PIPPED AT THE POST!

“If you want to run faster, you need to run slower” read the quote from an old edition of Runners World as I lay in the bath trying to relax my aching muscle this morning. The idea behind the quote is that instead of charging off like a headless chicken over the first km then dieing an ignominious death 500 metres later you start off controlled, picking up the pace during the race for a faster overall finish time.

Looking out the window of my editing studio at the blustery, wet and cold conditions I did for a minute think that running the 5km race today could be missed. Besides I had had a great track session on Tuesday and a good 16 mile steady tempo run on Wednesday but unfortunately it’s not really in my nature to turn down a race.

The field was not as strong as usual due to a number of runners taking place in a national relay competition on Saturday, but there were still a number of good runners that would push me today.

My legs felt pretty heavy as the gun went off and thankfully the first 1km into a strong head wind up along the side of Hyde Park was relatively slow at 3:30. Tucked in behind the lead pack of 6 or 7 runners I felt relaxed and enjoyed the feeling of being in control. Past 2km the pack had been whittled down to 3 and I started to sense that I might get my second win in as many weeks. By the 3rd km it was down to me and a fellow Serpentine runner called Eric Phillips. The previous month he had run past me at this point, finishing more then 20 seconds in front and would not have been unduly concerned about my presence.

My advantage would be that he had no idea how much training I had done over the last month and passing under the bridge at 3.5km I wanted to see how he was feeling and surged up the hill creating a 3 second gap. I was feeling great, feeling like a real runner, I was in the unfamiliar position of leading this race and loving it, looking back now to my first outing over the course I finished down in 78th in over 20 minutes. Back then it would have been almost unimaginable to be in this position.

Eric was still there however and breathing down my neck with 400 metres to go, I knew and he knew that if it came down to a sprint finish he would win so I tried to up the tempo again, but with just over 200 metres to go he came passed me. I tired to respond but it was too late, my vision started to blur and darken due to the lack of oxygen to my brain (or it might have had something to do with shutting my eyes). My efforts had been in vain, disappointingly I finished only 1 second behind him.

The time 16:57 was not that quick and 17 seconds slow then I had hoped for, but through 4km it felt like I was on a fast paced tempo run. What the race taught me was the need for good pace judgement from the start; certainly for the longer races pacing will be everything.