The number 80 bus

I first contemplated the possibility of an 80% age grade (AG) as I turned 49 and reviewed the performances required at age 50. Of course in the intervening years 80% has come a little closer in absolute terms, but nonetheless three years later, it has finally turned up and I am happy to be on board. In fact, as is traditional, three or four have turned up at once.

The number 80 bus … three or four have turned up at once!

Notwithstanding my advancing years, I am still very much motivated by achieving absolute PBs – faster times – and so I really wanted any 80% AG performances to meet this condition too.

Parkrunning as often as I do, and given my greater ability over shorter distances, it was always likely that I would run my first 80% at a parkrun 5k. My existing PB was 18:50 set in August 2017, when I was 51 – 78.94% AG. Over the next two months, I ran close to my PB again – 18:54 and 18:52 – which, by virtue of being after my 52nd birthday, improved my AG – to 78.80 and 79.28% respectively.

At the beginning of this month, and now aged 53, I ran 18:52 again – an 80.12% AG. I took some satisfaction from this but hoped I would be able to improve my absolute PB and thus satisfy my self-imposed criteria. It turned out that I was about to embark on a quite remarkable, to me, series of performances …

Number 80 timetable

date, venue	age	time	AG*
3 Nov 2018, parkrun – Dulwich (5k)	53	18:52	80.12%
10 Nov 2018, parkrun – Dulwich (5k)	53	18:48 PB	80.41%
18 Nov 2018, The Brighton 10k	53	39:18	80.03%
24 Nov 2018, parkrun – Dulwich (5k)	53	18:44 PB	80.69%

I now have two races left this season, the 5 mile at Perivale on 2 December and a final raced parkrun at Dulwich on 8 December. Of the two I really want a PB (currently 31:28, 76.91% AG at age 49) at the five mile race and sub 31:00. Conveniently 30:58 is an 80.03% AG 😉 To complete the sequence of 6 consecutive weekends with a further 80% AG and even another 5k PB would be amazing!

* The AG percentages used throughout this post are calculated using the 2006/2010 tables. I use these as a matter of habit since parkrun uses the 5k subset of this data to calculate its published age grades. The latest 2015 tables produce slightly lower percentages, respectively the four performances in the timetable are 80.02%, 80.30%, 77.82% and 80.59%.

PB review 2017 & targets for 2018

At last, after two years in the running semi-wilderness, 2017 was a resoundingly successful year. The dip in mileage during November and December was not due to injury and the lesser dip in April was simply post marathon recovery.

2017 was a resoundingly successful year.

I participated in 20 parkrun 5k events this year, across 5 different venues, and ran most of them competitively. At Dulwich parkrun in August, I improved my longstanding 2014 5k PB of 18:53 to 18:50. In the next two months, I continued to record excellent times – 18:52, 18:54 and 18:52 – every time I ran a parkrun competitively.

Outside parkrunning, I participated in my first marathon, which was a great experience if not an impressive performance, and I improved my 10000m PB twice such that my track time is now on a par with my road PB and the targets I have set for both now seem genuinely realistic. On my 52nd birthday, 1st October, I ran the Kingston Half marathon with the aim of setting a new PB, faster than the now disqualified 86:29 I set at Brighton in 2015. Coming as it did during the best three months of my year – August to October – I was initially somewhat disappointed to run ‘only’ 86:41. But, since Brighton 2015 was officially 146 metres short, it is clear that this is a better performance by any measure. I will definitely be returning next year and hope to be ready to attempt sub 85 minutes.

So, once again my targets for 2018 are unchanged from last year. This year I really want to get on the track and improve my middle distance PBs, but having entered another marathon is not exactly conducive to that! On that note, last year’s Brighton Marathon was hard enough that, at this moment, notwithstanding that I am running strong I think it is unlikely I will commit to my sub 3:10 target time from the gun.

	2017 season				2018 season
event	opening PB	target	events	improvement	target
800m	2:25.9	2:19.9	—	—	2:19.9
1500m	5:18.2	4:49.9	—	—	4:49.9
mile	5:31.7	4:59.9	—	—	4:59.9
3000m	—	9:59.9	—	—	9:59.9
5000m	19:01.53	17:59.99	—	—	17:59.99
5k	18:53	17:59	20	August 18:50	17:59
5 mile	31:28	29:59	—	—	29:59
10000m	40:41	38:29.99	2	June 40:28.20, September 39:05.53	38:29.99
10k	39:04	38:29	1	—	38:29
10 mile	66:41	64:59	—	—	64:59
half marathon	86:29	84:59	1	October 86:41	84:59
marathon	—	3:09:59	1	April 3:47:58	3:09:59

I am still in denial about getting older and so I am holding out for absolute PBs – that is improvements in my best times. However, for the sake of completeness shall we say, I have listed my age grade (AG) bests and am particularly hopeful that 2018 will see the achievement of my longstanding goal of an 80% age grade.

event	time PB	AGe when set	AG of time PB when set	AG PB	age when AG PB set
800m	2:25.9	48	78.32%	same	—
1500m	5:18.2	48	72.77%	same	—
mile	5:31.7	48	75.50%	same	—
3000m	—	—	—	—	—
5000m	19:01.53	49	72.21%	same	—
5k	18:50	51	78.94%	79.42% (18:52)	52
5 mile	31:28	49	76.91%	same	—
10000m	39:05.53	51	77.64%	same	—
10k	39:04	49	77.94%	78.20% (39:54)	52
10 mile	66:41	48	74.33%	same	—
half marathon	86:41	52	78.58%	same	—
marathon	3:47:58	51	61.73%	same	—

 

PB review 2016 & targets for 2017

My running in 2016 ended on a relative high. This is probably better phrased as, “My perception of running in 2016 was only saved from being ‘a complete fiasco’ by returning to a decent level of activity in December.” I ran 21 parkrun 5k events this year, but most of those were simply part of the process of recovery from one injury or another. Certainly, none were PB attempts and the fastest, 19:23 at Dulwich in June, was a full 30 seconds outside my 5k PB. Outside parkrunning, I participated in only three events this year. The first two of these were also in June; a 3k team relay and a 10000m PB although the latter was more of a statistical anomaly than a notable performance. By July I was already injured when I participated in the Thunder Run 24 hour team relay which really was such a fiasco that I couldn’t bring myself to write a blog post.

Running in 2016 was only saved from being a complete fiasco by returning to a decent level of activity in December.

Consequently my targets for 2017 are unchanged from last year. In fact, I have removed the 50k target which I optimistically added last year as part of my #50at50 challenge. If I am unable to maintain marathon training this year long enough to line up at the Brighton Marathon in April I will likely acknowledge that the marathon is beyond my physiology and remove it too next year.

	2016 season				2017 season
event	opening PB	target	events	improvement	target
800m	2:25.9	2:19.9	—	—	2:19.9
1500m	5:18.2	4:49.9	—	—	4:49.9
mile	5:31.7	4:59.9	—	—	4:59.9
3000m	—	9:59.9	—	—	9:59.9
5000m	19:01.53	17:59.99	—	—	17:59.99
5k	18:53	17:59	21	—	17:59
5 mile	31:28	29:59	—	—	29:59
10000m	44:04	38:29.99	1	June 40:41.00	38:29.99
10k	39:04	38:29	—	—	38:29
10 mile	66:41	64:59	—	—	64:59
half marathon	86:29	84:59	—	—	84:59
marathon	—	3:09:59	—	—	3:09:59

PB review 2015 & targets for 2016

The running year that was 2015 came to a singularly disappointing end for me and was only saved from complete statistical ignominy by February’s half marathon PB at Brighton. Achilles tendonitis, though only diagnosed as such in July, affected my season from February and morphed seamlessly into prepatellar bursitis during September which then accompanied me joylessly to the end of the year. Although I ran ten parkrun 5k events this year only three of these were inside twenty minutes and, of those, I ran only two as PB attempts. Hindsight seems to suggest even those were limited by the then undiagnosed tendonitis. Consequently my targets barely require revision for 2016.

The running year that was 2015 came to a singularly disappointing end for me.

Nonetheless the presentation of data in tabular form always engenders inordinate inner joy and so I have indulged myself to the full. Compared to last year I have set targets in three additional disciplines. The 5000m and 10000m targets are prompted by my participation in a 5000m, in April at a Highgate Harriers open meeting, and my aspiration to run at Highgate Harriers night of the 10000m PBs respectively. Although I had already run once in each discipline, both in 2006, I hadn’t previously noted these PBs separately from my 5k and 10k times; primarily because they were slower than my times in those disciplines anyway. The two track disciplines should of course be faster than their road race twins – the times for a 50 year old male recording an 80% AG performance are:

• 5000m 18:01.80 / 5k 18:26.25 [ track just over 24 seconds faster ]
• 10000m 37:37.91 / 10k 38:22.50 [ track nearly 45 seconds faster ]

With these comparisons in mind the targets below for 5000m and 10000m are clearly much kinder than the existing targets for 5k and 10k retained from last year. Personally an 80% Age Grade remains a Holy Grail – most of my PBs equate to an AG of around 75% – and since my strongest times are in shorter events it is unlikely I will ever achieve an 80% AG at 5000m or 10000m. Similarly the targets below for marathon and 50k – the third new discipline – are even kinder; the times equate to Age Grades of 73.41% and 71.90% respectively.

	2015 season				2016 season
event	opening PB	target	events	improvement	target
800m	2:25.9	2:19.9	—	—	2:19.9
1500m	5:18.2	4:49.9	—	—	4:49.9
mile	5:31.7	4:59.9	—	—	4:59.9
3000m	—	9:59.9	—	—	9:59.9
5000m	20:27	—	1	April 19:01.53	17:59.99
5k	18:53	17:59	10	—	17:59
5 mile	31:28	29:59	—	—	29:59
10000m	44:04	—	—	—	38:29.99
10k	39:04	38:29	—	—	38:29
10 mile	66:41	64:59	—	—	64:59
half marathon	89:16	87:29	2	February 86:29	84:59
marathon	—	3:09:59	—	—	3:09:59
50k	—	—	—	—	3:54:59

Well, that is as much joy as I can realise from reflection on statistics alone. Here’s to a happier New Year with some actual running!

If … Age Grade Holy Grail revisited at 50

Shortly after my 49th birthday, I considered the times I would need to achieve to record an 80% AG at that time. Having completed my 50th year at the start of this month, and spurred on by a comment from runningest sister after last weekend’s Bromley parkrun, I have revised the times, again using the Running for Fitness calculator. The slightly easier targets, combined with several PB improvements since my original post, have moved the Holy Grail just a little closer. In some disciplines tantalisingly so …

event	80% AG time (male, 50 yrs)	current PB	improvement required	pace improvement required per km
800m	2:25	2:26	0:01	1s 3:03 – 3:02
1500m	4:54	5:18	0:24	16s 3:32 – 3:16
1 mile	5:18	5:32	0:14	8s 3:26 – 3:18
5k	18:26	18:53	0:27	6s 3:47 – 3:41
5 mile	30:29	31:28	0:59	8s 3:55 – 3:47
10k	38:23	39:04	0:41	4s 3:54 – 3:50
10 mile	63:00	66:41	3:41	14s 4:09 – 3:55
half marathon	83:41	86:29	2:48	8s 4:06 – 3:58
marathon	2:54:20	—	—	4:08

If, and that’s an important ‘if’, I can stay fit throughout my fiftieth year I hope to enter at least one event each of the disciplines above in a PB competitive state. The comments I made in my original post regarding how many of the disciplines I might achieve an 80% AG at still stand – essentially up to and including 5 miles at the most optimistic – so the addition of a marathon to the list is purely for interest. In any case I will approach these AG goals cautiously as I do not want to jeopardize my returning, and hopefully ongoing, fitness and hence my #50at50 challenge and in particular my first marathon and first ultramarathon within that.

All the same, it would be nice if I could record one.

A big ‘if’. Similar to an important ‘if’. Both being quite nice.

.

First 100 events

9 years, 3 months and 2 days after my first event, the London British 10k on 2 July 2006, last Saturday’s Bromley parkrun was my one hundredth. I have run in 12 different disciplines; listed here in order of my first running of each.

event	count	first	last	fastest
10k	22	2 Jul 2006, 46:40	16 Nov 2014, 39:04	39:04
5000m	2	23 Sep 2006, 20:27	15 Apr 2015, 19:01.53	19:01.53
SSRC 4 mile fun run	4	28 Jan 2007, 27:48	24 Jan 2010, 28:28	27:43
10000m	1	15 Sep 2007, 44:04	—	44:04
half marathon	7	28 Mar 2010, 98:13	29 Mar 2015, 87:14	86:29
5k	47	11 Aug 2012, 22:39	3 Oct 2015, 20:50	18:53
5 mile	4	2 Dec 2012, 33:11	7 Dec 2014, 31:28	31:28
Beckenham RC handicap	5	13 Feb 2013, 23:27	9 Oct 2013, 25:35	23:02
800m	2	6 Nov 2013, 2:30.1	4 Dec 2013, 2:25.9	2:25.9
1500m	3	6 Nov 2013, 5:18.2	5 Feb 2014, 5:20.9	5:18.2
10 mile	1	1 Mar 2014, 66:41	—	66:41
1 mile	1	5 Mar 2014, 5:31.7	—	5:31.7
SSRC 10k (short)	1	25 Jan 2015, 39:19	—	39:19

Whilst many of those event disciplines – 800m, mile, 5k, half marathon etc – are commonly understood some will be unfamiliar: Just what is a Beckenham RC handicap for example? An explanation of these anomalies, together with an up to date event count beyond the date of this post, can be found on the Event Counts page (also accessible via Stats on the site menu).

9 years, 3 months and 2 days after my first event last Saturday’s parkrun was my one hundredth.

I take some satisfaction from reaching 100 events and find it is interesting to reflect on how the frequency and diversity of events has increased since my early years. Although my progression has been slowed over the last two years by injury, I am certainly anticipating my 200 event milestone already. Although I may not add many new disciplines – just marathon, 50k and 3000m currently come to mind – I am hoping to reach the next milestone relatively quickly. My #50at50 celebration, which started at Bromley last weekend, should get me close to 150 by this time next year if all goes well.

 

Highgate aspirations

A few days ago I saw someone tweet that they had just entered @HighgateHarriers’ “Night of the 10,000m PBs”. The combination of the graphic and the event name immediately had me hooked and I favourited the tweet so that I could return to it and investigate entry later.

The graphic and event name immediately had me hooked.

One of the first things I came across on Highgate Harriers website was video highlights of the 2014 event …

Now that looked really exciting.

All but one of my races over the distance have been 10k road races the only exception being back in September 2007. It was a charity race, and just my eighth event overall, but had the kudos and excitement of being run on the track at Crystal Palace. I recorded 44:04; a mark that wasn’t even representative at the time as I had already recorded 41:08 on the road. In the last couple of years, as I have taken more interest in participating in track events, I have reflected on finding opportunities to run both 10,000m and 5,000m on the track to see just how much difference the speed conducive conditions might make in comparison to my 10k and 5k road times.

Of course my excitement should have been tempered sooner by the realisation that such an event would not be entirely open. I soon found details of the entry timetable:

February 22
entry opens to men / women who have run sub 32:00 / sub 37.30 respectively

March 15
entry opens to men / women who have run sub 33:00 / 38.30 respectively

April 5
entry opens to all who have run sub 38.30

There is no fixed closing date, entries will be closed when the race limit for 6 races is reached. Qualifying times must be 2014 or 2015, track or road.

Yikes!!

My current PB, set in November’s Brighton 10k, is 39:04. I know that a further 34 seconds is a big improvement, but my current PB was a 29 second improvement on my previous best. So the only questions that remain are: Can I reach the qualifying standard in time for this year’s event or will it have to form part of my #50at50 series next year? And, even if I can reach the standard, will entry still be open? 😉

Swanage SSRC 10k / 9.75k

I ran Swanage Sea Rowing Club’s annual run each year from 2007 to 2010 in its original incarnation as a four mile fun run. Since its reincarnation in 2013 as a 10k yesterday’s race was my first.

I started out with a target of 40:30 in mind since I knew the course was undulating/hilly. As I wouldn’t be making a PB attempt. I did a minimal taper; modifying the preceding two runs from a Thursday 20k long run and an easy 10k on Saturday to two easy runs of just under 10k on Wednesday and Friday. Taking into account the constant elevation changes I didn’t run to a pace target, but rather set out to maintain my effort by heart rate. From the start we gained about 26 metres to the high point of the course at one mile. Noting my heart rate of 154, and that I’d averaged a pace of 4:09/km climbing to this point, I decided on 155 as my target heart rate for the remainder of the race.

Since Swanage Sea Rowing Club’s annual event reincarnated in 2013 as a 10k, yesterday’s was my first.

The undulating course through country lanes and quiet seaside town roads made for an enjoyable and quite exhilarating run. The roads weren’t closed to traffic, but this had almost no impact on my race. In addition to the excellent marshals there were quite a few clusters of supporters at various points on the course giving generous encouragement to everyone who passed. Beyond about three kilometres I was effectively running on my own having started immediately behind those actually standing on the start line and passed perhaps eight or ten runners during the initial climb and subsequent kilometre. I could see the two runners ahead of me for the remainder of the race, except when I briefly lost sight of them around a corner or over the brow of a hill, and used them to keep myself focussed. Not trying for a PB I didn’t push hard to reel them in, but held on to them to help ensure I didn’t relax too much. I remember noting that as my watched chimed 6 kilometres the time shown was exactly 24 minutes and so on target for something around 40 minutes. I think it was at this marker or perhaps at the next that I noticed my watch chime the completed kilometre exactly at the marker.

The final kilometre marker appeared just before the course joined the sea front and with the actual road surface absent during the road works it was absolutely necessary to run on the, still paved, pavement. Finishing uphill and back into the car park at Swanage FC the time recorded on my Garmin, 39:18 and just 14 seconds outside my PB set at the almost perfectly flat Brighton 10k in November, caused me to immediately check the distance field. I hadn’t been pressing hard and notwithstanding the ascents and descents I finished still feeling relatively fresh.

My FR620 showed 9.77km. Looking on Strava, which displays distances to one decimal place, the eight activity records I have seen are all either 9.8 or 9.7 kilometres. Present in equal number this, of course, produces an average of 9.75km; 250m short. [update March 2017, since my original post I have become aware that Strava doesn’t round to one decimal place, it actually truncates. Consequently, my original text now struck-through should read “9.80km, 200m short”]  Since it is highly unlikely that the eight runners all ran the perfect racing line I think the course was probably at least 300m [update March 2017, “250m”] short.

Having become a more serious, and for that matter GPS-device-owning, runner since my previous entries the status of the run has become more significant. I appreciate the presence of the word “fun”, in some descriptions of the event, is a strong indicator and the course doesn’t appear to be certified, but all the same I am mildly bemused that the organisers laid out a clearly short course for an event which they chose to describe as a 10k. Given how well everything else was organised – advance and on the day registration, marshalling, direction signs, post run water and medals, club house cakes and winners’ presentations – it seems bizarre. Not having run the 10k in either 2013 or 2014 it may be that the course was changed from a more accurate one to accommodate the significant ongoing road works which appeared in a couple of places on the course. Even so it would apparently have been a simple matter to add another 300m [update March 2017, “250m”] …

Again running an event with both my step-dad Alan and brother-in-law Rob we entered as a team and at the winners’ presentations we claimed the team prize. It may well be that we were the only team, but the significant piece of carved Purbeck stone is still ours to keep until next year. I think it looks quite fetching on the Purbeck stone hearth, also adorned with a Swanage swan, at my mum and Alan’s house in Dorset.

At the winners’ presentations we claimed the team prize. It may well be that we were the only team.

results

official time + 200m + 250m + 300m	39:19 40:08 (projected assuming constant pace) 40:20 (projected assuming constant pace) 40:32 (projected assuming constant pace)
biometric summary	average HR – 154 max HR – 160 (estimated personal maximum – 172) average cadence – 188 approx start weight – 69.6kg
position	overall – 16 out of 166

PB review 2014 & targets for 2015

Ending 2014 on a high – running over 120 miles and recording a PB in each of the last three months of the year – the middle six months where I didn’t run a competitive event now seem a long time ago. My primary PB focus this year was intended to be on distances of 5k and shorter, but that failed to materialise due to injury*.

Ending 2014 on a high – running over 120 miles and recording a PB in each of the last three months of the year.

One positive of being sidelined was that I took time to focus on weight management and successfully reduced my weight from around 73kg and rising, at the end of March, to around 67kg and stable since June. I am certain that my reduced weight has been a significant factor in the subsequent PB improvements I have made, although I’ve yet to realise all the hypothetical potential I calculated when considering my Stillman running weight.

Around 67kg and relatively stable since June this year, I am certain that my reduced weight has been a significant factor in the subsequent PB improvements I have made.

To minimise the risk of further injury during my extended recovery period, I chose to focus on restoring strength and endurance at the expense of absolute speed and so reverted to historical type and ran exclusively longer distance events. Hence the only targets I’ve needed to revise this year are those at 10k and above. The marathon I’ve only included for fun since my first marathon isn’t due until twenty sixteen anyway.

	2014 season				2015 season
event	opening PB	target	events	improvement	target
800m	2:25.9	2:19.9	—	—	2:19.9
1500m	5:18.2	4:49.9	1	—	4:49.9
mile	—	4:59.9	1	March 5:31.7	4:59.9
3000m	—	9:59.9	—	—	9:59.9
5k	18:58	17:59	13	March 18:55 October 18:53	17:59
5 mile	31:36	29:59	1	December 31:28	29:59
10k	39:33	38:59	2	November 39:04	38:29
10 mile	—	67:53	1	March 66:41	64:59
half marathon	89:53	88:59	1	March 88:16	87:29
marathon	—	—	—	—	3:09:59

Whilst the right hand column is optimistically labelled “2015 season target” I’m curious to discover if any of these ever need revising again; it may be that it could more accurately be labelled “lifetime target”. In any event, whether I can achieve these targets or not, I am hopeful that I have at least two or three more seasons where I’ll be able to improve my PBs in as broad a range of distances as I have in the last two. With an eye on 2016’s marathon I shall be doing everything I can to stay injury free next year and hope that this will enable me to run a similar number of events as I did in 2013. If this in turn results in PB achievements as extensive as either 2014 or 2013 I’ll be very satisfied indeed.

I’m hopeful that I have at least two or three more seasons where I’ll be able to record PBs across a broad range of distances as I have in the last two years.

Here’s to a Happy New Running Year. And a good one in all aspects of life for that matter! 🙂

* I have agreed with myself to stop linking back to the posts I made at the time, but am making a final exception as I say farewell to 2014 and re-spraining my right ankle back in March.

Two Races, One Prize

race to the start line
This morning’s Brooks Brighton 10k was the thirty first running of the event and my second participation. My first was last year’s race at which I set my existing 39:33 PB – my only 10k under 40 minutes. I entered in late September confident that by race day I would be fit and ready to improve my PB. Although my previous 10k in Bournemouth at the beginning of October had not quite gone to plan – I finished in 40:04, short of the 39:29 target I’d set myself – I felt confident that this time, with several more productive weeks of training behind me, a good PB was achievable.

Four days before the race I began to develop a cold and two days before the race I added a toothache to the, by now, flourishing cold. On the day before the race I had to acquire some clove oil to subdue my toothache and that evening my wife seriously suggested that I pull out of the race. As I had on the previous night I went to bed sensibly early to get as much sleep as I could and was relieved to find no sign of my toothache and the merest hint of my cold when I awoke on race day.

Re-invigorated by my recovered health I pinned my race number to my vest, collected my other race kit together and added post race water, banana and cereal bar to the passenger seat before hopping in to the car and pulling out of the drive. I estimated that I’d be parked in Hove about half an hour before race start. Within just a few yards I realised I’d bought no money and so returned to pick up a credit card for the petrol which it looked as though I might need on the return journey. Setting off again I relaxed long enough to get several hundred yards from home before remembering I’d need change to pay for parking when I arrived. I turned around and drove home again. I could only find a £10 note and so, departing for the third time, had to detour via a shop to break the note. Having delayed myself significantly I realised a typical journey time would now only get me to the car park in Hove about 15 minutes before race start. And I seemed to remember that covering the distance between the car park and race start the previous year had taken around 20 minutes … Including running part of it, perhaps 2k, as a warm up.

I pinned my race number to my vest, collected my other race kit together and added post race water, banana and cereal bar …

Fortunately the roads were clear on a Sunday morning heading out through Croydon and down the M23 to Brighton. Suffice to say I probably set a PB for my trip. Checking the time (and my speed) constantly en route I was relieved to park and start my watch at 9:11am to begin my warm up along the seafront towards Brighton. The piers took a long time to start getting closer … 2k and 10 minutes later I reached the burnt out West Pier and could see I wasn’t going to be passing the Palace Pier any time soon. Smiling blithely to myself I rationalised that since the race was chip timed there was no point in exerting myself unduly to get to the start and decided to maintain a sensible warm up pace and join the field as far forward as was practical. Stopping my watch as I neared the start area I re-tied my shoes and, as I walked up to the field, noted I’d run about 3.3k in a little over fifteen minutes. I walked down the side to pass as many runners as I could before joining the throng. And shortly after I did so I noticed the race had begun. Walking in the crowd I barely had time to become concerned that being hemmed in on all sides my starting pace would be so slow that it would compromise my race.

The burnt out West Pier …
[ photo David Iliff* ]

I needn’t have been concerned. Although I was clearly out of position relative to the runners around me I think this actually worked in my favour as most of them were probably, as I often do, running a little too fast at the beginning. Consequently, even though I did pick my way through and around some other runners where this could be done without expending disproportionate effort, the fields’ relatively accelerated pace helpfully held me at a pace closer to my own target than I would probably otherwise have achieved with a clear road ahead. I recall seeing 3:54/km during the first kilometre and reflecting that I certainly wasn’t being held up. I decided to aim for 3:57/km (39:30) for the first half of the race with a view to picking up my pace towards 3:54/km (39:00) in the second half if I felt strong enough.

Having run East off the start line we turned around a cone just after 1.5k and from about this point the field had become spread out just enough that I no longer felt constrained by it and was able to pick a line between and around other runners at will. Only rarely did I have to check my pace briefly as larger groups formed momentarily before breaking apart again to reveal my path forward. I made it my focus to watch for these groups forming, gently ease up as I approached them and anticipate the gap / side which would open up allowing me to pass easily without adversely affecting any of the other runners and with the minimum need to decelerate or accelerate myself. Psychologically this continuous flow of passing other runners helped me enormously. Also I noticed that my watch chimed the passing of 2k and 3k within just a few metres of the official markers which encouraged me further as the pace displayed on my watch would be very close to the pace I was actually running.

Passing back through the start area just after 3k I spotted a friendly face – a member of my running club in the crowd – who cheered me on. As the race continued West I started to look for other Beckenham RC shirts and vests in the sea of runners I was passing through and as I approached each one I called out, “Go Beckenham!” and held my thumb up as I passed. As I currently do most of my running in the mornings I don’t actually see my club mates very often, but hopefully my club vest offset the fact that many of them probably wouldn’t have recognised me even from the front! As the race continued the sensation of passing other runners, picking up the fastest in any particular group and following them through before passing on the way to the next group, was exhilarating. Through kilometres 4 and 5 my current kilometre pace occasionally showed 3:52/km or 3:53/km and as I reached half way and saw my average pace to that point stood at 3:55/km I felt sure that 3:54/km (39:00) was a real possibility. At about 6.5k, and just a few hundred metres away from my car,  the course turned around a cone again and I headed East once more.

Quite quickly I became properly aware of the effort I had been putting in for the first time. Looking at my current kilometre pace I briefly saw it showing 4:05/km and then 4:02/km and I found myself beginning to consider settling in behind one of the stronger runners and holding on. Even now though I was still passing runners constantly and didn’t want to give up on the promise of the first half of my race. I resumed my focus on following the fastest runner in any particular group and using him or her to get to the next group. My current kilometre pace settled back below four minutes. Once kilometres 7 and 8 had passed, my watch still chiming within a few tens of metres of the official markers, I started to consider the finish. The Palace Pier is only about 500 metres from the finish although it seems further and reflecting on last year’s race I had decided that pushing hard only from this landmark actually left my finishing push too late. I decided to push from 9k.

The Palace Pier is only about 500 metres from the finish … although it seems further.
[ photo Ian Stannard* ]

As my watch chimed I gradually accelerated, focussing on my form and not tipping myself beyond the point at which I could maintain my effort … As I passed the pier the finish did still seem a long way off. And I was already pushing hard and had been for 500 metres. I saw another Beckenham shirt and recognised the wearer. Surely I could catch him? These sensations; physical and mental, of striving to catch the runner ahead, deciding that I can’t and then resolving that I will … And the repetition of this struggle as the line at last begins to become a believable reality, encapsulate what racing is to me: It’s difficult and exhilarating, impossible and wonderful. All at the same time.

And the feeling lasts such that it is still powering me completing this at a few minutes before midnight rather than sleeping as I surely should be.

prize numbers

finish time	chip 39:04 PB (gun 40:22)
splits	pace 3:59, 3:57, 3:53, 3:53, 3:53, 3:55, 4:01, 3:59, 3:58, 3:36 approx HR 151, 155, 158, 160, 160, 160, 160, 160, 160, 163
biometric summary	average HR – 159 max HR – 165 (estimated personal maximum – 172) average cadence – 185 approx start weight – 67.9kg
positions by chip time (gun time)	overall – 196 (270) out of 3173 gender – 186 (246) out of 1670 category VM40-49 – 54 (73) out of 543
on time	warm up – 9:11am, 3.2k, 15:24 race – 9:31am, 10.0k, 39:04 warm down – 10:33am, 3.3k, 16:21
on reflection	It transpired that the car park meter was out of order and so I didn’t need any change. And I didn’t need petrol on my return journey either. Notwithstanding all the runners I passed, probably hundreds, the lag between my gun positions and chip positions clearly shows I was still significantly out of place in the field even by the end.

* Photographs of both piers are used under Creative Commons licences. Original images and license details can be found within the respective Wikipedia articles; West Pier and Palace Pier.