considering most of my recent training has been carried out no quicker than 7 minute mile pace, maybe not so easy. That was my realistic goal, but I actually fancied trying to break 35 minutes. To cap it all, just as my hamstring was improving, I pulled it again on Friday night. Just a slight pull but enough to feel a twinge every time I sneezed, yep still sneezing….

Sunday was a glorious day, Carole and I were basking in the sunshine at the start of the 10k. What a change not to wear anything under my singlet, no hat or gloves either, I even got my sunglasses out. We were told to listen for a whistle and 3-2-1, but in reality they might as well have used a dog whistle it was so ineffective. I barely heard it and I was only about five rows back, Carole much further back didn’t hear it at all and thought there had been a false start. Anyway we were off.

Standing around tightly packed is never a great way to start a race, but even worse with tight hamstrings and I felt a slight pull as we started off, I knew it would be ok once I got going but my slow start meant I was swamped in the first k. Frankly I wasn’t too bothered though, I knew I’d pull through as the race progressed.

There were some great results; Nick McCormick was a runaway winner, showing his intent from the start, creating a gap early on, his time of 28:56 was 27 seconds faster than 2^nd place Ross Millington with Richard Weir just 10 seconds further back in 3^rd. Very impressively proving that age doesn’t have to mean decline, Andy Ward was again 1^st M40, two places higher than in 2010, 4^th, with a time 44 seconds quicker than in 2010, 29:38. Salford Harriers were well supported in the race with 21 runners and the usual group of supporters. Our number one on the day was Joe Bailey in 5^th place overall, with a time of 29:47. In 13^th place was Carl Hardman, just a day after finishing 32^nd in the Inter-Counties cross country champs, with a time of 30:41, with Josh Tighe 3^rd man in 36^th place, with a time of 31:57. Dave Lockett ran another great race, a week before the BMAF cross country champs, to take 1^st M45, finishing 48^th in a very impressive 32:48, just ahead of 3^rd M40 Glyn Billington, who set another pb of 32:51. My mate, Rob Tudor, who refused to give me a lift to the race because I have been critical of his musical tastes, was also impressive to take 2^nd M45 in 75^th with a time of 33:35. We also had 2^nd M55 with Phil Quibell and 1^st M65 with Stan Curran.

Myself, I was far from impressive with a race position of 133^rd and a time of 35:41 but I can’t get disappointed with that result, knowing what I know about how my body currently is, though I am disappointed that I’m unable to run properly without pain. Perhaps it’s time to take an enforced break to give my body time to fully repair, or, temptingly, try something else. I did feel disappointment during the race, not for myself, but when I caught and passed Ben Riddell during the last 2k. Ben’s a much younger and faster runner than me but he was jogging when I passed him, clearly something had gone wrong, I hope whatever it is will be fixed soon. As for Carole, in her first 10k for a number of years, she ran well, her chip time was under 57 minutes, which is not bad considering she only trains once or twice a week and the most she’s run in one go, over the last two years, is 5 miles. She was happy with that and I was happy the sun was shining, so off home we went to eat our mars bars and await the official results.

I knew I'd be slow so I picked this crafty disguise so nobody would recognise me - photo from Sid Sacks

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk