The Run Cross Challenge – Progress Report

Well It’s a few weeks on from the announcement that I was putting on this event. To recap the event is somewhat unique in that it takes a championship track format and puts it onto a cross country course, i.e. there are a series of qualification rounds, followed by a grand final, where the winner takes all. Plus the addition of a prize for the fastest time run during the day. Naturally, nobody wants to go home after one race, so I’ve even catered for that by giving everybody knocked out, on the way to the final, an extra race, to aim for that fastest time. So, as a minimum, for the £6 you get two races.

Things have been coming along nicely but one thing I will say, I now have an appreciation as to why race entries cost so much, it’s because everything you need, in order to put on an event, especially a one time event, costs so much, as an example, my original plan was to organise the event on a trail course, but the cost of hiring toilets would have been astronomical. In order to keep the price down I had to look elsewhere. Luckily I remembered a place from my youth and have found a great course, with toilets included.

The venue is the playing fields at Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, with whom I have built a good relationship. The cost of hire includes use of the Leisure Centre toilet and changing facilities, next door. You can see a map of the course here http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/fullscreen/667614846/

I have a UKA permit for the event, 2015050, which means I’m insured, I have a few volunteers, though because one has just moved out of the area I’ll need a couple more. I use the term volunteer loosely as I intend to pay expenses and provide a lunch. This week I managed to get an agreement to borrow some fence posts, to mark out the course, from Vale Royal AC, so thanks to them, also thanks to John Lloyd of Cannonball Events, who also offered to loan me some. A tent and other support comes from Bill Bradley, best known for being a run director at Pennington Flash Parkrun, and also organiser of the Flash In The Park event, which takes place on 21 June. The only things I really need to organise are tape, numbers, pins and a few other ancillary items, essentially I’m good to go.

I’m quite excited about the event, it’s a great course, I wish I could actually run it, but I’ll be too busy, now all we need is runners to understand the concept and buy into it by entering. I’ve set the event limit at 300 (which doesn’t mean 150 male and 150 female, it’s whoever enters first).

Then there is the little matter of prizes. Well, I know this won’t suit everyone but there are no medals for completing an 800m course. I currently have a cash prize fund of £60, which will go towards the prizes for first male and female and fastest male and female. I’d like to make larger awards, or spread out the prizes, but this will be dependent on number of entries. Though for me, just taking part would have been enough, getting into the 2^nd round would have been great, making the semi’s fantastic and making the final, beyond belief. How far can you go?

Here’s hoping we have a great day’s racing and everybody has fun. All details will be updated on the facebook page Alsop Events and I’ll also keep things up to date on www.rogeralsop.co.uk/events Entry forms can also be found at those two places, plus Northern Runners Guide online listings and Runners World online listings. Hope to see you there on 31 May.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Slow Progress, But Progress All The Same

It’s something you’ll find with most runners, we’re rarely happy with our performance in races. Somehow though it seems I’m happier than most, which is probably because when I started I didn’t expect much. Starting at 24 and running 2:15.2 for my first 800m, improving that to 2:14.8 at the next attempt and then running 18:12 for my first 5k, you wouldn’t have predicted that this guy was going to be a star. And you’d be right of course, there have been bright moments but I’d describe that more like torchlight than starlight. Of course I am still critical of my performances, these last three years they’ve been well down on where I had been only a short time before, but I understand why and I accept that, whilst still maintaining the motivation to train hard to improve, hopefully somewhere closer to those times.

A year after being torn apart in training and in a track 5k, by John Mather, and my first road race win, a 1 mile in Battersea Park - 4:35, they tell me it's a slow course

It must strike some runners as odd that another runner can be disappointed with a 35 minute 10k when the majority of runners would be happy to get within 5 minutes of that, but I say to them, would you be happy with a time 5 minutes below your best, or even 1 minute below. I had the same experience once when I went out on a training run, one Sunday morning, from Belgrave Hall. I was joined that day by John Bicourt, one of Britain’s top steeplechasers of the 1970s and one of his athlete’s (he was an agent and coach), Ismael Kirui, twice world 5000m champion. We got talking and John was saying how Ismael had had a disappointing season, he’d only run, I think, 13:04 for 5000m. Naturally I was astounded, as a 14:35 man, at best, I would have been happy with 14:04, let alone 13:04, but, as John explained, Ismael needed to go sub 13 minutes in order to compete against the best. I could understand, it was like the general club runner standards we sometimes set, sub 2 at 800m, sub 4 at 1500m, sub 9 3000m and sub 15 5000m (those were mine anyway).

So don’t begrudge us our moan, we’re all human, even if we are runners.

Onto the progress: I’m still really finding my feet as I lurch from niggle to niggle or cold to cold, it seems to me that, almost every time I run hard I have to hold one aspect back, to avoid pulling something or struggling with my breathing. However I am now starting to get some consistency in my training. Since March I’ve really started to feel like I’m getting somewhere, not where I want to be but at least I’m on the move and in the direction of my ultimate goals. A 17:20 at the Halewood 5k was my fastest around that particular course and saw me push myself harder than I had for ages. A week later I managed 10^th M50 at the BMAF cross country champs, a result in my mind, considering only a few weeks earlier I didn’t think I was fit enough to compete, sure I was a long way of the leaders but I was getting competitive with those running around me, and to cap it all off I left with a team silver medal.

Not letting that M50 catch me

A week on from that and I was up in Edinburgh, once again I ran the parkrun and was rewarded with a big improvement on previous times I’d set there. The 17:12 was also only one second off the best 5k time I set last year. Mind you I was on the ragged edge to get there so could see it would be a few injury and illness free months before I’d be back under 17.

I hadn’t done a 10k since last year’s Trafford 10k but now I thought it was time to have another go, so I entered my club’s 10k, in Salford, on Good Friday. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to run but I fancied trying to sneak under 35 minutes, and I was on target, for 2k, but then I struggled with confidence in my fitness and drifted off target, slightly, finishing in 35:31. Surprisingly I wasn’t unhappy with that, I felt like I’d run it as a hard run rather than a race so all I needed to do was keep training how I have done and wait for the confidence to grow, I know it will if I can keep those injuries at bay.

Feeling feisty in Salford

The day after the 10k, Carole and I flew out to Spain, time for a break from our normal lives and an opportunity to train hard with no external pressures (other than a stiff wind). I hit the training hard with some of my tougher sessions and two long runs with steep hills, easing back just a little towards the end of the week, as my body started to complain.

Back in the UK, and would you believe it I spent the first night sick, must’ve eaten something dodgy on the last day. Still I managed to do my fartlek the next morning and I’ve been trying to maintain solid training throughout this week. I have another 10k coming up soon, I’d like to think there would be an improvement on my time from Salford, but I’m not going to beat myself up if there isn’t.

The Run Cross Challenge has been occupying quite a bit of my time over the last few weeks, I’ll aim to give a progress report on that in my next blog.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk