Those Moments that Made my Year

For the Carthorse and friends, 2013 has been quite a year of running. This year has seen many of us in my training group significantly improve. Personally, my season was probably summed up by three outstanding races in July (Mile), August (5000m) and September (HM), each better than the last. But that hasn't been complete story of this year which has just been made up of moments of hilarity, unbelievable happenings and fun. Now seems like the opportune time to recap some of my favourite moments. In chronological order of course. 

10^th April, Villamoura, Portugal:

Villamoura was a fantastic two week 'holiday' with friends in the sun at a time when the UK was still getting snow. It was great training aboard, although some of the routes got a little repetitive.  This Wednesday, I remember Nick 'Nandos' Howard showing me the beach cliff trail route for the first time. The weather was amazing, there were fantastic views of the ocean, and the steep trails were a real breathe of fresh air.  I ran that same route later that day too.

18^th May, Yate:

Summer had arrived in force and it was the first of four Track & Field League fixtures. We were pushing for promotion this season, but unfortunately we had a depleted team, meaning we were all doubling, or tripling up in the events. By the time it got to the 4x400 relay, the last event, we had only a disparate crew of exhausted distance runners left able to run.

I volunteered to go first leg as I had prior experience of holding a baton. The start line was hilarious; amongst five serious teams in blocks, I took a standing-start position and had only managed a single step by the time my competitors had sprung away and managed three….I was 50 metres behind by 100m. Dan, with a 1500m and a 5000m in his legs, finished the third leg just ahead of the leaders completing the event. This ensured we didn’t get lapped, meaning Ed, the anchor, was so jubilant that he performed a double Mobot as he eventually crossed the line.

25^th May, Leicestershire & Warwickshire joint County Champs finish line, Leicester. 

Having narrowly missed it in Yate the week before, it was widely known that I was attempting to run my maiden sub-16 minute 5000m. After one of the most physically painful races I can remember, I crossed the line, collapsing almost immediately to all fours, unable to move or do anything but hope the lactate would clear.

'What did you do?' would have been a polite way for a recovered-Ed to have enquired as to my result. But probably not convinced I would’ve been able to respond, he instead simply grabbed my watch arm from where it lay limp on the floor and pulled to his eye level. I subsequently found out I’d come second in the county, but recalling Ed's violation of my watch/arm is what I smile about when I remember that day. 

June 23^rd, My bed. 

In June, Dan was the athlete in form. The previous day had been the Midland 5000m champs which has been a disaster. The conditions were miserable, and even though Dan and Ed had PB-ed, no one was over the moon about it. 

In uncustomary fashion we hit the town to drown our sorrows, and after stumbling in at 4am, I managed to drag myself around an ‘easy’ 90 mins with Ed, in a massive struggle of hangover and sore legs. 

Dan, in contrast it turned out, had used his hangover to positive effect. I got a phone call as I lay in bed post-run trying to recover. He had somehow gone out and done a 9 mile race, finishing third in an unbelievably quick time. I do not know how, only that I could not have done that. 

July 20^th, Iffley Road track, 15 metres from the line.

The opportunity to run at the famous Roger Bannister track in Oxford was too much to pass on, even though I didn't consider myself to be in good shape to race a Mile. Dan and Mark were in the heat before mine and both ran 4:40. Not a chance I thought.

Somehow I found myself still in it coming down the final 100m, and with my friends ecstatic with jubilation on the sidelines, my legs beginning to burn, bend and wobble, I was starting intently at the finish clock which was slowly ticking up, and not getting any closer.

The winner crossed the line two seconds ahead of me, stopping the clock, but fifteen metres away I was so out of it I didn’t really absorb this. I just remember thinking I has managed to stop time, and that I'd now exist forever in a sea of painful purgatory at 4:32.

This mile was probably my breakthrough race this season, and my 1500m split probably a good 6 or 7 seconds faster than a race over the same distance just four days earlier. 

24^th August, Coventry University track finish line:

Coventry BMC 5000m was the ultimate of races. Paced by super-metronomic Ed Banks, it featured four of my other friends and training partners. I crossed the line just three seconds behind Dan, and I'll never forget the scenes that subsequently unfolded....

As I crossed the line, Dan had had just enough time to release the enormity of what he'd done, and turn around, with a shocked look on his face. I simply ran straight into an embrace, and turned around to see my friend Sarah cross the line inside her PB too. Lying around on the floor and self-congratulations initially got in the way of knowing what anyone else had done, but I then spotted Mark 10 metres away. He was frozen still, a massive smile on his face, arms stretched out wide and his body language said 'just ask me' all over it. He’d taken over 20 seconds off a 20 year old PB, breaking the 16-minute barrier which he’d given up on long ago. What a hero. It's rare that everyone you go to a race with has a screamer. On that day myself, Dan, Mark, Sarah and Chris all smashed it. And Ed's contribution was a massive part of that. Those scenes may never be repeated again.

Warm Weather.....Training

5000m goal : 15:50

5k PB : 16:21

5k SB (post-Sept 2011) : 16:21

I’ve never been on a warm weather training holiday before.  To clarify for the uninitiated, this involves going away with friends to a supposedly warm place, to train hard and effectively in a different environment without the pressures of work and everyday life.  For myself and eight friends over the last two weeks, this was largely the plan, however it didn’t quite unfold like this.

Villamoura instead was the venue for 10 days of celebrity spotting, in which Alex Tovey, who sports a gentleman’s 1500m of 3:46 which he dubiously claims not to have run in Nike Structure Triax footwear, consistently embarrassed us with his audible outcries of recognition. 

Tovey, who is also rumoured to have met Nick Goolab in the flesh, limited the number of miles which were ran in over 7 minutes to a cruel 1.23, with word around the pool stating that this was to test his vast array of running vests at speed to see which would be the most colourful when he lines up at the UK trials this June.

Tovey, Alex can be seen on the BBC, June 24^th-26^th 2012.

Unfortunately his training shadow Millborg, earlier disqualified from the alcopop strawpedo competition, crumbled under the pressure of recently being voted my 2^nd ever favourite athlete, with a late night drunken long jump into the villa pool resulting in a season-ending scrapped knee, which did nothing to help his hangover the next day.  Even Miss Squires herself broke down on the track a few days later in a lactate-enhanced emotional display as she realised the consequences of this drunken night, in which R. Kelly’s ‘Bump and Grind’ was accidently requested seconds before the karaoke bar filled with Liz McColgan’s training group, average age 12.

Millett, back left, scrambling out of the pool in after a 
season-ending rush of blood to the head.

Some of R. Kelly’s finest lyrics were performed to an
inappropriate audience.

Chief Personal Motivator and Head Movement Coach Howard, administering a balanced training programme between mileage and factor 4 tanning oil was my co-conspirator in the tempo run of the year (through a sample of two), draconically efficient in marshalling the range between the fastest and slowest miles to one second.  Its success was such that not only did Eilish McColgan take to the trails to try and join in, but one lucky individual even made off with Nando’s t-shirt as a souvenir, teaching him a valuable lesson in ‘couples karma’.  Withnesses gave a description matching one Dave Howlett, who had previously almost single-handedly dragged up the villa’s daily per-person mileage average to double figures without any fuss.

Amongst the sun bathing, post run dips in the pool and over indulgence in snacks resembling dog biscuits, it is hoped that this athlete (me, that is) managed to bagsy enough training effect to improve on the 3minutes and 1 second which I am adrift from the required Olympic A-Standard ahead of this summers global showdown.  With Chris Thornburg already securing fabricated tickets just to see me, it my sole hope that I wont let him down.

Official UKA sources believe that all athletes on the trip managed to perform at least some token training, including our P.E coordinator, Leigh-Ann, whose new found proficiency in middle distance terminology is reportedly the reason behind a secret recruitment by Alberto Salazar to help Farah get back to winning ways.

A WAG, Emily Armstrong also attended the trip.

Emily, pictured front right, actually cooks a spiffing lasagne, 

and was recruited by this restaurant shortly after.

Architecture: a running commentary

For a long time I regarded a pair of running shoes to be only thing that an athlete requires.  And of course socks, shorts and a polyester top of some description.  Then my mother informed me that it might actually be polite, and that I should, wash these garments.  So throw in a washing machine.  But essentially, the landscape is there, roads, hills, grass, trails.  Granted this is dependant on where one lives.  I’m fortunate enough to come from the countryside, where a grassy forest is 5 minutes round the corner.

But it was a tutor at university who encouraged me to expand my thinking.  Yes we don’t fundamentally need anything else, but what might we like, and how can the experience of exercise be heightened?  After all that’s what architecture is all about.  A flat and measured surface perhaps?  A room full of heavy iron weights to improve our static strength?  These facilities exist, they are called a track and a gym, and contrary to popular belief, they vary considerably.

There are some shocking examples out there.  My local track for example feature no protection from the wind, so the benefit of having a measured distance is instantly gone, and no protection from the chavs: they’ll play football on the adjacent grass and not unreasonably expect you to get their ball back when it goes over the fence.  There is the modest upside that in a post-maximal workout haze, you can stretch the imagination to pretend that the adjacent drab building is a beautiful modernist Le Corbusier library. 

Today, however, I had a brainwave and drove the extra 4 miles to the Loughborough HiPAC, the High Performance Athletics Centre at Loughborough University campus, and it was well worth it.  This place is designed, and I mean thought out.  A modest £4 got me not only the use of an indoor and outdoor track, a weights room, a extensive array of useful equipment and changing facilities, but the additional feeling of physical inadequacy; that my Type 1 muscles were vastly inferior to the giant GB sprinters who were also training there.  But it also afforded me the opportunity to experience a place that I’d have to call architecture. 

The 2012 Olympic Stadium which I look forward to running in (fingers crossed) in May features a continuous wind envelope boasting the minimalistic sustainability associated with running, with a high performance track installed to produce fast times and in my opinion is the perfect way to compete, or rather not compete with the Beijing Birds Nest.  The HiPAC on the other hand runs the length of the stout Loughborough Uni track straight without any unnecessary enclosure of space, and blends with existing tall surrounding trees forming a public/private perimeter, and complete shelter from the wind.  The site is well chosen, tacking advantage of the level change to produce a track which is recessed to compliment this shelter, but also allows for a 3-storey structure which is submissive to the surrounding architecture, even framing the 1937 Hazlerigg Building, which forms a focal point of the campus to the South.  Upon entering the HiPAC, one find themselves on a small mezzanine level, greeted with a wide open view of the primary indoor spaces, enclosed by a large glazed façade offering a view of the track, and achieving a sense of community, which – possibly by chance – also provides a reflective surface for one to self-analyse their gait and form while training.

 [Loughborough HiPAC, adjacent to the Athletics Pavilion]

[Inside the HiPAC from above]

While I feel that the use of some masonry to add character by better-relating to the adjacent heritage-rich athletics pavilion and other campus edifices, while providing a some thermal mass to absorb what I hear is massive summer solar heat gain, this is the first facility that I have experiences that actually speaks to the holistic needs of athletes, both through function and design. 

The country-wide absence of suitable facilities is well documented, and with David Cameron recently announcing that an additional £41m would be allocated to the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, thus shattering the concept of not trying to compete with Beijing, and indeed undermining possible investment in grass route sports.  Obviously the functionality of the HiPAC is designed for the elite, and would not realise its potential should it be used predominantly by the average person, nor do we need to many more of these facilities. 

At uni, I explored an alternative idea, and designed a retreat to educate and empower the everyday individual - in this era of growing obesity - in how to lead a healthy lifestyle, a societal need which is being continually neglected.  A fat camp if you will.  This, I feel, is far more beneficial than token gestures, such as the funky, but predominantly aesthetic sprint straight at the Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid.  Saying that, through its sheer novelty this may ironically interest a few school children in athletics, which cannot be a bad thing.

 

[Urban Retreat : university project]

[Evelyn Grace Academy : Zaha Hadid]