Race Review - North Champs

Another year, another North District Championship. I think it is my 24th, but I can't even remember any more. I can be sure that I won the 400m Hurdles in my first year as an Under-20 and I have either been defending champion for 400m Hurdles or 110m Hurdles (and sometimes both) ever since. 21 years on and still no-one wants to learn to hurdle well enough to take it off me, so I go back to defend it again.

More realistically I also wanted to test my current running form by putting in a fast 5k time. I have been running well this year and my 39:49 10k time from Elgin shows that I am in PB running form.

I decided to take the train through to Inverness rather than drive. This was mainly to try and give me the extra couple of hours of rest rather than driving. At the current phase of my training I am slightly overloaded and even little opportunities like that can make a difference. The train times made for an early start so that I could do my yoga session, and then a couple of miles walk from the station to the track at the other end. By the time I arrived the champs were in full swing and the sun was just starting to warm-up into what would be a scorcher of a day.

First up was the 5,000m. A very small field this year, despite merging the U20's and Women's races with the Senior Men and none of the other racers near the pace I was planning to run at. The next slowest was still planning to run at a pace that should lap me.

The gun went and I settled in behind the group. I knew they were going to go much too fast for me but I planned to try and gauge my pace by letting them ease away. My target pace was to go 3:45-3:50 per km, that would take me through somewhere between 18:45 and 19:10. Staying inside that window would give me room to try and push at the end or drift a little and get somewhere near the 19 minute mark.

Through the 1km mark and the big clock inside the track says 3:32. Hold on, that is 17:40 pace, that can’t be right. I did the maths a few times in my head before I convinced myself. And then I tried not to panic. So I am 15 seconds too fast already, but it doesn’t feel completely ridiculous pace so if I just ease off to my target pace from here then I will have those 15 seconds to play with near the end. So I eased a little bit and went through the next km in about 3:43, still a bit quick but almost sensible and still feeling ok. Garmin was being a bit generous with the distance and was giving me 1,000m for each 980 that I was actually running so I was having to check the watch and calculate for myself as I passed each 1,000m. And just after the 2km mark the race leader passed me. He was an international U20 wearing an LSU track suit and I had already been told he was planning to run low 15 minutes, so I was actually surprised it had taken him so long to catch me, I had expected him over a lap earlier. 

Through the halfway point and my Club President passed me. Again, I expected this as he was on course for mid-16-minutes and if he did a 16:30 he should just about catch me twice for my 19 minutes. And at this point I still don’t really feel that bad. My pace is definitely starting to slide a bit outside the target but I still have plenty of slack, and I am starting to realise that I didn’t taper enough in to this race and the last few weeks are starting to pile on.

Through 3km and I am suddenly well outside 11 minutes. Not only have I given up all the time I had in hand but I am now suffering at 4:00 pace and two more 4 minute kilometers won’t be enough. I need to turn the pace back up to my original target of 3:45’s if I want to get under 19 minutes. But now I have a serious stitch and my legs are paying for the early pace so there is nothing I can do. I tried to push on as the leader came round to lap me again but didn't have anything left.

My Club President passed me for his second time as he went in to his last 100m, and I still have 2 laps to go. Feeling pretty rotten at this point with a growing stitch and empty legs I tried to pick up the pace but just didn't have anything.  

As the bell goes the clock read 18:09, and a cheeky little voice in the back of my head says ‘A 50 second 400m will get you under 19 minutes, you used to be able to do that, do you think you could do it now? Even a 68 second 400m will be a 5k PB, how about that?'. Neither of those was an option and I didn't even notice that an 88 would beat last year's time. I finished in 19:41, 4 seconds outside last year and almost a minute outside what I had hoped for.  

The second place Senior and the accompanying medal I will take. The time and the performance I am not particularly happy with. 

So an hour to recover until the 110m Hurdles, for another attempt at possibly the most ridiculous combination of track events.

I actually felt quite comfortable warming up. I did a few stretches and some very basic drills over a 3ft hurdle with no issues, moved it up to 3’3” and still no problems, then up to 3’6” and I was still over it, on either lead leg. Nothing I will pretend was clean hurdling but clear of them with no obvious damage to anything, no shuffling or stretching to get my distances, and not clipping them with my trail leg. A year since I last touched a hurdle and that is as much as I could hope for. 

The gun went and I burst out of the blocks! Except I didn’t. I took a huge stumble and nearly tripped over my own feet. Apparently, while my muscle memory can cope with hurdles (sort-of) after a year away but the comparatively simple act of getting out of starting blocks has been forgotten. I managed to make it over the first hurdle but from a virtual standing start I had no momentum and I had to take 5 strides just to get to the second hurdle. And I struggled even to get 5 strides to reach for the rest of the race. By hurdle 6 the superstar U20 was two hurdles clear, and that wasn’t just because he had the smaller hurdles to clear, and the other kid sounded like he had clattered one behind me and was struggling.

I managed to clamber over the remaining 4 with increasingly ugly jumps instead of hurdles. Finishing in a pretty shocking 22.89. But as the only Senior to even attempt the Hurdles, I once again retain my title and extend my run to 21 years as North District Champion.

If I do decide to come back next year to defend my title again I may actually have to do some starting and hurdling practice beforehand rather than just turn up on the day and see what happens. And lets face it there is no way I am just going to let go of it after all this time.