Tom Roper's Running Training

The Lewes 10k

The Lewes 10k is a wonderful occasion with, as Anthony of Sussex Sport Photography remarked, something of the atmosphere of a school sports day. Held on Easter Monday, I ran it last year when it was a sub-aquatic affair, with mud. This year the paths and tracks were hard. Clearly I prefer firm going, as I went round in a creditable 54:43, in spite of still being in recovery after the Brighton Marathon. It was a pleasure to meet another Brighton Marathon veteran, @orbific, aka James Burt.

The race begins and ends at the Lewes Leisure Centre, and heads out into the Ouse valley, on a roughly quadrilateral course, along farm tracks, past Iford church, over more fields and back into Lewes near the rugby club. It is therefore mostly flat, odd as that may seem for a race in Lewes. I started towards the rear of the pack, and stayed there for the whole of the race, except, unusually for me, I did pass some of my fellow runners towards the end. Looking at my mile splits, my pacing was on target for most of the race, but I slowed for the third and fourth miles, picking up the pace for the final section.

It was a good race and has given me courage for future efforts.

Seaford Striders results

Graham Vanaka 38:41
Phillip Carr 40:47
Chris Piper 43:18
Anthony Cross 44:03
Joshua Rudd 44:08
Nathasha Swan 44:37
Benjamin Moynihan 44:56
Natalie McCreath 47:59
Robert Ward 50:02
Lucy Thorne 51:19
Robert Webber 51:58
Claire Bulger 52:07
Robyn Delivett 52:46
Karen Clinton 53:33
Tom Roper 54:43
Cliff Parrott 55:41
Peter Cryer 5:55
Martin Waite 55:56
Tony Dray 58:13
Elaine Cooke 58:20
Victoria Wheeler 1:03:02
Claire Jenkins 1:03:28
Martin Bulger 1:05:18
Naomi Eglington 1:08:06
William Young 1:28:14

 

Brooks Brighton 10k

 

Team CILIP: Michael Martin (right) and me

How odd to think that a couple of months ago I wasn't going to enter this race. I'd run it every year since 2005, and I was bored. It's busy, I thought to myself. Then, on impulse I entered. I'm so glad I did, for I finished in 54:30 a time two and a bit minutes faster than last year's. This is the first time for several years that my performance has improved, and gives me tremendous hope.

So today I found myself, with Michael Martin (aka @CILIPQuals on Twitter), pictured here (he's the fast looking one) and around 2,500 others on Brighton seafront, on a cold and grey morning.

One can divide the race up into three phases: the run east to Blackrock, the long slog from Blackrock westwards to the King Alfred Leisure Centre, and the final eastwards run to the finish. And for each of these phases I felt discomfort of a different sort. Before the start and for the first section, I felt light-headed and dizzy. I attribute this to over-zealous use of my asthma inhaler before the start. Then, headed for Hove, as we passed the Peace Statue, my legs began to feel heavy and my feet hurt. I 'd kept up a good eight-minute mile pace until then, but looked at my watch to see I had slowed to 9 minute miling. I was not in the position of one of my fellow runners though, who I heard importuning random spectators to massage him.

The turn at the Hove end is psychologically important. I reminded myself of Zhukov's armies which, after the battle of Stalingrad, didn't stop till they reached Berlin. But, a mile or so before the end, I began to feel pain in my Achilles tendon. This is unusual, and I was worried. On I pressed, and that pain was joined by a nasty sensation in the groin. At my age, any sort of sensation in that area is unusual. Fortunately none of this stopped me and I made it to the end, though without the sprint finish I can sometimes pull out of the bag at the end of a race. You can see my progress on Gamin Connect at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/57424304.

The first man home was Sean Connelly in 29:19 and the first woman Louise Damen of Winchester and District AC in 33:13

Michael finished 212th in 39:35, a PB for him, and I heard of other PBs, including Claire Brooks of the BSMS lunchtime runners in 42:53 and Adrian Campbell of the Seaford Striders.

The Striders came home as follows:

Ryan Stewart: 36:44
Adrian Campbell: 40:43
Richard Honeyman:44:15
Geoffrey Grey: 46:16
Natalie McCreath: 46:18
Angie Cox: 45:41
Elaine Borley: 49:18
Chris Le Beau: 49:55
Tom Roper: 54:30
Phillip Dray: 57:37