The Speedway Reunion

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog, afraid work has kept me busy. I’ve been planning this one for a little while, about a passion I’ve rekindled for a sport I used to watch when I was young. It has nothing to do with fitness, so apologies to anyone wanting to find out the latest gimmick on the fitness front, or what’s been going on in my running world, rather it’s an opportunity to introduce you to a sport that is relatively cheap to watch live, you get to see every inch of the circuit without having to move and it is full of drama. The sport I am referring to is Speedway, have you heard of it? Well it would appear that most of my friends haven’t, as they draw a blank when I say I’m going to a speedway meeting. I find this a real shame because I feel it is an exciting sport to watch and the fans, generally, create a friendly atmosphere. Plus it’s a sport whereby you can actually get to meet the competitors on a regular basis.

For the benefit of those who do not know anything about speedway here’s a quick synopsis:

Speedway is a sport where four riders race against each other on motorbikes that have a fixed gear and no brakes. They race over four laps of a shale/dirt covered circuit, oval in shape, each circuit varying in size but not much different to that of a running track (one circuit). That is a slight generalisation, if you want a more in-depth explanation here’s an extract from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_speedway

For me speedway was something I was into during the 70s and 80s but when I got caught by the running bug, 1989, that, and the fact that speedway started to disappear in London, it spelt the death knell for my speedway spectating. It’s only this year that I’ve got back into it, prompted by seeing a facebook friend was a member of the ‘Speedway Friends’ group, set up by former rider, Karl Fiala. I thought I’d join and, like a running group I’m in, it features many pictures from the past, and has many ex and current riders on it’s membership. This prompted me to start going along to my nearest track and the rest will become apparent towards the end of this blog.

I don’t have much recollection of my earliest involvement with speedway, my dad would take us along to Belle Vue and I have occasional flashbacks of some of the more stylish leathers that were on show, but as for actual memories of races I don’t have any until the mid 70s. In fact one of the things that sticks in my mind from those early days was a brawl between the Belle Vue and Leicester riders, and fans, hardly endorsing my earlier comments about friendliness. But then it’s a tough sport, riding a motorbike at high speed around a short course surrounded by a fence and riders can, and do, crash frequently. Thankfully, I’ve never seen a fatality, though I have seen some serious crashes. Of course, over the years there have been many fatalities and riders leaving the sport disabled, even recently, despite all the safety measures. But it’s such an exciting sport to watch, and must be even more exciting to ride, that the danger doesn’t seem to put off new riders coming through, just as in the early days of the aeroplane people sought excitement, despite the risks.

Whilst Belle Vue was my first experience of speedway, it was at Ellesmere Port, home of the Gunners, where I grew to love the sport. We started going to watch Ellesmere Port in 1976 and I became an avid fan. I have many memories of watching The Gunners in action at Thornton Road, and on the few times that we travelled to watch The Gunners away. Ellesmere Port were in the 2^nd tier, whereas Belle Vue were a top tier team, but that didn’t matter to me, what we may have lacked in household names we never lacked any enthusiasm or commitment. Another major difference in this division was that you felt you could get closer to the riders, who, at Thornton Road, had to walk through the crowd to get to the showers.

My Ellesmere Port Gunners Scarf

Initially Ellesmere Port were quite successful, finishing 2^nd in the league, to Newcastle. It was Newcastle who knocked us out of the knock out cup, in the semi-finals. John Jackson, our top rider, was 2^nd to Newcastle’s Joe Owen in the National League riders championship, but came out on top, with Chris Turner, in the National League pairs, against Newcastle’s Joe and Tom Owen. Plus we were 3^rd in the final of the National League four team tournament. It was also the year that Belle Vue’s Peter Collins won the World Speedway Championship, the first Britain since Peter Craven (another Belle Vue rider) in 1963.

With out and out National League star, Joe Owen, due to move up to the top division in 1977, it was looking like Ellesmere Port could challenge for the top spot, especially as we still had the services of John Jackson, alongside a youthful, but talented team. It was not to be, Eastbourne emerged as the successors to Newcastle, with a very solid squad as the Gunners dropped to 3^rd place. Perhaps too much youth was the problem but it was the policy to try to bring riders through the Saturday morning training school, and it did produce some great future speedway riders. Again we were defeated in the Semi-final of the knock out cup, to Eastbourne. Not getting past the first round of the pairs and only to the semi final stage of the fours, and with Jacko only managing 6^th in the individual event, it was a bit of a downer compared to 76, but third place was not to be sniffed at and the racing at Thornton Road was always enjoyable. 77 also saw the emergence and rapid rise of the third of the five Collins brothers, Phil. Peter was world champion in 76 and runner up in 77, Les would be runner up in 1982, Phil had tough acts to follow.

With the same solid backbone of Jacko and Steve Finch and the improving Phil Collins, 1978 looked like it could be the Gunners year, but in the league it was once again disappointment. Unbeaten at home but with only 5 away wins we could only manage 5^th in the League. We were still good entertainment and I’m sure opposition teams looked forward to our visits. Jacko was again top dog, in the best form ever for Ellesmere Port he was 3^rd in the overall National League averages (Steve Finch was 12^th and Phil Collins 20^th, both showing great improvement), 2^nd in the National League Riders Championship and together with Steve Finch he won the National League Pairs Championship, remaining unbeaten on the night, with Steve Finch only dropping a point in one race. We made the final of the National League Fours competition, finishing joint 3^rd with Canterbury. Once again we failed to make the final of the cup competition, losing to Canterbury in the quarter finals. Phil Collins really made his mark this year, improving all year, he, like his elder brothers, Peter and Les, before, won the Junior Championship of the British Isles and was promptly picked up by Cradley Heath for the following year, going for a British record transfer fee of £15,000.

Without Phil Collins for 1979, but still with Jacko and Finch what were our prospects going to be? Paul Tyrer, a star at Ellemere Port before my time, had rejoined the previous year but hadn’t shown consistent form and in 1979 he appeared to struggle, it wasn’t long before he retired. The rest of the team consisted of young up and coming riders and it was left to Louis Carr to take over the heat leader role vacated by Phil Collins. Whilst not quite matching Phil’s point scoring, he did a pretty good job. Steve Finch did a great job all season, knocking Jacko off the top of the averages for the first time since Jacko joined, finishing 6^th in the overall averages. Perhaps this is where Jacko’s gradual decline started, he was well down on the average he’d achieved the previous year, though still 9^th ranked in the overall averages across the National League. Jacko was still the king around Thornton Road, but was struggling more with his form away from home. With Jacko misfiring a little away from home, a third heat leader who wasn’t quite ready for the responsibility and more youngsters getting their first opportunities of team action, understandably Ellesmere Port didn’t have a great season, they could only manage a mid table 9^th and were knocked out in the 1^st round of the cup competition by league champions elect, Mildenhall. Jacko was once again our representative at the NLRC, but didn’t feature on the podium. On the bright side though Jacko and Finch nearly managed to hold onto their National League Pairs championship, finishing 2^nd to Milton Keynes and on a far brighter note, we won the National League Fours championship, for the first time. So not a great season but we had things to cheer and, the racing at Thornton road was always exciting. This was also the year Ivan Mauger became the most successful rider in World Championship history, winning his 6^th, and final, world individual title.

1980 – Jacko’s gradual decline continued, no longer the king of Thornton Road as both Steve Finch and Louis Carr surpassed his home average. Steve Finch produced consistently good results away from home, showing further improvement from last year and a near 10 point overall average again placed him 6^th in the National League averages, with Jacko slipping to 29^th and Louis Carr not far behind in 33^rd. Looking through the Speedway Yearbook there were lots of high scores for Jacko, but it was the end of season that saw his average go down, for what reason I do not know but from 17 Aug to the end of the season he only had one double figure score, and that was from 5 rides, plus an 8 paid 10 from 4 rides. His average ended below the 9 point mark. The second stringers and reserves were now more experienced but there were just too many meetings narrowly lost, which meant we finished even lower in the league than last year, 10^th. In the cup we were again knocked out in the first round, to a Berwick team that went all the way. In the pairs, Jacko and Finch narrowly missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals and in the fours it was 3^rd place in a narrowly contested final. Steve Finch made his debut in the NLRC, finishing a fine 3^rd, my brother was working for him at the time and I remember Steve dropping him off, very late, that night. This was also the year Mike Lee became the next British Rider to win the World Speedway Championship.

Having sold off Louis and Peter Carr to Belle Vue, in 1980, for a new record fee (surpassing that of Phil and Neil Collins), it was another case of rebuild for 1981. The sale agreement gave Peter another year in the NL with the Gunners, but would he be able to replace his older brother? Newcomer, loaned from Halifax, Australian Rob Ashton started in reserve and produced some great results from the off, quickly moving up into the team and providing solid work. Peter Carr struggled at first but by the end of the season was scoring well to improve his average. Billy Burton came in from Stoke, as Pete Ellams went the other way, another solid scorer at home. Steve Finch was once again top man, but with a reduced average on the previous year and Jacko, whilst scoring well at home, didn’t seem to travel as well and also seemed to suffer a number of uncharacteristic engine failures at home which kept his average well down on his usual and even led to him moving from his traditional no. 1 position, sometimes filling in the 2^nd string role. Phil Alderman, Paul Embley, Pete Ellams (before his Stoke move) and Eric Monaghan were solid riders and there were some big scores at home. But away form and three home losses and a draw meant we only finished 11^th, the worst league position since I started supporting. In the cup, now run over 16 heats we were pretty poor, in the first round we lost at home to Wolves, but managed to beat them away to go through but in the second round we were absolutely trounced at home, 30-64, to Mildenhall, before suffering worse at West Row, 76-20, to go out. I went up to watch the National League pairs championship, only to come away disappointed after seeing Jacko and Finch lose each of their three rides by 5-1, and we didn’t qualify for the Finals of the 4s. All in all a pretty poor season, which is why there were some changes coming in 1982.

The league races format changed for 1982, clearly the 16 heats in the cup had been deemed such a success that the league matches were increased from their traditional 13 heats to match this. Teamwise it was still nearly the same team as the previous year for Ellesmere Port, Rob Ashton had moved on and Peter Carr was now in the Belle Vue team. We started the season with Billy Burton, Steve Finch and newcomer Rob Maxfield leading the team. Eric Monaghan took on the captaincy, with Jacko down as a second stringer, due to his drop in average from the 1981 season. The experienced Phil Alderman was back in reserve position, joined by Rob Tate, until Glen Parrott broke into the team and made an exceptional start. It was probably a bit of a kick in the pants for Jacko, starting the season as the 4^th best rider in the team, based on averages, and he was soon piling up some big scores, ending the season back in the top position, it was great to see him riding so confidently. Another notable change was Mike Lohmann taking over the team manager role from long term manager Joe Shaw.  As the season went on Jacko seemed to relish being no1. Again and was scoring solidly, though he still encountered a few gremlins with his engine along the way. Ably backed by Steve Finch and Rob Maxfield and with Eric Monaghan, Phil Alderman and Glen Parrott scoring well we were generally able to cope with a mid-season misfiring Billy Burton, who found himself relegated to reserve. We suffered uncharacteristic home losses against Mildenhall and Newcastle, but it was a much better season for us, finishing 3^rd in the league. We made it to our first cup final, but lost to the mighty Newcastle. There was another cup, the Super Nat Koc, we reached the semi finals of that and rode against Mildenhall, but then my stack of programmes comes to an end so I don’t know what happened next and I have no recollection of how we fared in the pairs or fours that season.

Little did I know that this was the beginning of the end, not just for Ellesmere Port, but for my own speedway watching. Ellesmere never made it to the tapes for the 1983 season. The loyal, but dwindling crowds just didn’t make it a viable option for the promoters. So for the 1983 season we found ourselves watching our local rivals, Stoke Potters, though it felt a little like home with Jacko having joined them.

Jacko seemed to start well but, if I recall correctly, seemed to lose his spark a little and ended the season on an average around the 6 point mark. He was there again at the first meeting for the following season, was on paid 5 after two rides, came last in his next ride and didn’t take his 4^th ride. For some reason I didn’t go back again until the 6^th meeting by which time Jacko had retired. I went to Stoke a number of times that year, they had a great team with Tom Owen and Nigel Crabtree leading the way and it was good to see Paul Thorp starting to make his way in the speedway world. It’s also interesting to see that a young Tony Atkins was emerging in the junior races, I would come across Tony many years later when I got back into speedway after my break, he remains a Stoke asset and will ride for them in 2016, a the age of 50, I think (I know how that feels).

At the start of 1985 I moved to London, the beginning of a 20 year stint. By the time the speedway season started I was living in Ealing and working in Aldwych. I went a few times to watch Hackney, but of course the big news for me was that Ellesmere Port were back, had a great team and had changed their body colours to gold and blue. I couldn’t afford to go back up north to watch Ellesmere Port, I was working for the BBC and they didn’t pay me very well, so I had to keep in touch via the Speedway Star magazine. I managed to catch them at Rye House, my first and only visit to Hoddesdon, which I can’t remember much about other than one of the Rye House riders playing silly begger trying to upset Louis Carr, something to do with his tyre. Anyway that particular tactic didn’t work but I can’t remember the result. The only other thing I remember about that meeting was meeting up with a small bunch of travelling fans, who were great fun. The only other meeting I can remember was the National League Pairs, which Joe Owen and Louis Carr won in a spectacular final race, though Louis came off on the run in to the line and was unable to parade his trophy. I actually lost my voice that day, shouting for Louis and Joe, I said I was passionate about it, and it was such an exciting meeting. Ellesmere Port won the league that year, the first and only time. Unfortunately Joe Owen suffered paralysing injuries in the last match of the season and Ellesmere Port closed down for good. There was one final meeting at Thornton Road, a benefit meeting for Joe, held on Boxing Day, I was up for Xmas so went along. It was a strange atmosphere, and the track was too slick for decent racing and that was it. Ellesmere Port Gunners were no more. The track has remained but there has been no speedway racing since, this year the track was sold for housing development.

After that I lost interest in speedway a little, too busy partying with my new found friends in London. I did go to Wimbledon once, with my landlord, but then I started having proper relationships with girls and I was hard pressed to find one who was interested in speedway. I moved to Wimbledon in 1988 and went to a meeting at the Dons stadium in 1989, but, despite the great weather, it never took place because the St. John’s Ambulance man hadn’t turned up. I’d also discovered running by now and the Rosenheim League took place on Wednesday nights, same night as Wimbledon speedway, so that was the final nail in the coffin for my relationship with Speedway.

Years later, 2005, I moved to Edinburgh. I was interested to see that Edinburgh still had a speedway team, albeit operating from Armadale.  But with the shifts I was working I couldn’t muster up the interest to go along, plus I was still racing at a high level so put all my energy into my running.

Move on a few years and I found myself back in Cheshire. Living near Sandbach we were ideally situated to pay another visit to Loomer Road. I took a risk, last time I took a girlfriend to speedway she dumped me a few days later, what would happen with Carole? We’d been together two years and I’d moved down to be with her (though I tell my parents it was so I could be closer to them), surely she could cope with one meeting! Turned out she liked it, it was an exciting match Stoke vs Sheffield, but, for some reason we didn’t go back.

This year, as I already mentioned, I decided it was time to have another go. We, Carole (still with me), myself and my dad ventured to Stoke on May 9^th, to see Stoke Potters vs Buxton Hitmen. The track wasn’t in great shape and it brought back memories of 1977 when Louis Carr and John Williams both fell in a heat two and took no further part in the meeting. This time it was Stoke reserves, Ryan MacDonald and Shaun Tedham who fell, Shaun in the rerun too. Both reserves were out for the rest of the meeting, leaving Stoke with only one rider in six of the heats. They fought well, but went down 44–45 in a last heat decider. Who should be involved in that last heat decider, scoring the 2 points for Buxton that sealed their win, only Tony Atkins, who I saw riding at Stoke back in 1984, at almost 50 he’s definitely stood the test of time. That was it, not hooked, but we were going to come back for more. The meeting with Buxton was a Sunday afternoon, which suited us more than a Saturday night, so it was a few weeks before we did make it back for another Sunday afternoon meeting, against Mildenhall. It was a dry and dusty track this time, and more fallers, visibility got so bad that the meeting was abandoned after heat 14’s original run saw three riders go down. With the result at 50-27 to Stoke, there was no point continuing.

The idea of Sunday afternoon racing was becoming quite appealing so the next speedway we went to was at Buxton, the Hitmen vs Kent Kings. This was a meeting full of surprises. For starters the track, whilst not difficult to find, is in the middle of nowhere, down a long lane. Secondly, there was bangor or hot rod racing going on at an adjacent track, at the same time, which surely reduces income for both as some fans would surely watch both. Thirdly, it was the most open circuit I’ve ever visited, not much shelter from the elements at all, but the view was pretty good. Fourthly, the track is on a slope so the back straight is lower than the start/finish straight and finally only four members of the team I’d seen at Stoke were still in the Buxton team, in fact one of that original team was now riding for Kent. One of the best things about it for me, was that you can get up really close to the track, no greyhound track between you and the action. Of course this does mean that you get a bit muddy at times but you do really feel like you’re part of the action. I got talking to a few fans and introduced to former rider Ken Eyre, which was interesting but I didn’t really know what to say as he was slightly before I started watching properly. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but it left us debating where we should watch our speedway, Stoke is nearer and less exposed, but Buxton you feel much more of a part of it.

I went to a few more matches, we couldn’t get into a pattern because we had other commitments and the British weather meant there were a number of cancellations, Stoke had at least 5 home matches postponed and Buxton 2, but as the season went on we were getting more into our speedway, not quite to the level I used to be at, and I still don’t understand all the new rules, but then I’ve not really had the inclination to research them. By October it looked like the season was over, but by now I had something else to look forward to. I’d come across an Ellesmere Port Gunners reunion in October, 30 years after the last speedway took place at Thornton Road. Well I couldn’t resist it, even though I was a little unsure about what it would be like. I didn’t really know any of the fans, I just happened to be one. Who of the riders would be there and what would I say to them anyway! But I bought a couple of tickets, I thought it might interest my dad and would give me some role reversal, taking him after all the years he’d taken me. It also turned out that a couple of local friends used to go to Thornton Road so they took a couple of tickets too.

And then, because of the postponements, there was more speedway. Initially there was Buxton vs Kings Lynn on Sunday 11 October, the day after the Ellesmere Port reunion, and then, Stoke popped in a meeting, against Rye House, on the Saturday afternoon (had it been the usual evening I would have missed it as it clashed with the reunion) and also they were due to take on Kings Lynn at home the day after, after Kings Lynn had competed at Buxton. With Buxton originally going to be the last meeting of the year, that was my original focus, but I decided I’d also go to Stoke on the Saturday. It turned out to be one of the best matches of the season, another last heat decider, which Rye house won to take the lead for the first time in the meeting. Stoke were a bit unlucky, but that’s speedway.

That evening I went off to the Ellesmere Port reunion. I felt a little out of it, not being a local and knowing any of the fans, but I settled down a little, had a look at all the memorabilia and got talking to a few of the riders, though I was disappointed more didn’t turn up, I would’ve particularly liked to talk to Steve Finch. However I had a couple of good chats with John Jackson, such an ebullient rider and yet such a quiet and modest man. A brief chat with Colin Goad, who had been and gone from Ellesmere Port before I started watching them, I left my dad to chat with him, as they were more of the same era, and went off to chat to Eric Monaghan, another quiet and unassuming guy. Finally I chatted to Chris Turner, who, along with Jacko, had won the National League Pairs in 1976.

NL Pairs Champions in 1976, still holding the trophy with pride 39 years later

The next day was a bonus, we (Carole, myself and Carole’s mum, hit Buxton for the meeting against Kings Lynn. More speedway bad luck, on both sides, and another last heat decider, in which Kings Lynn prevailed for a win. Two meetings and a reunion in one weekend, I couldn’t justify the evening meeting at Stoke. So that was the end of my season, as far as I was concerned.

However…..I got wind of what really would be the end of season meeting, a double header at Coventry against Eastbourne and Mildenhall, two weeks later. Carole and I were doing nothing so I somehow managed to persuade her that we should go. I’d never been to Brandon before, the closest I got was living in the same village as Coventry legend, and three time individual world champion, Ole Olsen. As a child I remember going round the back of his house to look at all his trophies, which were displayed in a shed of some type. So this was going to be interesting.

We arrived and managed to find a seat, there was plenty. Interestingly Coventry is one of the clubs that hosts teams from both the top division (Elite League) and the third division (National League). The crowd wasn’t big and it made me wonder how big it would be for an Elite League meeting. The first match was against Eastbourne. I hadn’t seen Eastbourne during the season, but they were clearly a top side, finishing 2^nd in the league and winning the Gold Cup, National Trophy and, the night before, the KO cup, so I was expecting a close meeting. Unfortunately, despite good performances from Bradley Wilson-Dean and Ben Hopwood, Eastbourne never really seemed to get started, struggling with a number of engine failures, and were defeated by a large margin of 57-32. The second meeting against Mildenhall was also a big win for Coventry, 55-36, where guest Danny Ayres was top scorer for Mildenhall.

Buxton’s Liam Carr had guested for Coventry, scoring well, and it was only a few weeks later I was to find out he would be a Coventry rider for 2016. The rider I was most impressed with, on the night, was Coventry captain, Martin Knuckey, he’ll also be back at Coventry next year.

So that really was the end of the season, a season which saw me rekindle my love for speedway and a season that gave us another British World Individual Speedway Champion, in Tai Woffinden, having won his first in 2013. I’m hoping to be back watching speedway next year, but I’m not yet sure where I’ll go, Stoke, Buxton, Belle Vue or even Cradley Heath (who ended up being the only team I didn’t see in 2015). With the introduction of IoW and Belle Vue to the National League it should be an interesting season, but who to support, I really don’t know, I miss not supporting a team but I quite enjoyed being a neutral, a supporter of speedway rather than a supporter of a team.

I’d recommend you try it, if you haven’t before, or even if you haven’t for some time. Compared to some nights out it’s relatively cheap at £10-12 entry for National League speedway, going up only slightly for the higher divisions. With a, usual, 15 races, that works out at less than £1 a race. 

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Hotels California

It was a long time coming but after pulling my hamstring at the Hollins Green 5k I had to get back into racing at some point. With all the other issues I was having with my body my recovery had taken a long time. Thanks to physio, Richard Mason, I had a recovery plan and, although it was slow going, it was going. Initially I didn’t make any plans for a race, somewhere in the distant future was all that I had in my sights, as I tried to just get back and enjoy my running. After a couple of weeks of introductory speedwork I decided I was close to being right, but with a holiday in California on the horizon I was keen to put some kind of marker down before I went away.

Originally I had planned to do a local parkrun on 22^nd August, but the night before I just didn’t feel that I was ready. Yes, a parkrun isn’t a race and I could easily jog round in 20 odd minutes, but I could do that anywhere, if I was going to run a parkrun I needed to at least attempt to run it hard. That way it would give me some indication of form, from which I could progress. The following weekend we were visiting Edinburgh, I had some business to attend to so we thought we’d make a weekend of it and go to some shows at the festival. Perfect opportunity to run a flat, if a usually windy, parkrun. Decision made, Saturday we would run Edinburgh Parkrun.

I always look forward to the Edinburgh Parkrun, for starters it means we’re up in Edinburgh, one of my favourite cities in the world, secondly, I take it as an opportunity to perhaps bump into old running friends from times of old. Sadly once again I was disappointed, but I suppose not surprised, that none of my old running friends were out, I imagine they have plenty of races to take part in, as I used to when I lived there, though I was surprised not to see my old training partner Jim Buick, who usually runs at these events. I did recognise one young lady, Scottish International Freya Ross, but I don’t know her personally so we just acknowledged each other as one Edinburgh AC member to another (well I’m no longer a member but I was wearing my old City of Edinburgh singlet on this occasion).

It was another breezy day, not as breezy as the last time I ran at Edinburgh, but breezy all the same. I wasn’t bothered by a bit of wind, I knew I was out of shape so was fully expecting to run over 18 minutes. After the first k I started overtaking other runners and was surprised how far up the field I was, and also surprised that Freya wasn’t much further ahead, I figured she must’ve been coming back from an injury too. I finished 7^th, a couple of seconds behind Freya, I had been catching her up, gradually, but I was fully spent by the end, though I’m sure I might’ve been able to muster a bit more if it had been a race that counted, but she probably could too and 2 seconds is actually a significant distance at a good pace. My time surprised me, 17:59, considering I ran 18:00 last time I was up, when I was actually getting quite fit, the week before the Masters National Road Relays (though it really was windy then). So quite pleased with that debut, though it will be a while before I race again, due to the holiday.

My intention, during the holiday, was to train when I felt like it, but not to extremes. We were travelling around and I knew that meant we’d be needing to get up and just go, and in all fairness, Carole had footed the bill for this one so it was only fair she got maximum return on her investment. Had I been running well I might’ve had a slightly different attitude. However, as it turned out I ended up training a little harder than I’d anticipated.

I’d not been to California before, I’d thought about it previously but not had as strong a drive or desire to go as to places like Australia and New Zealand. But Carole had been a few times and was keen to show me, so this was our opportunity.

We flew from Manchester, via Heathrow, to San Francisco and caught the train to our hotel, just off Union Square, easy enough. Long day as it was we weren’t too tired and so it was a quick change and off out to see the sights, while it was still light. Knowing her way around Carole took me the route to The Embarcadero, where all the wharfs are, as this would be the best place to get a run in, that was near to our hotel. It did mean crossing a number of roads to cross to get there but then it was traffic free, mostly. We walked up to Fishermans Wharf and had a look at the sea lions, as one does, and then it was time to head back to our hotel, across town, over the hill, finding somewhere to eat on the way. The one point that struck me more than anything else about San Francisco was how many homeless people there were on the streets. Now I’m used to seeing homeless people and I am aware that cities tend to be more of a draw than a village in the back of beyond, but there did seem to be a significant number, and of this number a high proportion seemed to be shouting out loud, whether to themselves or someone else.

Getting a spot in the sun in San Francisco almost as bad as on an Italian beach

The next morning it was up and out for my first run in the USA. I took the same route as our walk on the previous day but continued along from Fishermans Wharf until I got to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, where there appeared to be a swimming event. No time to watch, I had breakfast to aim for. I decided to try going back through town, rather than back the way I’d come. I expected it to be a bit hilly, but I’m not afraid of a few climbs and I wanted to see Lombard street, to see what all the fuss is about. Ok, I found out, there were some steep hills, particularly going up Lombard Street to get to the crooked bit. And then more so cutting back across to our hotel. Luckily, it being a Sunday, the street weren’t too busy with traffic as I had quite a few junctions to cross. Back after 49 mins, a nice little sight seeing trip of San Francisco.    

The Streets of San Francisco, or Lombard Street to be exact

Now I knew where I was going I decided I was ready to do some speed work the next day, though this time I kept to the flat, less roads to worry about. I had started my speed work a couple of weeks earlier by doing 4 x 5 minutes with 5 minutes recovery between reps and 5 x 4 minutes with 4 minutes recovery between reps, each week I would reduce the recovery by 1 minute, so my first bit of speed work was a 4 x 5 minutes with 3 minutes in between reps. It went well, the sun was shining and I didn’t get run over. The following morning, we had a busy day so I was up early and out for a 6 mile run. During my stay in SF I had noticed that runners didn’t appear to be as polite as some other places I have run, i.e. I come from the running background of making some kind of acknowledgement to runners as you pass them, whichever way they are going, whether this be verbal or a nod of the head. I’ve got used to being ignored by people with ear phones in but in SF runners coming the other direction would just stare blankly ahead and not even take a 2^nd look to my smile and ‘morning’. Having spent a few days in SF I decided that this wasn’t blatant rudeness, it’s just a protection mechanism, based on the premise that the only person who speaks to a stranger is a madman, and there were plenty of them in SF. So By now I’d decided to be less friendly to other runners, but then I got engaged in conversation with a fellow runner, it was only brief, a young lady who I overtook but clocked that she wasn’t hanging around, she caught me up at some traffic lights, that were too busy to jaywalk, so I told her I thought she was moving well, we exchanged a few words, and the lights changed we were off. I quite expected her to come with me and was prepared to slow down to enjoy a Southern California running conversation, but she wasn’t there a few metres later so I ran on, we passed again on my return and we wished each other well, and I went home for breakfast, this was the only runner I had any kind of conversation with in California, not counting the shop in San Diego. The difference in traffic, on a working day, was pretty significant, I wouldn’t have wanted to run again in that. Thankfully, from a running perspective but not from a leaving SF one, we were picking up a car, early the next morning, to begin our trip to San Diego, so running would be off the agenda for the day. I was ready for a rest by now anyway.

When I was last in the states, Boston and the East Coast, we did some driving and I suffered from a dodgy hamstring, something that I do occasionally have problems with. So I was a little concerned about how the drive would affect me, but this time, we weren’t travelling anywhere too far, so I’m glad to report it didn’t.

Next stop down the road was Monterey. We weren’t located too far away from the place we’d booked our car hire, and that was round the corner from entry to the 101, so it was an easy exit from SF and a straight forward drive, to get used to the overtaking/undertaking mentality of drivers in the states. On the way we popped down the 35 to Santa Cruz, where a few films have been shot. It was a lot smaller than I expected, and fairly deserted, but it was at a point when lunch beckoned. After a wander through town Carole selected a place, but after 5 minutes of being ignored by the staff and thinking it looked a little dirty we left and went across the road to another joint.

Famous boardwalk in Santa Cruz

Lunch done and it was creeping towards mid-afternoon, time to set off for Monterey. We arrived late afternoon, but the sun was still shining, and as I’d allocated this as a no run day, we went for a walk along the front and up the pier. The pier was, a little fake, but interesting. As we wandered up the pier we kept getting enticed into the bars for happy hour. Carole was keen as there was sparkling wine involved, me not so much as the choice of beer was poor. We did find one, that didn’t quite match Carole’s objective, but did mine, but they had no outdoor seating. Finally the bar at the end of the pier had it all, IPA on draft, sparkling wine cocktails and seats in the sun, so we stopped there. The beer was actually a bit of a let down, the only poor IPA of the holiday, so we only stopped for two and went home to dress for dinner.

The pier at Monterey

Having walked to Cannery Row for dinner I knew where my run would go the next morning. And so it did, along a cycle path/walkway, which was quite busy with early morning walkers, fitness walkers, joggers and cyclists. Still it was good enough for me and a session of 5 x 4 minutes with 2 minutes recovery. After breakfast we visited the famous aquarium, which was so interesting it kept us occupied until mid afternoon. Whilst we were on the pier, the previous day, we’d looked at the various whale watching trips. I wasn’t too bothered, I’d been twice before, but girls just wanna have fun so we decided to go for what we thought would be a 5:00 sailing, thankfully we got there iin time for the last sailing of the day, 4:30. As usual it was a long drawn out trip to get to the sightings, but once there, whales were everywhere. We saw diving, breaching and even that move they do where they scoop up a load of fish in their mouth. Dolphins, as normal, on the way out and back, and it was a good fun trip.

The next morning we were moving again, driving down the 1 (scenic route, longest route north to south (or south to north depending on your viewpoint and direction of travel) in the states). It’s not a particularly long way to Pismo Beach but the ‘1’ is a long and winding road, with some spectacular scenery, just lending itself to stopping for photo opportunities, plus we were intending to stop at a couple of places for excursions as well. With this in mind, and still being in my ‘I’m on holiday, not a training trip’ state of mind, I skipped my pre-breakfast run so that we could get away sharpish. We avoided Carmel, which everybody tells me is another beautiful place, relying on getting down the road some before the slow pace kicked in. And then we hit the Big Sur. Many people have spoken or written about the beauty of this drive, I’ve even seen some pictures, but, it was far more stunning than I expected and brought me to the conclusion that this was the most attractive drive I had ever undertaken, and I’ve done my fair share of driving. I may be wrong, I remember some great ones, the drive from Corran Ferry to Acharacle struck me both times I drove it, the sheer peace and beauty of the setting, even more so if you’re in a convertible. We stopped on a number of occasions just to get sight of the views and to take numerous pictures, which won’t have done it justice.

First official stop was at San Simeon, to see the Elephant seals. There were lots of them, it smelt a bit fishy. They weren’t as big as I was expecting, probably the wrong time of the year, most were asleep and those that were fighting were only schoolboy fighting, again, probably wrong time of the year.

Next stop was Hearst Castle. According to the rules, and knowing the background of the Hearst family I’m sure I could be facing a lawsuit if I was to breach them, I’m not allowed to publish any pictures of the property, so I won’t bother trying to describe it, other than to say, it was worth a visit, we enjoyed it very much and I could have spent a good couple of hours more there had I been accompanied by a more patient wifey. But we still had some miles to travel before we touched down in Pismo Beach so fair enough.

So off we toddled to Pismo Beach, we found what we thought was our hotel, it seemed ok, bit near the motorway, nice views over the sea, we hadn’t gone into town yet so we weren’t sure how far that was, but it didn’t seem that near! Turned out it wasn’t our hotel, the hotel we had been booked into, some months back, had changed it’s name and was a little further up the road, further away from town. It was a very pleasant hotel, with great views from our balcony, but not for the last time would we find ourselves a long way from the action, communication obviously broke down between the wifey and the travel agents when discussing our criteria, but you’d think they’d inform you that what they had booked you had changed it’s name. Feeling a bit frustrated I decided to don my running kit and have a run down into town to see how far it really was and to see if I could find a restaurant I’d been recommended. It had been a long day, I was tired, hungry and dehydrated, so it was a bit of a shuffly run, and a bit frustrating as I went down road after road that looked like it would lead to the beach, only to find they were fenced off. Finally I made it and ran along the promenade to the end of town, it didn’t take long, it’s not a big place. I ran back along the next street, thinking this was the only other street, couldn’t see the restaurant I was looking for and decided it was a bit of a dump.

I reported my findings back to Carole, as she lounged by the pool, and went to have a shower. I couldn’t see me enjoying myself these next two days, after the great places we’d just been to. Having looked up the restaurant I realised there was another street, but decided I’d need to drive down, rather than take a long walk. Driving down into town it was the first time we’d had to use the car to go out for a meal and was the first time we encountered the parking issue (despite there being lots of parking spaces, there don’t appear to be enough for the amount of cars requiring them). We did eventually find a place and decided to have a little walk before we looked at the restaurant I’d been recommended, and it just so happened we found an Italian restaurant that looked good, it also looked busy but they surprised me by having a table available. We had a great meal and almost witnessed the Heimlich manoeuvre first hand when a woman on a table near us stood up and started panicking about not being able to breath. Heimlich not required, it was just a panic attack. A swift walk along the promenade made me realise that it wasn’t such a bad place afterall.

The next morning it was quality run, I was going to do the 1,2,3 stock training run. I decided to go away from the town as I’d seen some paths that led to a cliff walk. Sadly they didn’t go far enough and within 9 minutes I had to turn around and head towards the town, still it was a fair way towards the town so I didn’t have to cross many roads and had a pretty decent run. The rest of the day was spent visiting various places, starting with San Luis Obispo, nice place, some old buildings, low level town, nothing much there of significant interest but a pleasant enough place. We left SLO and headed to a small town that I can’t remember the name for. It was a lovely town though and we sat and had lunch there before heading back down to the beach, via Oceano and Grover beaches, where they allow you to drive your car across the beach, which in effect made it look like a giant car park with people sitting on deckchairs by their car and having a picnic, we didn’t stay long. Then onto Pismo, where we surprisingly found a parking space and went for a walk down to the beach. It was busy in town so for dinner we decided we’d try the restaurant attached to the hotel we originally thought we were staying at, the added benefit of which was that we could walk and I could have a drink. Knowing how busy it was we went to book in, but they weren’t taking anymore bookings, their policy was for people to turn up and wait for a slot. Ok, so we were getting used to that by now, so maybe we’d have to wait 30 minutes. Back home, some relaxation time.

When I’d gone out for my run in the morning, I had realised that the views further away from town were pretty good, so we decided to walk that way, before heading to the restaurant, that way we’d probably see some nice sunsets. But as we got closer we decided that it would be a better idea if we got some fish and chips and sat on the cliffs watching the sunset, so we diverted to the business end of Shell Beach. We couldn’t find a take away, but we did find a bar serving food. Still we had plans to see the sunset and eat at the place down the road. So we headed back to the cliffs and strolled around, taking pictures, then we went back past our hotel to the restaurant, to be told the wait was 2.5 hours. 2.5 hours, I could not believe it, we’d walked all that way and it was a waste of time, the girl we spoke to in the afternoon hadn’t given any indication that the wait would be that long. Well that was it, I decided we’d have to get in the car and we’d try the bar up the road, no point in going to Pismo, it would be mobbed. Back at the bar, there was a queue there too, but, as we were happy to sit at the bar we got straight in, and it turned out to be a great meal and the bar man was a nice chap, even if it did mean we had to watch some American football.

The next morning we were heading for Santa Barbara, so it was a simple 6 mile run down to the beach and back up to the cliffs, north of us, then back to the hotel. We arrived at Santa Barbara too early to book into our room, but, once again, found ourselves a long way from the town centre. We decided to drive into town and find a car park. However before we did we found a nice little space on the main road, just before the main town, and took it. Conscious we’d probably only have an hour’s parking we thought we’d explore a little and try to find the car parks, but, as it was Sunday, it turned out to be free parking all day. So we left the car where it was and walked into town.

Santa Barbara, is a bit different to the sort of cities I’m used to. There isn’t so much a centre, where everything is huddled together, it’s more of a strip where shops and restaurants stretch along one street, with some shops off on side streets but very little, other than businesses and housing in the streets that run parallel to this main strip. Plus it goes a long way with a tunnel under the 101 to get you down to the beach.  With our hotel a couple of miles away from the start of this strip I couldn’t see me doing a quality, or any other kind of run down to the beach, as you know, runners aren’t keen to stop once on the run. As we got near to the beach we came across a running shop, so I went in to ask for some advice of where we might be able to do some good quality sessions near to our hotel. Very helpful assistants but I don’t think they understood what I was after as they could only come up with runs that were completely unsuitable. Oh well, I’m good at making do and can make a session in a small area if I have to. The next morning I was out before breakfast, we were on a busy main road, but just a couple of blocks back it was almost quiet. It was time to do my 4 x 5 minutes, I was down to 2 minutes recovery. Unfortunately there wasn’t a great deal of space available before I ran out of safe ground but I made the most of it, running uphill for 5 minutes, down the same hill for 5 and repeat.

The following day was going to be our longest drive, through LA to finish up our stay in San Diego. Because of this, and the fact I couldn’t face doing a steady run up and down the same hill, we decided we’d just get off and run later in the day, it looked like our hotel in San Diego had some decent running routes nearby.  It was a long drive, but not too long, thankfully, and thanks to the car pool lane, which allowed us a slightly swifter journey through LA, so we arrived at our hotel early afternoon a bit tired and a little bit hungry. After changing our room for a slightly better one our first impressions weren’t great, the hotel was once again way out of the city, the island view was muddy and it was raining, hard. Although this was the first day we’d had rain since we’d arrived in California, it was a bit disappointing, when you’re tired and hungry it’s the little things that matter. We headed off to try to find some food, but roads that are simple to navigate when you know exactly where you are, become a nightmare when you’re unsure of yourself and Carole’s navigating, particularly when the roads are multi-lane and busy. Eventually we found somewhere and had a nice Mexican. Then onto the beach at Pacific Beach, where Carole insisted we went shopping, I ended up buying her two pairs of sketchers and in the process had my credit card cloned. Thankfully my credit card company dealt with this a lot quicker than I expected, though that meant the end of my credit card use for the rest of the holiday. And that was a big shame, no more shopping!

Back to the hotel, I thought I’d check out the area, see how good it was for running. I was a bit tired so just ran around the park area the hotel was situated in, a nice 6 miles covered and recce done for tomorrow morning’s speed work. The next three days in San Diego were fantastic, weather was back to being great, it’s a great city and we were constantly busy visiting loads of places, again a little problem with finding parking spaces and the first grumpy waitress was encountered here. On the last morning, as I was doing my final quality run in the park, before heading home, there were large groups of college runners and a marked out course on the grass. It looked like there was an inter college cross country race meeting, but I was too busy trying to run fast to ask, besides we were on holiday, Carole wasn’t going to entertain watching that.

And then it was all over and we were heading back home, to surprisingly warm temperatures. I did feel very jetlagged when I got home, many years ago I could come of a flight like that and smash an 8 mile run, not these days, it actually took me about three days before I felt fully with it again, so my training did suffer a little, but I was soon back training hard, then it was off to Lisbon, but that’s, maybe, another blog.

But to finish off, my training is now back to normal, I’m getting fitter, faster and stronger with each run. There’s still a way to go yet but I feel like I’m getting competitive, not that I know when my next race is going to be, these days you don’t seem to be able to just rock up to them on the day and I obviously didn’t enter any whilst I was in recovery mode. I could try a parkrun, I may try a parkrun, but we’ve been so busy since our return from California that I quite like the idea of a lie in on a Saturday.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Rehabilitation Once More

It’s been a struggle to keep the running going these last five years. In 2010 I was flying high, ranked as one of the best M45 distance runners in Britain. With a couple of individual National silvers, a European bronze and an England representation, it was a good year. Then it all went pear shaped. Injury after ever increasingly worse injury forced me to keep taking breaks from running and making comeback after comeback. I struggled to maintain form and yet I still carried on winning National medals, albeit as part of a very strong Salford Harriers team.

Hitting 50 this year I was hoping I might make an impact similar to 2010, with a new age group. But it has proven not to be the case. I did get up to some good form, I even made it into the Salford team for the National Road Relay, where we once again took silver, but soon after that my running year appeared to be over. Groin strain became hamstring pull became stiff and painful knee. After struggling through training for a few weeks I eventually stopped running. A short break and I was back running, gradually building up from a 5 minute start, but by the time I’d reached 45 minutes the knee was back to it’s worst, time to call in the experts.

I booked in to see Richard Mason at Weaver Physio, in Northwich www.weaverphysio.co.uk. Chosen on the basis that Richard had himself been a runner with a 2:22 marathon best, so he’d obviously know how to deal with a runner, and all the foibles that entailed.

Richard, being very busy and my working hours being all over the place meant it was a further week before I got to see him. Turned out to be a problem with my sacroiliac joint, one of my weak areas. Problem fixed and more strengthening exercises to do, I went away with the happy command to start running the next day, 2 minutes walking followed by 2 minutes running for 20 minutes.

Over the years I’ve done numerous strengthening exercises but some of those that Richard gave me were a little different, and I can understand why they work, so not only am I doing them religiously but I’ve incorporated some of them into my work, to help my own clients.

Day 1 I set off on my 2 minutes walk, 2 minutes run x 5 and it felt fine, though I could feel a slight ache in my knee towards the end. I continued the same for the next three days and then, feeling a bit more confident I upped it to 2 minutes walk, three minutes run x 5 for a couple of days. I saw Richard again at this point and all seemed to be going well, I was still experiencing a slight pain and stiffness in my knee and the groin and hamstring were still showing signs of previous trauma – but things were looking up.

Richard didn’t ask me to come back, I’ll admit that I was a little unsure with this as I was still experiencing some discomfort, but I knew I could always ring and book another appointment, if necessary.

With a slight improvement in confidence I decided it was time to bring down the walks to 1 minute and increase the runs daily. So the next day it was walking 1 minute, running 4 minutes x 5. Still not a great deal of running and certainly not much distance covered, but I was getting faster on my runs and things were improving, even if my knee was still aching towards the end of the run.

I suppose I should mention, at this point, to keep perspective, that although I wasn’t running much, I did continue to cross train; utilising anything that didn’t seem to make matters worse. I was taking part in the boot camp I run, twice a week, my clients benefitting from the fact that I hadn’t done a long run prior to that so I was fresher and able to push the pace a little harder. I was still doing kettlebell and battle rope sessions and doing steady peddling on a static bike. All of which has helped me to maintain a healthy weight and keep my fitness levels up above the average Joe. The only thing I haven’t been able to do is push myself to the cardio vascular level of my peer group in athletics, but that will come later, hopefully.

As things progressed I started the jumping up a little more in running time;

1 minute walk to 7 mins run x 5

1 minute walk to 10 mins run x 4

1 minute walk to 15 mins run x 3

I took the next day off running, as I’d done 12 straight days of it, albeit the early days I wasn’t covering much ground. Then back on it;

1 minute walk to 15 mins run x 3

1 minute walk to 20 mins run x 2

At this point my knee was aching more than usual, towards the end of the second 20 minutes so I decided not to progress anymore for the time being but to take a step back. Knowing that I’d been ok for the first 20 min run I decided to just do one continuous run each day, gradually increasing the time. At this stage I kept in a 1 min walk at the start, so I didn’t set off too fast.

25 minutes on day one, followed by 30 minutes on day two, etc. By now I’d stopped walking and today I feel good, I ran 46 minutes this morning, some knee niggles at various points of the run but generally I’m ok.

My plan going forward was to continue around 45 minutes a day for a few days and then introduce some light speed work before I go any further, but I’ve just taken on a new client who I’m going to introduce to interval work tomorrow. I think I’ll cope.

Where does this leave me with future plans?

Well I still have no plans to race, I won’t even think about that until I can do a full on speed session. At the moment I’m not pushing the pace at all, the knee hurts more the faster I go so I’m keeping down to 6 min mile pace as my fastest. I will continue to do my exercises daily and I’m hoping I can continue in my progress, only time will tell. I haven’t even looked at the race calendar so I don’t know what’s coming up or what Salford have planned in terms of relays. Before I race I’m likely to test myself out over a parkrun, that way I don’t have to travel far to break down again. If all goes well we can start planning 2016, at least loosely.

Before I go I’d like to say congratulations to all my friends in Master’s athletics who are competing in Lyon, the World Masters Championships. Naturally I would have loved to have been there competing too, but injury put paid to that. There have been some great results, particularly in the M50 age group, which shows me how far I need to go before I can even think about aiming for the top of this group.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Some Pain, No Running

Well it’s been four weeks since my last blog and I suppose that’s mainly due to me having nothing much to say, certainly from a running point of view. The winner of the free entry, mentioned in the previous blog, for The Spartan Race was Paul Simons. Not only did he win the free entry but he won the race he was put into. Well done Paul. I’d mentioned that I also had an entry should I choose to enter. I’ll admit I wasn’t that bothered but in the end I picked up some injuries that meant it would have been a particularly stupid thing for me to take part.

This year’s injury woe goes back to May, just when I was starting to find some form I got a niggle in my groin. I thought it was manageable and I was able to represent Salford in the BMAF Road Relays, where we picked up silver medals. A couple of weeks after that it started to get worse so I rested it, not easy when you spend your life showing people how to get fit.

I had an entry for the Hollins Green 5k, I’d entered after the BMAF relays, confident of a sub 17 clocking, but I didn’t think I’d be able to take part as I was resting and losing fitness right up to the day. On the morning of, I decided to try a short run, groin was ok, but it had only been slow. However we were going to be in the Hollins Green area that afternoon so I might as well turn up and, if nothing else, I could have a pleasant run around the new circuit. So I did.

But, running’s one thing, racing’s another, after a bit of discomfort in the first 200m, I settled down and realised I was running ok and was also not doing too badly. Being around a few of my regular competitors was like a red rag to a bull so naturally the competitive instinct kicked in and I started to push the pace. I still felt good, and I felt surprisingly fit, considering the lay off I’d had. Coming up towards the finish I realised I was actually on for a time not that far off my season’s best, so I pushed harder, and that was the mistake. Clearly the groin issue had caused my other muscles to tighten up and I felt my hamstring go, thankfully only 10m before the finish line. I hobbled over and still managed a 17:21 clocking.

At first I thought it was just a minor strain but I was unable to run on it for over a week. The following weekend we were booked to go to Spain, my intention, when we booked it, was to fine tune my training before the BMAF 5000m, but now I was just hoping I’d be able to run whilst out there.

Spain was hot, but I don’t mind that, and I was keen to start running. So I did, on the day after we arrived I went for a 5 minute spin. Well it was actually a shuffle and a very uncomfortable one at that, but no reaction on the hamstring, so later that day I did 10 minutes, this time with Carole. I felt much better and much looser, such that, although I wasn’t actually going that fast, Carole was struggling to keep up with me. The next day was 15 minutes, much quicker again and I was starting to feel like I was going to be ok. A gradual build up over the week saw me get close to the hour and feeling good, I even threw in a speed session. Just one little annoyance, a niggle in my left knee, the same one I get occasionally. It wasn’t stopping me doing anything so I thought I’d just monitor it.

there was even a 10k on while we were there but I wasn't ready for that, shame I enjoy racing when conditions are hot

Arriving home my first session was a speed session, but this time the knee started to hurt more. I decided to lay off the pace and just run for a few days, then by Friday it started really hurting. So I’ve made the decision to stop again and see if a rest will serve as a cure all, again, not ideal when you’re working in the fitness industry.

I’ve got a scan booked on my groin, it’s still niggling, but come the day, I might see if I can get them to scan my knee too, I’m not hopeful but if I smile nicely you never know.

Effectively that closes the book on 2015, the re-ignition of my enthusiasm for racing, following the BMAF Road Relays, has been dampened down. I no longer have any interest in racing, I know this will change once I’m clear of injuries but I suspect it’ll take me a while to get back any decent level of fitness, in the mean time I’m trying to do anything that I can to keep fit and healthy, without causing any further grief, but it isn’t easy.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Obstacle Course and Other Similar Events

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know I’m a runner, pure and simple. For many of the 26 years I’ve been running I’ve been a pretty competitive runner, winning numerous medals along the way. During the bulk of those competitive years, certainly since 1993, when I won my first County championship, I’ve believed that if I wanted to be successful in my chosen field I needed to be very focussed and, consequently, some things had to go. I gave up football, badminton and skiing, and have never made any effort to go back to those. I was also particularly driven to seek my success on the track, which meant, other than road relays and the occasional excursion, I kept away from road races. That was a personal decision, influenced by my first coach, Arthur Bruce. Other athletes managed to have successful track and field seasons as well as doing well on the roads and I did have road race cravings but I stuck to the plan, and it worked for me. It was 1999, following a long term injury and a change of coach to David Lucas, that I decided I wanted a change of race format, and I started seeking out more road races rather than track races, but I was still very focussed on being the best runner I could be, so all my training was running based.

Had you come to me at any time since 1993 and prior to my becoming a Personal Trainer in 2009, with the suggestion of taking part in an obstacle race, I would have said no straight away. It just wasn’t my thing, and besides, I knew I could beat the majority of people in a straight forward race, but the moment you put obstacles in my way, that required you to use, technique, core and upper body strength, I knew I’d just make a fool of myself. I struggled to climb a rope at school and I remember it was a struggle for me to do even one press-up whilst in my teens, add to this the inflexibility of a long distance runner and a core used to nothing more than holding me up straight, so what chance had I against strong fit guys over an obstacle course.

It wasn’t always so; back before I took up running I played anything and everything I could and I was equally bad at hockey, football, basketball and tennis, amongst other things. In my early years as a runner, 1989-91, I wasn’t really considered that good at that either, and neither trained particularly cleverly or specified. I’d pretty much race anything, anywhere and was often seen at local leagues running the 100m, 400m, 800m and 3000m in an evening meeting. But I was having fun, I was finding myself, I didn’t think I was going to be any good, it wasn’t like I’d been a runner at school so had a very specific progressive path, I didn’t even know many of the top runners names.

Back in the early 90’s I did actually take part in an obstacle race. I think it was organised by the round table and took part in Sidcup. It was a work thing and a team event, the object being for a team to get a tyre round in the fastest time. Our interpretation was to give the tyre to the biggest guy and run around with him, which was pretty stupid really because it meant there was no real team work, no real thought process and the whole thing, for me, felt a complete waste of time, I wasn’t challenged, and even the beer was rubbish. After that little episode I decided not to waste any energy on ‘Fun’ events, I was only interested in something that I could measure my progress on, e.g. finishing higher up or, going faster, or longer. But….deep down I always had that inclination to try another obstacle course, one that was me against the clock and/or other competitors.

Focus continued on my running, such that I was 46 before I even did my 1^st parkrun. At this same time I was training guys from the parachute regiment and they went to one of these obstacle events, it was winter, it was cold and they came back telling me about plunging through ice into freezing water. Now I don’t like the cold at the best of times, I will run in it, but I don’t like it. I was also starting to see an increase in the number of this type of event. There always seemed to be some element of wading through mud, I was already doing that, running at Bogarts Hole Clough, and other not quite as but still, muddy cross country courses. I hate mud, I love cross country on difficult courses, as long as it’s not muddy. Seeing pictures and videos of people running by fire, electric fences, barbed wire, tunnels. Why would I want to do that, particularly as I was now starting to find some form in running.

And then I got contacted by Dan, who asked me to write something in a blog about the Reebok Spartan Race UK. I’d heard of the Spartan Races but knew little about them, the first thought I had was ‘what could I say’, I’d never had any inclination to enter an obstacle style mud race. But then I thought a little deeper and I realised that what I could write about was why somebody like me wouldn’t be interested and what might appeal to somebody who wasn’t like me. As I thought about it, I reflected on my current state of mind, with regards to taking part in running races and how much I enjoy aspects of my training, other than running, e.g. boot camps, and maybe it was time to seek out a different challenge.

So I decided to find out more about the races, and went to the page that Dan sent me, http://spartanracemedia.com/uk . Suffice to say that these races offer a lot more than just a stroll through the park and from a competitive point of view are probably more suited to the fitter boot camp or cross fit type competitors, alongside ex-military, who probably fit into the previous categories, but more as trainers. But having said that they offer a challenge to anybody who is willing to get their hands, and the rest of their body, dirty and push themselves to their limits, and there are many of those judging by the facebook posts I read about people doing marathons and ultra runs.

Now I lead, and take part, in a boot camp twice a week, and, although I still don’t have a big upper body, it is a lot stronger than it used to be. It’s got me thinking, ‘would this sort of event suit me’? I don’t know the answer to that, but the only way I could really find out is by taking part.

Having lost some of my cardiovascular fitness, due to multiple injuries and illnesses, over the last couple of years, I no longer find myself at the sharp end of races. This has led to a slight loss of motivation on my part. Admittedly I’m still highly motivated to train hard, and I do, but I’m not motivated to commit so much time to a race where I won’t feature high in the results, at the expense of spending quality time with my partner. I was lucky enough to make it into the Salford team that won Silver at the Masters Road Relays, just a few weeks ago, the difference in my racing approach to how I’d approached races for the last couple of years, was clear, I was so highly motivated and committed to doing my best I actually ran better than current form. It swept me forward on a wave of motivation, my training got quicker and I was looking forward to my next race. With extra speed comes injury and, I’ve given myself a groin strain. It’s been manageable with treatment, but today it went big time. I need a rest, that rest could be a couple of days or it could be a couple of weeks, either way it’s likely to affect my fitness. Obviously, whilst it will put me back against my peers in running races, I won’t lose a lot against the general population of Britain, so maybe it is the right time to try something different, see how well I fair against other people who have their own level of fitness, see how I fair against the course, after all I always fancied a go on the Krypton Factor obstacle course.

These events aren’t cheap, and I know many runners who would baulk at the cost, but, having recently tried to organise an event myself, I understand that there is a cost to putting on an event. Admittedly those that are successful make good money out of it, but you’ve got to start somewhere and starting up always incurs the greatest cost. So I don’t begrudge this cost, if you do you don’t have to take part, there are other options.

To help with costs, Dan has given me a code for anybody who reads this blog to use, which will give you 10% off entry to any of this year’s UK Races (South Wales – 20 June,  Manchester – 4-5 July, Scotland 18-19 July, Cambridge - 5 Sept and South – 19-20 and 27 Sept, details of all can be found at the link above. The code is :- BLOGGER15

Additional to this, I have another code, that can be used only once, for one event, for one lucky reader. This will give you free entry to any one of the UK races, if you’re interested, email your name to rogalsop@googlemail.com, before 12 June, all names will then go into a draw and the winner will be sent the code.

I haven’t made up my mind whether I’ll be joining you, lets see how my injury recovers and where I am with my fitness, but I haven’t ruled it out either.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk