Southern Cross Country Champs 2019

Conditions underfoot at Parliament Hill were as dry as I’ve ever seen them for the 125^thrunning of the Southern Cross Country Champs. After a relatively quiet last quarter of 2018, the Hampshire Champs and Surrey league earlier this year had been a couple of good sharpeners to get me ready for the major Cross Country Championships of the season.

As normal, the pace up to the top of the first hill was fast, and I found myself in about 30^th, but more importantly not at all boxed in. The speed at the very front must have slowed once it had all settled down, and a large group of 15 runners formed which I was desperately trying to hold on to. There were no run-away leaders at this point, unlike John Gilbert at Brighton last year, and it appeared from a distance that Max Nichols was comfortable sitting on the front for much of the first lap.

At the end of the first lap, both Ryan Driscol and Ed Shepherd cruised past me, looking as though they had paced it sensibly in the early stages and not being phased by what had been going on the front. There was no way I could hold on to either of them and, midway through the second lap, I had thought Ryan Driscol had dropped out, only to see that he’d moved through to the front so quickly.

By this point, larger gaps had started to form, and I was a running slightly isolated, trying to keep a group of Ben Cole, Chris Wright and Darren Deed in catching distance.

Despite the 2^ndlap being hard work, I find the extra distance of the Southern Cross plays to my strengths and I could see a few runners ahead that I would try to target. Moving past 3 others on the final lap put me in 11^th, which I would then hold to the end. 

Up at the front, Henry Pearce took the win, ahead of Adam Hickey and Ed Shepherd. Tonbridge won the team prize, only marginally ahead of Aldershot (who packed all 6 in 28), with Serpentine in 3^rd.

Myself, Nick Torry, Will Green, Callan Moody, Chris Wright, JP

Looking back at last years’ results, only Adam Hickey finished in the top 10 at both, so quite a different line up towards the front. It also came as quite a surprise to me, that it was 10 years ago since I ran for Winchester when we won the Southern Cross at Hillingdon - its also good to see that all of that team are still running pretty well today!

Toby lambert, Tom Payn, Gav Smith, Chris Powner, myself, Phil Killingly

Summer Races 2018

Following the London Marathon, I was riding on a decent level of fitness, and I seemed to have recovered pretty well. After the Highgate 10k, I was desperate to dip under 31 minutes for 10k, something that I had not done since 2012!

Vitality 10000 (28/05/2018)
The first opportunity for this was at the Vitality 10000m around the streets of London. Preparation the day before had been slightly disrupted, as I was making my wedding cake and had intermittent sleep until 2:30am waiting for the thing to cook!
Always a fast course, in particular with the downhill last 2ks.  Due to the way they mix men and women up at the start, I didn’t get through the first km until about 3:05, but then soon settled down in a group with JP and Chris Wright. Chris Wright was happy to push the pace, and I was happy to sit behind. We went through halfway at about 15:20, I felt good, and I felt that a sub-31 was on the cards.

As we came along The Strand, the pace upped, and I forced myself not to fall off. JP and his customary strong last 1k made sure he put in a heroic finish to put 10s into me over the last 1km, however I still managed 30:45 and absolutely thrilled with a time remotely close to my pb.

Worthing 10k (03/06/2018)
A week later, I was done on the south coast to run in the Worthing 10k. Conditions could not be more perfect: calm, sunny, no wind and a pancake flat course. It was round 3 in the Greenleaf/Westlake standings and we were currently at 1-1 for the year. After the first 2k, it became apparent that it was going be a 3-way race between Westlake, Cornish and myself. At the half waypoint, I was suffering from the early pace (along with Jonny Cornish), whilst James Westlake was cruising away and running very consistently.

At times I thought about calling it a day and easing up, but I thought I had second place to take and managed my second sub-31 of the year in 30:58, finishing a long way behind James Westlake who recorded 30:31. Definitely one for the calendar next year.

Summer Races 2018
The summer was then a mix of stag/wedding day Parkruns, 5ks, 5000m and a 3000m thrown in. As the season went on, I think I lost my initial fitness, as I was more and more distracted by my wedding. However breaking 15 minutes for 5k was a huge barrier that I have wanted to surpass for ages, and I thought that Herc 5000m would have been a great opportunity to get something in the 14:30s.

Given that I had run a 8:38 3000m just a few weeks before, and feeling very comfortable, I thought it was on the cards, but I was also fatigued by the whole season and finished in a ‘disappointing’ 14:57 – at least my standards have improved!

Assembly League 5k. Most got PBs, JP won in 14:46, I ran 14:50

Hercules Wimbledon 3000m - 8:38, 21s PB

London Marathon 2018 - report better late than never

2018 will go down as one of those years when the London Marathon was a scorcher. In fact was the hottest ever on record, with the temperature hitting a very high 23.2 Celsius, which is unseasonably hot for 22nd April.

Going into the race, my build-up could not have gone better, off the back of probably my best XC season and a half marathon pb of 67:06. All this indicated that a pb in the London Marathon was on the cards however, due to the temperature, I would need to be very careful not to go off at a crazy pace and over heat.

I decided to aim for around 5:20-5:22 per mile, with the intention to go through halfway somewhere around 70-71 minutes. This would still give me a chance of a pb, but not risk a complete detonation. At this pace, I would expect there to have been a decent group to work together with, however early on, i

t became apparent that either I would have to make a bold move to jump into with a 69 min group or otherwise it was going to be a solo run for home.

I vividly remember looking ahead of me at about 5 miles and already seeing a British contingent a good 45-60s ahead of me, and I knew inside that was where I did not need to be. Lo and behold, many of those guys came back to me later on in the race.

Once the pace had settled down, I found myself running with Bashingile Ndabili who, it turns out, competed in both the Athens and Beijing Olympics, and has a solid pb of about 2:15.  He was happy to lead, and I found myself settled in behind for a number of miles. This certainly helped ease the racing, and I went through halfway in 70:14. 

Coming off Tower Bridge

Unbeknown to me was that, about 10 seconds behind me, James Westlake was tracking me, and moving through the field with me. As is always the case, when it comes to the Isle of Dogs, I really struggle for motivation, and you suddenly feel isolated with very few people around. I was gradually overtaking others, as those that had gone off too fast were succumbing to the heat.

Having gone through Canary Wharf and out the other side, the hairpin allowed me to check where I was in relation to those runners just ahead and behind me. It was only at this point, where I realised that James Westlake was tight on my tail and, when he came along side me, it gave me the motivation to push on. In fact, I proceeded to close the gap on Tony Payne and got to with about 30s of him at one point, only for him to have a cracking last 4 miles and open the gap back up to 1:30. 

Coming in to The Mall, I was spent, dehydrated, covered in water from pouring bottles over me, hot, and ready for this to finish. I had finished in 6th place in the mass race and 21st overall with 2:23:15. 21st out of 40,000! I think the conditions played to my advantage, but I also think that they were responsible for missing a pb. I would say it was one of my best ever performances, and certainly on a par, if not better, that the 2:21 I recorded a few years back. Clearly V35 is proving to be a decent category!

Along with Tony Payne (2:21:53) and Will Green (2:27:02) Serpentine won the British Athletics Team prize – the first time in the club’s history and finally achieved it!