BEDFORD HALF MARATHON - 14th December 2008 (Courtesy of Mark Exley)
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LUTON MARTHON that never was ! - 7th December 2008 (Courtesy of Zoe Hemsley)

Luton Marathon, the 7th of December,
A Marathon event I will always remember,
But not for the usual resons why,
Let me explain, well at least I'll try,

We all met up early and set off together,
Shrugging off the winter weather,
We had a good journey, plenty of time to spare,
Taking advantage of the facilities there,

I passed out my gels to the relay team,
To have on hand  help seemed like a dream,
But on passing to Sam, she said "No thanks I'm fine"
"No Sam, it's not for you, the gel is mine",

Who was that lady we saw from the TV?
Was she from the Bill, Holby or Casualty?
High on gels and energy drinks too,
And after a last minute trip off to the loo,

With ten minutes to spare we were on our way,
But then the announcement came, an hour delay,
An icy road, a turned over car,
This day was getting more and more bizarre!

Ok, an hours wait I could handle that,
More time to relax and have a chat,
But then finally the dreadful news would come,
The marathon today  would not be run!

Four months of training just for one day,
And then just like that, taken away,
A sudden rush of emotions, your adrenalins high,
An overwhelming sense to burst out and cry,

That's what you would think, but not for me,
It's not just the race but the training you see,
That really good feeling when a sessions gone well,
Like when you've just completed the hill session from hell,

After miles of running out on your own,
The feeling you get when your nearly home,
The battles you have with the English weather
Meeting friends and running together,

It didn't really matter weather I ran the race
I still came away with a smile on my face,
So don't feel sorry for little old me,
At least I got a T-shirt for free! 
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NENE VALLEY HARRIERS 10M - Sunday 7th December 2008 (Courtesy of Allan Harrison)
Scorching performances in freezing conditions! Despite a slippery course containing patches of ice and a heavy frost, 49 year-old Tricia Harrison achieved a second lifetime PB in her last 3 road races. Maintaining a near metronomic pace on a twisting but flat course, her time of 1.23.39 was over a minute faster than ever before.

A little ahead in the same race, Tricia’s twin sons Dave and Chris Lazenby also excelled. Dave achieved a PB by several minutes and Chris equalled his best. In a tight finish after being inseparable throughout the race, Dave out sprinted Chris in the last 100 metres to “win” in 64.07 to 64.08.

Dad (Allan Harrison) held their coats and kept warm!
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WOLVERTON 5M - 29th November 2008 (Courtesy of Mark Exley)

RUGBY 10M (Courtesy of Brian Singleton)

SNOWDONIAN MARATHON (Courtesy of Jeff Mason)
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LEICESTER MARATHON (Courtesy of Mike Aldridge)
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ODE TO JERSEY (Courtesy of Anoni Moose!!)
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JERSEY WRR TOUR (Courtesy of Mark Exley)
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LOCH NESS MARATHON (Courtesy of Steve Heighway)

CLARENDON HALF MARATHON (Courtesy of Gary Vallance)

Sunday 5th, Wootton were represented in the mud at the Clarendon Half Marathon, finishing 67th in 1:50:42. Following an historic route between Salisbury in Wiltshire and Winchester in Hampshire, the Marathon is suported by a Half marathon, and four stage, mixed team relay. Run for 10 years from Winchester to Salisbury, the 11th year sees the direction reversed, the undulating trail route now an "uphill" struggle.

The weather looked diabolical for the Marathoners. With the heavens delivering stair-rods to the 1030 start, bin-bagged runners were glad to be off, warming up on the early climbs. By the halfway point the worst of the weather had passed, but the water underfoot came as a shock to many of the Half Marathoners, joining at Broughton at 1200, and soon up to their shins in it.
 
Trails wound amongst the rolling downs, greasy root to greasy root through autumn woodlands, post to post through chalky pasture. The unmistakeable mark of the fell shoe side by side with the slop of the roady as the seasons finally turn.

Wootton's muddy contingent consisted of yours truly, in the Half Marathon. A conservative eight miles set me up well for a strong finish, coming home 67th in 1:50:42.
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STANAGE STRUGGLE & DUATHLON (Courtesy of Mark Fowler)

A couple of firsts in a week!

Before you get an image of me breaking the winning tape with a final sprint and dip for the line, forget it! Last week was instead my first go at a fell run and duathlon. No, I wasn’t “doing a Mattocks” and combining them, but instead had a few days to recover from the fell run in Derbyshire before the Duathlon at Silverstone.

The email from Phil Wood started promisingly enough with the title “Fancy a Sunday lunch?”. As my passion is food (after running and dancing of course) he had me there and then………”and a fell race”, it continued. Well I love cross country, but wasn’t quite sure about throwing myself off a mountain side in a tumbling heap of limbs just yet. I remembered Phil, Dan and Stuart had done The Stanage Struggle last year and said how good it was, so I thought I would give it a go. Of course it had nothing to do with the lure of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding! During the Saturday group bike ride the day before Nicki and I were reassuring each other that it was the right thing to do and it would be good fun. Apparently Phil had the deadly Man Flu that day, but I think he was just playing tactics and resting for his mountain goat moment the following day. Anyway, after too much alcohol at a 30^th birthday party the night before I dragged my carcass up to Derbyshire. Parking was on a steep wet hill. I was in a small, front wheel drive Suzuki on my own. Funnily enough I didn’t make it too far up the hill. To make it worse, there were Nicki and Phil already waiting to see me make a tit of myself sliding down the hill and the “I thought you drove cars for a living” comments. It would have been better in a Nissan……… So to the race. After meeting up with Phil’s parents and his mate from home we got to the start where Nicki continued to admire her new tan, Phil admired Nicki’s new tan and I tried to spot any nice girlies I could follow up the hill (apart from our Web Site Ed of course……!). Couldn’t spot any so Phil and I went off together (not like THAT!). The race was indeed fun. Roughly 2 miles to the top of Stanage Edge, 2 miles along the top and 2 miles down to the finish. Glorious sunshine, bit muddy on the way back, a few rocks, stiles and walls, no loss of limb and a fantastic Sunday lunch. Bonza! Sign me up for next year!

Agreeing to do the Silverstone Duathlon was after some divine inspiration (and nagging) from our triathletes. I thought it would be good to “join the party” without getting my feet wet and after a good report from that man Mattocks again (I must stop talking to him) I decided to turn up. This was my 2^nd time to go round the circuits at Silverstone, but as a petrol head it’s hard for me (and my colleagues) to come to terms with not going round sideways on 4 wheels. Must sort that out for next time! On arrival at The Porsche Experience Centre and seeing all the exotica (TT bikes and 911’s) the nerves started to kick in. It was great to see a familiar, cheery face in Hannah Watson and to discover she wasn’t a duathlon virgin like me. Parky and Caroline had been forced to pull out due to the earlier start time and some international Foreign Office incident in Redditch or something. To be fair to Hannah, I think I was the more organised (changing facilities, bike maintanence, keeping track of kit…….I rest my case) as she turned up in her work gear muttering about a speed camera as everyone else was racking up! Anyway, we both made it to the de-brief to be told in Kurdish what to do (it might as well have been, as I got confused after he started with “run out to a cone”). As for the multi-lap bike course I just kept an eye on the Garmin for the miles rather than counting laps (you get a bit disorientated after the first one). Due to summer leaving us quicker than a Rob Burgess dash to the bar they had to cut the bike down to 8 miles, which was great as we were struggling to see at the end of the 4 lap course. The last run was an interesting affair trying to run in the pitch black while trying to spot any on coming runners. Having managed to negotiate transitions for the first time (must get quicker at putting my shoes on!) and finding our way around in the dark I finished in 23^rd with Hannah in 72^nd (5^th in Age Cat!). We both really enjoyed it and will definitely do another one. Poor Hannah was OK until finding out the overall winner of the Ladies event was only 16 years old! It was great doing an event like this as we were able to shout words of encouragement to each other during the race and we found everyone really friendly. Again, I can highly recommend these events if you have never done one before and you don’t have to have a mega expensive bike either. People had everything from £5k TT bikes to mountain bikes with Spokey-Dokeys (sort of). Next time I’m taking the Caterham to “practice” the course……

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ROBIN HOOD HALF MARATHON (Courtesy of Bob Ward)
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ROBIN HOOD HALF MARATHON

VITRUVIAN HALF IRONMAN - September 08 (Courtesy of Pete Diamond)
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DIANE'S AND IAN'S BIG DAY OUT (Courtesy of Ian Rogers)
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THE BLAISE BLAZER 4M-  Bristol - July 08

Racing away from ‘home area’ is always interesting.  When you’re looking at a club’s race as a guide to whether you should join their ‘gang’ it’s even more so.  Let me explain.  I spend a lot of time down in Bristol so, though WRR is a lovely club and you lot are all lovely, gorgeous, fab’ etc. it would be nice to have a few training partners to gee me a long when I’m not with you (lovely, gorgeous, fab’ etc.) lot.

With this in mind I headed off to the west side of Bristol and the 2^nd Blaise Blazer 4m race of the year, organised by the Westbury Harriers.  The race, one of a series of three held on the first Monday in June, July and August describes its self as multi-terrain, not my idea of fun racing, conjuring in the mind memories of the mud and stinging nettles of winter XC races.

The sun shone on a July Monday evening, too windy for an easy time of it but hey ho I’m a Wootton man and can cope.   Location of the race couldn’t have been better.  Set in the grounds of Blaise Castle, a Stately Home nestled in the suburbs of the city.  Vast acres of park land with a woody hillside to admire.  Ominously the course maps they handed out seemed to be a series of squiggles across the park, a loop here, zig zags there all over the place. 

I asked what the course was like being new to the area.  “Ah, it’s a bit hilly, actually a very ‘bit’ hilly, bit muddy at the moment, you’ll be alright though.”  This was followed by lots of chuckling and endorsements about the mud from nearby listeners and how it was much worse in 99. I wasn’t quite sure which century he was talking about though!

It was only costing £2.50 so what the heck!

The race, according to the event organiser, started in the middle of the park about 200 yards from the end of a car park,. Not quite as easy as it seemed as a stake in the ground which non Westbury runners thought looked like an ideal start marker wasn’t near enough the all important waste bin ‘start marker’ at the side of the park which was the real start.  Obviously you had to be in the know.

The start flag dropped and I bounded off, through the verdant grass (I mean the usual wet summer grass of a British summer) on to the nice, zig zaggy, tarmac path up the hill, wind in my back.  Steep but steady.

“Not too bad this race really,” I muttered to myself as I trundled along, off the tarmac on to the muddy hillside for the descent.  Through the grass field, along the track back to the park land and on to the tarmac paths, past a winding stream - created by some Victorian industrialist to entertain and show off his wealth to family and friends -  when,…… BANG!   The second of the three hills hit at 2.5miles.

I know I’m only group 3 material.  I thought I could run up hills……a bit, slowly if need be but this had me walking within 10 yards of its start. 

“What the hell am I doing here?” I thought. “This is like Everest not a nice mid week race to keep your legs in.”  This was slip sliding, hang hanging and clam clambering on to branches and other runners to stop you falling

The climb seemed to take ages, mainly cos’ everybody else ahead had to walk too, apart from the mountain goats pretending to be runners that is, who were long gone.  No doubt they were finished, changed and downing their well deserved after race drinks at this point in time. 

The race descended in to mud after the summit, through fields and woodland then down and out on to the park again. They’d mentioned three hills during the race briefing and, in my naivety (actually my laissez faire attitude to reading the course map as it was all squiggles, loops and zig zags), I believed it was up the first hill again with its tarmac path.  Wrong!  They’d found a steeper hill for all us wimps to walk/stagger up just before the finish.   I collapsed after the finish line, gasping for breath, wondering if it was worth 34^th place in 30.28. There was the amazing castle like folly to catch the eye, hidden at the top of the hill next to the finish, but it couldn’t make my legs or lungs feel better.

Would I run the race again?  Well yes I would and did, running the August race too.  It’s nice to have a race with no dodging of traffic, where everyone just hangs round afterwards to have a drink of water rather than bother with medals and goody bags. The second time I started as slowly as I dared, I mean really slowly, sort of a slow ‘joggy’ walk, managing to run (well it was faster than my previous walking efforts) up all the hills to a more creditable 28.48 and 25^th place.  What course knowledge does for your times eh…!!! 

As I ran back to the Harriers small, slightly antiquated club house beside this magnificent park land/training site, I realised how spoiled we are at WRR.  Where were the drinks and food after training going to take place?  Where’s Bristol’s answer to Andy Davidson going to be able to complain about the lack of a 100kg minimum weight race with a pint in his hand, where was the West countries  version of ‘Pete D’ going to be able to have a moan about triathlon training while munching on lasagne?    Having lovely (scalding?!) showers, clean changing rooms and a bar at the community centre which serves food too is a bit of a luxury for most clubs. 

Have I joined the Westbury’s yet?  No but maybe I will.  There are quite a few clubs around the city and I think I need to check them all out first.  There’s beer to taste and food to munch, chatting to do, training areas to run…and of course I can’t leave all you (lovely, gorgeous, fab’ etc.)  W.R.R people behind on a Thursday night can I!    May be I’ll just spread the gospel of running the pink and purple way instead.

Chris Hopes

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BLISWORTH 5M - 15th August 2008

DOREST DODDLE - 32M - 16th August 2008 (Courtesy of Gary Vallance)
Another daft escapade...On Sunday I ran the Dorset Doddle 32 mile "Challenge" event from Weymouth to Swanage along the Southwest Coast Path, organised by the Long Distance Walkers Association.
 
Weather was perfect, if a little warm for the 0900 start, conditions were mostly firm underfoot. I finished in 6:22, 17th overall. Widely regarded to be one of the toughest "short" ultra-distance events in the UK, it was still a superb experience, and would recommend to any trail fanatics that fancy going long in an organised event.
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HALF IRONMAN TRAINING REPORT (Courtesy of Pete Diamond)
On 14^th May 2008 being of sound mind, I entered the Vitruvian Half Iron-Man which takes place in Rutland on September 6^th. There are 115 training days to go from my entry – NO PROBLEM. My training is almost at half way, with the race in only 60 days time.

It’s only a little old 1900 metre swim (open water), 85 Km (56 mile) bike (over Rutland ripple – that sounds titchy), and a half marathon jog on the end – easy peasy. How much more difficult can it possibly be than the Roade Sprint Triathlon ?

After having completed this year’s London Marathon in 3 hrs 26 mins, I figured that my training was alright and chances looked promising. I was coming in from a different fitness base to the others who had been cycling twice or more a week for ages, and swimming the equivalent of the English Channel every few days. My fitness base was peanuts, beer, pepperami, and Ginsters Pasties. I felt I could blag it !

On a quiet day at work I set up an Excel spreadsheet, which indicates LAZY if no exercise done for the day, or WORK if I have done some training that day. Out of 55 training days so far I’ve had 9 “LAZY” days. 4 of these LAZY days were in my first 11 training days – which looking back, probably smacks of over-confidence. The Excel sheet variously totalises amount of swimming lengths per week, kilometres cycled and miles plodded. I train in accordance with my energy levels, which I work out as follows :- Number of calories eaten multiplied by the number of spokes on the rear wheel, divided by number of pints of real ale consumed during the previous week. If too low, I watch telly and eat chilli chocolate and Tesco value peanuts (21p).   

Work

LAZY

Work

 
However - after the last few weeks when I had 2 punctures in 3 days caused by a faulty almost new Schwalbe tyre (and because I’d been mountain biking with my brother, tool kit was not on the road bike, and I had to walk home over 4 miles in socks yeeeoooowwwch painful or what  – Coz you cannot walk in cleats (which are like walking in reverse high-heels – er – not that I’ve ever walked about in high heels) ; and not cycling all week before the new inner tubes arrived, I have begun to think that I’m not doing enough training. Not nearly enough. In the last few weeks I have also had Personal Worst’s for Weedon 10K and Harborough 5, so my confidence is rapidly waning :- like my hair ; unlike my waist.  PLUS :-  I found out last week that Jersey marathon is only 4 weeks after Vitruvian, NOT THE 7 weeks that I thought I had to recover. Thus today is D Day.  Dynamic Pete Day.

The last few days of my training are as follows :-

Saturday morning 5^th July - I set out at 06:00 for a 3 hour bike ride in the glorious British Summer (to get back in time for my son’s cricket practice). I headed out relatively serenely along Banbury Lane, through various villages past Thorpe Mandeville, and as far as Middleton Cheney. Then the rain started (pouring), and my pinkies and tootsies started to freeze over. Also the brakes started to work feebly too – bit of a worry as I’m cycling welsh mountains in 4 weeks. Cycling for an hour and a half soaked and cold aint much fun. Guess I need to take the stabilisers off soon. Fortunately got home safely just after 09:00 with 72 K on the clock, and had hot bath to restore blood flow in my iced up veins. And the cricket was cancelled because of the gloomy weather, so I could have laid in bed and not bothered getting up at sun up !

Sunday morning 6^th July – set out at 07:30 (this actually counts as a lie in compared to the other days). Caroline my chauffeur arrived, and over to Box End near Bedford we drove at pace for an open water swim, and it was tough. First lap was a struggle into the breakers (dodging the surfers), but with the waves behind down the other side of the lake it was a bit better. It is very different from the relative cosiness and comfort of a swimming pool lane. On the plus side there is no chlorine, so when we finished my eyeballs didn’t look like extras from the “Devil’s Eyes From Hell” – also nice not having a streaming nose and sneezing allergy that I get from pool swimming.  After my first 800 metre lap, Jamie kindly pointed out that my goggles were upside down !  Certainly helped reduce water in the old eyeballs for my second lap. The other Wootton swimmers such as Emma, Caroline, Rob, Tony and Jamie all vanished into the distance on their second lap, as I struggled with my armbands. Oh well, the swim was never going to be my strong point, which I knew after last September Roade sprint triathlon, when my swim was in the bottom 20 percent. Also found out that my neck gets severely chaffed in the wetsuit– hooray – a new place to chuck on some Vaseline.  

Monday morning 7^th July  – set out for run at 05:30 so that I could be back by 07:15 to get kids up and ready for school. Managed a 95 minute jog this morning, not many miles though and in the drizzle – YET AGAIN, so got wet and cold AGAIN. Strange actually :- Because I wore the wetsuit and swimming cap for the open water swimming on Sunday – THE SWIMMING  WAS ACTUALLY THE DRYEST SPORT THAT I DID THIS WEEKEND !!!  

At work today, I have now decided that for the remainder of my training, if the only exercise I do in a day is the swim, then that too will count as a lazy day. I need more cycling effort, more running effort and sadly more very early get ups. My aim is to try and break 6 hours, or failing that 6 hrs 15. I am (sort of) enjoying the training, but it is tough, and I just hope at the end of it all I will enjoy the day, that it won’t be raining and windy, and not have any major problems or bike failures.

However, feeling tired at work today, it might be more realistic to :-

1)       Not finish the swim in last place

2)       Complete the whole thing before sunset !  

3)       Celebrate finishing (hopefully within one of my goal times) with some good old fashioned carbo-loading – Several pints of Real Ale

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MILTON KEYNES 10K - 1st July 2008(Courtesy of Mark Exley)

The East Midlands Grand prix series concluded last week with the Milton Keynes 10k Road race, the 8th and final round, run in very warm conditions. In a great show of support, Wootton took 58 runners to the race and came away with team wins for Male, Male Veteran and Female Veteran categories. In the series, the club had already secured both male team prizes, but had to take the Female Veteran win to beat local rivals Rugby & Northampton.

On the night first Wootton man home was Phil Melling, who finished 2nd overall in 33 minutes and 21 seconds. First veteran and 4th place overall was Steve Poole, 34.06, with Craig Mattocks 7th in 35.24 and Andy Fairley 13th in 36.03, completing the winning Wootton mens team. The Veteran team, led by Steve was another triumph for Guy Glennon, a superb 26th overall in 37.22 and Richard Fowler, 39.11, who have scored for the team in all 8 races. The final Wootton veteran scorer was club stalwart Graham Hollowell, 41.19. There were several other excellent performances from Wootton men, with Richard Lack, continuing to be a model of consistency with a strong run to 14th place in 36.22.

First Wootton lady was Kirsty Whigham, who comfortably won the vet 35 category, finishing 3rd lady in 38.28. The other scorers for Wootton were fellow veterans Zoe Thornburgh, 42.50 and Fran Malin, 43.07. Next up, in an all too rare race appearance, was 'Bossy Spice' herself, Gabby Deere, 48.56 and there were other good efforts from Pam Larham, 50.43, Laura McCormick, 50.56, Jess Mistry, 51.25 and Sara Henderson, 51.34. 

Aside from the 3 Team titles, Wootton Road Runners took several awards in the individual series categories. In the Senior Mens series, Mike Aldridge finished an excellent 3rd, with Phil Melling 4th and Craig Mattocks 5th. In the highly competitive Vet 40 category, Steve Poole was 2nd, Guy Glennon 3rd and Richard Fowler 6th. Youthful 62 year old, Roger Barton, put in another competitive series to finish 5th in the Vet 60 category. Kirsty Whigham blitzed the Female Vet 35 category to win with 5 wins from 5 races and Sarah Woolley took a well deserved 3rd place. Fran Malin completed an excellent series, including several personal best performances, to finish 3rd Vet 40, a category won by the overall female series winner.

There will be a full review of the EMGP seies to follow.