Tight at the top

Following hot on the heels of Saturday's race at Podium, it was a quick turnaround for Monday's interclub fixture. Wesham hosted he fifth race of the series, with a 4.5 mile course, starting and finishing at BNFL car park in Salwick.

My legs were still battered from the exertions of 48 hours previous, but I was determined to keep my winning run going and hoped that it could help see the team home to victory too.

I ran a nice consistent race, coming home first place in 23:17, at an average pace of 5:09. That was enough to record a 49 second gap to Affleck in second place.

Afterwards, my two and a half mile cool down took me longer to complete than the race itself, as my legs completely seized up! Fair to say I was ready for a massage having not had one in some six weeks...

Just as important to me as the individual victory, Wesham recorded a team win on home turf too. With Blackpool finishing one point better than Preston too, to push them down into 3rd place on the night, it meant that the teams are closer than ever going into the final two fixtures of the campaign.

In fact, Wesham have now moved level on points with Preston at the top of the table going into next months meeting at Chorley.

With just two races and only 8.9 miles in total to go now, things are starting to get interesting and from here on in every single point will count. 

This is the first time since I joined the club 4 years ago that we have got this far into an interclub season still with a realistic chance of finishing in top spot.

Well done to all who turned out this week, let's push on now next time out at Chorley - this could yet be our year!

#teamwesham

Third time unlucky...

As you all know, last Saturday I took part in the Podium 10k spin off race from the successful 5k series that they have developed at Nelson. Billed as one of the quickest courses in the area, and delivering many outstanding times on the night, it appears we now know one reason why it was so fast...

Unfortunately, having measured short on quite a few of the runners garmins on the night, yesterday it was confirmed that after a remeasurement of the course, it was indeed less than the full distance. How much by, I am not yet sure. But short is short, and as a result the times recorded are now null and void.

This is particularly frustrating for me on the back of my previous thwarted attempts to compete in races over the distance already in 2015, but even more so when I know that I genuinely ran extremely well on the night.

The first that I became aware of concerns over the accuracy of the course was on Sunday, when I saw that fellow competitor Jason Cherriman had queried the distance recorded on his garmin. Like many runners - Jason himself included - I am always a bit sceptical of the measurements given out by my watch so wasn't overly concerned, though I must admit my watch had it short too.

I contacted the race organiser on Monday and asked whether I had reason to be concerned and was reassured that the times were correct, and so was the course length. That evening at the latest interclub fixture, I caught up with Brian Porter. Brian is the man who measures and certifies courses to ensure their accuracy and to make them official distances. He was already aware of the discrepancies of runners garmins at the race, but confirmed that he had been and personally measured the course out and that the course (as long as it was marked out the same as he had requested) was 100% accurate.

That night I went to bed still believing that although the race had been under scrutiny, I had still officially ran a new pb time. The following morning I woke up to a text telling me some very different news...

The course had been laid out differently from the official guideline requirement for the certificate to be valid and was therefore now officially short. It was news that was very disappointing and hard to take considering all the hard work I had put into my training for the race - including running whilst away on my holiday to ensure I was in peak shape when I returned.

I have been told that the course could have been as much as 338 metres shorter than the officially measured one, however I find this extremely hard to believe. My own garmin measured it at 9.9k and I believe the shortest recorded was 9.87, although some actually measured accurate and even long - as I say I am very loave to trust readings on watches, especially when they vary so much over the same course!!

I reckon the course was probably short by between 100-150 metres, and if you was to take the bigger distance into consideration, then you could probably add a good 25 seconds onto my time. That would have delivered a time of 31:40 in theory. That would still have knocked a minute off my current pb and is a time I would have been delighted with still, but I admit to feeling more than a little bit frustrated and angry that I have been denied the opportunity of recording an official and accurate time.

Podium race organiser, Chris Barnes, has in fairness reacted quickly and is putting on a fresh (accurate) race within the next few weeks to make amends for the mistake. I cannot fault his reaction and commend him for doing so. I also feel some sympathy for him. Chris wanted to deliver quick times and to help make fast runners go faster against each other, that was the reason for putting Podium on in the first place. The 5k is already a highly successful project, and will only continue to get better and grow. I just hope that this blow isn't too damaging for its reputation. Everybody makes mistakes and these things happen.

Digressing slightly, this whole episode has made me wonder just what would have happened if nobody had been wearing a garmin on the night? The results would probably have stood and people would have trusted the times recorded on a fast, flat track. I wonder just how many races in years gone by - in the pre-garmin era - were in fact short, and therefore how many runners pb's if placed under the same levels of intense scrutiny would have still held up? 

As races compete to deliver the quickest times and strongest fields possible, it makes you wonder...

Podium 10k

For a while now, it has been my 10k time that has been the biggest source of frustration for me. I have felt that I had yet to properly represent what I was able to do over the distance. 

My pb time of 32:39, set at City of Salford 10k last September was an accurate reflection of the standard I was at in 2014. However I felt that having improved across every other distance by quite large chunks so far this calendar year, I was confident that I was now more than capable of a sub 32 minute 10k.

I am sure you will all be more than aware of my previous attempts to run at Trafford and Salford having been scuppered earlier this year. As a result, I had found myself having only done one race over the distance in the whole of 2015. That one being Worden Park, a tough undulating course which I didn't have enough high quality competition. Yet I ran within 10 seconds of my pb there, so I knew that I was in shape to take a hefty chunk off when I did finally find the right course and level of opposition.

A few months ago I competed in a new 5k event in Nelson, called 'Podium 5k' it had a great standard of opposition and as such it forced a higher level of performance out of me too - seeing me better my previous time by 16 seconds.

Shortly afterwards, I heard about the possibility of them putting on a 10k version of the race. When the plans were confirmed, I immediately put my name down, and ever since then I have been working hard towards making sure I was in the perfect condition to do myself justice in the race.

Last night, that race finally came round. 10 laps of a cycle track, the course is pan flat - the flattest you will find anywhere - and with a fantastic standard of athletes participating, everything was in place for me to finally nail a time that I could be happy with.

The race was won by Ben Fish in 30:15, with Dave Rigby second in a new pb of 30:35. Third place recorded approximately 31 minutes flat and my coach Rob Affleck smashed his own pb by running about 31:08 - his previous best being 31:54! Having given him a lift to the race, it's fair to say it was a good atmosphere on the drive home!

Myself? Well I had targeted taking at least a minute off my best time, and ideally wanted to give myself a shot at breaking the 31 and a half minute barrier. Driven on by the high class field, and encouraged by a good and vocal support, I managed to demolish my previous best by running 31:15 - knocking some 84 seconds off my time recorded at Salford and being good enough for 5th place. That in itself was amazing for me, as it meant I beat some outstanding athletes- including Jason Cherriman, who ran 2 hours and 22 minutes at the London marathon this year, and whose blog I have been following closely in his build up to an attempt at 2:20 at Berlin this September.

The course, and competition was fantastic, and the conditions could have been a lot worse - although there was a nasty head wind down the final straight, which of course we had to run into ten times. But overall, the setting couldn't have been much better for a pb attempt.

I would like to commend Chris Barnes and his team for putting on such a successful event. I am sure the Podium series will continue to grow and flourish as more runners become aware of it, and the promise of quick times and an atmosphere that allows athletes to perform to the best of their ability.

He only blot on my performance last night would probably be a poor fourth mile, which saw me run a 5:18 and drop some 7-8 seconds behind Affleck and the runner that finished third, as for the first three miles we had packed well, but once I dropped behind them, I was never able to close the gap back up again.

This performance has been a massive relief for me though and a boost to my confidence that I am able to compete at this standard of competition. I am already starting to turn my attentions to targeting an attempt at sub 31 now!

But that can wait a while, as I let the new pb settle in. It's a great feeling!