Saturday 6 September 2014

Banstead Woods ParkRun 379

I’m just eight days away from my Great North Run hack and I’m woefully under prepared. To put it simply, I just haven’t done the training.

Still, on the plus side, I’m still looking forward to ticking it off my running bucket list of races (a National road relay of some description is the thing left on there for me at the moment but I would imagine that won’t happen for a while yet).

And so lining up at the 379th Banstead Woods ParkRun represents my last quality session before 13.1 miles of joy comes around. By quality I mean a 2.5mile warm-up jog to the race from my house (normally struggling to wake the legs up), blasting the 5K itself and then dragging my aching limbs the 2.5miles back home.

Standing on the start-line at Banstead, I go through the usual routines. Knowing I’ll probably be around 20th I stand on the third line of runners back from the front...and there aren’t many races I can do that in let me assure you. It is also a good opportunity to eye the regulars who I’ve been enjoying a few duels with recently. There are a couple of nippy teenage brothers who are always a few places ahead of me in these things so they provide a good target. I spot a chap in an England cricket shirt who is always there or thereabouts in relation to me and then there is a super Vet who has amassed 200+ ParkRuns and leads me 17-6 on head to heads. It was clear...I had my targets.

I also had half an eye on trying to better my personal best here at Banstead which stands at 19:59 I set last in April of last year. Since then I’ve been in the zone of 20:20-40’s but it has been a struggle to get close to breaking that elusive 20 minute barrier. 20:15 is my best this year and that came after an arduous cross-country season. It is obvious that it is lack of training that is having an effect but today feels slightly different...I feel strong...I’m confident I can run it closer this time.

The Race Director shouts go and sure enough I get swamped at the start. I really need to attack the starts of races more, even having done hundreds of competitions I’m still scared of doing so.

“It is only a 5K Matthew....FOR GOODNESS SAKE attack it!” is the mantra I desperately need to employ. There are legs and heels flying everywhere and then there’s the inevitable bottleneck soon after starting, but soon enough we were into our running and away.

The first mile went by without incident and I was through in 6:42. Not bad. And the bonus was that a nice long downhill follows shortly receiving this news. Oh how good I feel at this moment, peaking at 5:34 miling, opening up the stride and feeling full of running. Oh how awful I will feel when I have to do this again on the next lap...

Despite my slow start, I had been reeling people in at regular intervals during the first lap so was confident I’d be running close to the 20 minute barrier I so desperately want to break. I was anxious as I approached the halfway mark and as the marshal shouting the time-checks neared everything seemed to go in slow motion (quite literally).

“Ten minutes Ten” was the cry and disappointment was my instant response.

Damn it...it is nearly impossible to run negative splits on this course in my experience, a 9:40-49 second lap is completely out of the question. A defeatist yet realistic approach...I’d just have to fight to the finish now.
The great thing about Banstead is that there is no time to rest on your laurels. As soon as you go past the halfway marker you head straight up an energy sapping gravel hill. I flew past a teenager who had overcooked it too early. I felt sorry for him, we’ve all been there that’s for sure.

I missed my 2nd mile time due to fatigue and instead focused on the England cricket shirt chap ahead of me who in turn was reeling in one of the speedy teenage brothers who appeared to be struggling. I had about 50m to make up and thankfully closed the gap as we began the long descent to home.

Tucked in behind them, the England cricket shirted chap looked to the teenager “Come on mate let’s keep going”. Fair play to him, ParkRunners are all in this together, and comments like that provide such a boost when the going gets tough. It was great of the guy to shout encouragement at this late stage when he must have been hurting like hell at the same time. I doubt I could have formed a coherent word let alone sentence...such was the state of my wheezing at this point. It clearly worked for the teenager who picked up the pace.

As we approached the corner for 200m to home I tried to attack if only to try and get close to 20:15 (my best this year). I had no challenge behind me, it was now (as Bill Withers once didn’t sing) just the three of us. The time check was read out at 19:50...so the PB goal had long gone, but two more scalps hadn’t. It turned out to be the battle for 18th, 19th and 20th.

I made my move as soon as we reached the flat stuff. The theory being that this might be enough to run the teenager’s almighty kick out of his legs. It wasn’t. I rounded both of them but the teenager flew past with unnerving ease and I had no more gears to give. It is amazing how many times this has happened to me in races. The sight of me going past people in the latter stages clearly has a mystical effect on other runners. I clung on to the end for 19th, one out of the two scalps wasn’t bad in the circumstances even if the time of 20:32 was essentially just par for course.


A top 20 finish out of 186 was nothing to be sniffed at. Better not get used to it though. Soon I’ll be in Newcastle against 50,000 others...