Reading Half Marathon - first decent PB for 3 years

Over the past couple of years, Reading Half has become to establish itself as a Half Marathon that not only attracts over 15,000 runners, but also a good number of those are at the sharp end. Training over the past month has gone well, and my run at last week’s North London Half gave me confidence that a time of 66:59 might well be achievable.

Conditions were good: sunny and only a little wind. The pace off the start line was crazy, however I decided to sit at the back of the lead group to get some shelter from the wind. The climb at 3 miles strung out the lead group and I soon found myself (unsurprisingly) struggling to maintain the sub-5 minute mile, and electing to sit at about 5:10 pace instead. A group of Nick Torry, Dan Thorne, Joe Morewood and a few others formed and that certainly helped me maintain my pace. At 4-5 miles and on the verging of slowing up (thinking I’d gone off too quick), I forced myself to stick at least on the back of the group and maintain the pace a little while longer.

The route continued into the town centre, past a number of bands and a fair number of supporters coming out to watch, and by 7 miles I began to feel good. The odd runner, who'd probably had started a bit more sensibly, would come past our group and then get sucked back in and we were also reeling in a few other runners ahead. Just prior to the 8 mile mark, I hit the front of the group and then up to 10 miles, Joe, Dan and myself switched positions at the front as given the slight head wind.

At 10 miles, Chris Buselaih came past and put in an injection of pace, which also coincided with the course changing direction and being followed by a tailwind. The final run up to the Madjeski Stadium was so contrasting to last year’s massive headwind and dull day, and instead saw a group of group of us eagerly trying to race to that sub-67 time.

Nick Torry just upped the pace at 11.5 miles and went off the front, whilst myself, Chris, and few other guys raced for the end. Disappointingly the clock showed 66:51 as I entered the stadium and so my sub-67 target was out of the question, but I still finished in 67:08 for 20th and gave me a pb that has taken almost 3.5 years to break, so happy with the time.

The men’s race was won by Amos Kiplagat in 63:09 and the women's race by Lily Partridge in 70:32. However it was also good to see the depth of the race with 57 men dipping under 70 minutes.

With 5 weeks to go until the London Marathon, I feel as though I am returning to the form I had in 2012 and I’ll need to make some decisions about the sort of pace to go off on the big day.

Intercounties at Cofton Park marking an end to the 2014/2015 XC season

In a stark contrast to the National at Parliament Hill, the Intercounties XC was held on course with minimal mud and in conditions suggesting that spring may just have arrived. The senior men’s race was run over 1 large lap followed by 3 smaller laps, where the large lap contained pretty much the only significant climb in the race. For anyone that does know, the intercounties XC is where the top runners from each county are brought together to compete against one another and the race is normally used as a selection for the World Cross. Due to funding issues, it may well be that Great Britain sends an incomplete team to China for the 2015 World Cross and so quite the depth that the selectors may look to in the results is to be awaited, but that is something else altogether.

Anyway, back to the race. The start was ridiculously quick as everyone took off at an insane pace in order to get a decent position. After the first mile, I must have been in about 110th and that was despite running a hilly 5:13 minute mile! Once the race settled down, I started to work my way through the field gradually picking off those that went off too quick. The positions were still quite tightly packed even after the first couple of laps. At start of the 3rd lap, my nemesis Chris Greenwood came past and I tried my hardest to stick with him. I couldn’t quite keep up with his pace as he continued to overtake others, however I landed up in a group with Kevin Quinn (Surrey) and Carl Avery (North East) and gradually pushed into the low 40’s. There was little movement in positions over the last lap however it was necessary to maintain a decent pace to avoid slipping back and I finished in 43rd.

Up at the front there was a competition between the individual winners of the Scottish, Welsh and English National XC and they finished in that order respectively with Andrew Butchart taking overall honours. So the spikes are now being hung up until later in the year and the focus for the coming weeks will be on building towards the London Marathon.

Southern XC at Stanmer Park - loved all 15k of it

'In pieces' is probably the best way to describe how I felt after 15k around Stanmer Park. Its got to rank fairly high in the tougher races of the year, and great to see such a well contested championship. 

From the gun, a large group of almost 20 runners ran off the front and jostled for positions over the first 1.5 laps, with no one taking the out right lead nor anyone really falling off the back. I started relatively steady and found myself about 50m behind the lead pack. Someway through the first lap, Ben Cole (who had a fantastic run to finish 12th) came flying past me on a downhill, as did Chris Greenwood and, once Darren Deed caught up, a small group had formed which really helped maintain a good pace.

I thought some of the runners in the lead pack may have come back to us, but that wasn't the case at all. By the third lap, Ben and Darren had gained some distance ahead of myself and Chris, and we were effectively competing for 15th and 16th. The final half mile to the finish is a gentle downhill and, despite it probably being the fastest part of my race, I didn't quite have that top end speed to get 15th. Unaware to me, I was being chased down by Daniel Thorne (Reading), and having only realised this close to the finish, I had to sprint for the line for 16th.

It sounded as though the race for first place was akin to that of 3 years ago with 4 being in contention for the win. Apparently John Pepper came off the final climb in the lead, but the positions changed on the final downhill. Ben Tickner was fractionally ahead going into the final run-in and giving him enough for the win, Paskar Ower was 5 yards back for second, and John Pepper another 5 yards back for third, despite having the same time as Alex Bruce-Littlewood who took fourth.

My old club mate Louise Damen took an impressive win in the women's race finishing some distance ahead of second place and leading Winchester to a team victory.

A great event and now I look forward to Parliament Hill and The National for the next instalment of XC.

Looking back at how I got into running and progression to triathlon

I was recently asked by my old school to write a piece for their alumni magazine about how I got into running and triathlon. So I thought I'd also put the piece on the blog.

Like many runners, my first memories cross country running were in those games lessons where the playing fields were too boggy to play on and the teacher would sent us out on a few circuits around the pitches, kitted out in football boots and rugby kit. Quite often the prospect of running a few miles wasn't always met by everyone with a huge amount of enthusiasm however, as someone who never showed too much aptitude when it came to rugby or football, for me I found a sport that I was competitive with amongst my peers.

As I progressed through secondary school, I joined the school running club and Winchester Athletic Club, swapped my football boots for spikes and began to train a little more consistently. My Dad gave me plenty of encouragement along the way, took me to races and, as a under 15, I was selected to run for Hampshire in my first county cross country competition. This was possibly the pinnacle of my teenage running career as, shortly after that, I lost some of my focus and the consistency of my training dipped. This was until I turned up at Nottingham University Athletic Club, fresh from a year travelling and keen to get my running fitness back. One thing that was immediately apparent was the ability and dedication of some of my fellow students who trained every day, clocked up well over 50 miles running a week and balanced their 'student life' very diligently with their running. As I progressed through university, I gradually found myself slipping into a routine where running formed a large element of my life: I took on the position of men's captain, got a coach, started doing interval sessions, raced regularly and, in my final year, completed the London Marathon in 2:33.

Having graduated in 2005, and after a ski season, a new job in a new city beckoned. Working and social life took precedence and trying to find a routine to accommodate my running proved tricky. However, similar to my approach at university, I gradually found myself training harder by being more disciplined with my time and commitment. I joined a running club in London with regular training sessions throughout the week, started swimming 50 minutes each morning before work and soon built up a network of friends with common interests. By 2012, I was still swimming each morning, doing intervals on Tuesday and Thursday evening (this would typically be something like 8 times 800m efforts followed by up to 5 miles of marathon pace running), racing at weekends and, in total, running 70+ miles per week. You may question how it's possible to fit this all in around full time work well; I find its all about 6am starts, making sacrifices on the social side, being disciplined and clocking up all that sleep missed during the week at weekends. It's also important to set your sights on a goal and, in 2012, I achieved a few of mine: to run under 31 minutes for 10k, run 2:23 for a marathon and to run for England.

In April 2012, I was riding high on a positive 6 months, however any sports person will know that success can be curtailed in an instant. Through a combination of injuries picked up in training for the marathon and a significant bike crash, by June 2012 I was way off where I'd been just 3 months earlier and looking for ways to get back there again. I was having to swim and bike more to try and curb any injuries picked up by the impact associated with running, and with that came a new goal: triathlon.

Hyde Park in London was hosting the 2013 world age group triathlon championships and I set my sights on representing Great Britain in the 30-34 category. In order to qualify, it was necessary to finish sufficiently high enough in one of 3 qualification races. I failed to qualify in the the first race and this was largely due to my cycling not being good enough, so I embarked on a routine that would hopefully improve my cycling sufficiently and get me a place. Over the next 2 months, I got up at 5:40 each morning to cycle 30 miles around Richmond Park and, with that, the times started to drop down. By the time it was the third qualification race, I'd put about 1,500 additional bike miles in the bank, my cycling was far stronger and I managed to secure a place in the championships. On the day itself I finished 6^th in my age group and it further emphasised that I wanted to give more triathlons a go.

In 2014 I managed to combine competing in running races as well as keeping up those early starts on the bike required for the triathlon. Two things certainly helped: one was having a group of friends who also appreciated the early starts and the other was to commute to work running. Given the amount of time during the week required to balance both full time work as well as the hours spent running or cycling, I’m always looking for ways to be most efficient with my time, and the run-commute works very well.

As 2015 kicks off, I have set myself targets for the year, and I’ll do my best to achieve. However whatever I sport I do, I'll always make sure I keep enjoying it.

Final fell race of the year

Another weekend, another race. This time I was far from concerned about a time, and was more looking forward to running over the hills, seeing some spectacular scenery and potentially have an element of competition thrown in. The race provided 2 out of 3; thick mist scuppered any decent views.

The Kendal Mountain Festival is mostly about screening adventure films, but they threw in a 10k fell race that went over some of the foothills around Kendal. The first couple of miles climbed up Beast Bank and, knocking off the first couple of miles at 6:15 pace, was tiring and a bit of a shock given the ascent! I was about 5 seconds behind Tom Addison (English Fell Running Champ) as we started to traverse Scout Scar. By this point, we were in the clouds and I was losing a bit of focus on the undulating terrain. Tom began to put some distance between him and soon disappeared into the mist. My legs felt fine, I just missed the technical ability of running efficiently on the uneven surface.

As the course started to drop off the ridge, we emerged from the clouds and I was about 30 seconds begins first. It would take a huge effort on the descent to close this gap and it was at about 8k that I realised this was the case. We dropped down towards Kendal across a golf course and then back into the town through some narrow and steep alleys. The finish was fantastic, right in the centre of the town and amongst a festival atmosphere. I crossed the line in second, about 50 seconds behind first, in one piece and with no aches (as seems quite often the case after fell races). Not a bad effort given my recent training along the pancake flat Thames Path.

The countdown is now on to the last couple of races of the year: IFXC on Wednesday, Sri Chimnoy 10k on Saturday and then Met League before Christmas, but at this point I'm very much looking further ahead to the major events of spring 2015

A damp day out at the Ballbuster Duathlon

Having got painfully close to the course record last year, I wanted to put in an effort that would challenge the course record (which I think is about 2:34). I had no idea what the opposition would be on the day, but there are so many uncertainties on the course that positions can easily change throughout the race and it would be necessary to race hard all the way to the finish.

The race certainly is iconic, taking in 5 laps (2 running and 5 cycling) of an 8 mile circuit which includes the Zig-Zag climb at Box Hill. There are fast sections, technical sections such as through Headley village and tough sections like the climb up Box Hill (and the whole 8 mile run having already completed the first 2 legs of the race). The race all kicks off at 8am in the morning and I imagine it must be one of the only times throughout the year that you get well over 500 competitors and spectators gathering up at Box Hill at that time in the morning. Believe me, I was questioning why I'd signed up for this race when my alarm went off at 4:45 in the morning!

As per last year, I deliberated a fair bit about the choice of bike, to the point where I took both a TT bike and my normal road bike to the start. In the end I opted for the TT bike...possibly a poor choice as you will understand reading on. I felt good on the first run, starting out steady at about 5:30 pace, picking up the pace in the mid section to 5:15ish pace as the course descended, before putting in an effort on the Box Hill climb (although this results in a drop in pace given the ascent). I wasn't aware of anyone too close to me at the end of the first run, but a strong cyclist can easily overhaul a deficit on the bike. This race is heavily weighted in favour of runners given about 60% of the time is spent running. For this race, I feel that you should take the first run comfortably and not exert too much energy given that you still have a good 2 hours of effort ahead.

Prior to the start of the race, there had been a little bit of rain which had made the course a little greasy in places. The first bike lap was 'OK', there was minimal rain and traffic and I could put in a reasonable effort throughout the course. The only mishap occurred after 4 mile when my Garmin fell off my bike whilst doing about 30mph; I went back to pick up only to find it was completely smashed to pieces (hence reverting to the watch to track my effort). This frustrated me a bit, but these things happen and I tried not to let it loose my focus for the race. As I started the second lap, the rain started to fall a bit harder and the race traffic began to build. I was constantly having to shout 'keep left’ to the other cyclists as I overtook them. Combine this with the increase in traffic along and the deteriorating conditions, and it all became tough going. When I realised the course record was out of reach, I made the decision to just make sure I finished in one piece-I’ve never been so concerned about my safety on the bike in a triathlon/duathlon before, but the circumstances were just not right. I spent little time on the aerobars, a fair amount of time on the brakes and as a result felt as though my effort over the bike course was limited. But the big relief was to finish in one piece!

Having not pushed so hard on the bike, I had more energy to try to make amends on the second run. I followed a similar strategy to the first run and felt strong all the way to the finish. I got good support from other riders and the slightly easier bike leg meant I could push harder on the second run. I finished in first in 2:37, some 3 minutes off my best and 9 minutes ahead of 2nd, but very pleased with my running and also to negative split on the run.

It is a good event and can be extremely fun in the right circumstances, however I just did not feel comfortable with the conditions today. Whilst closing roads can be impractical, I'd suggest to the organiser to investigate the possibility of either closing the ‘back road’ or making it one way to help reduce the chance of incident. I don't really like to suggest putting 'red tape' all over races, but I guess you need to be mindful when you're hitting speeds well over 30mph.

Thanks to Team Lifeventure for getting me a place in the race.

Red Bull Steeplechase video

The team at Red Bull put together a video of the Steeplechase Race. Here it is!