Category: Competition

A year or so back a few of us made the trip round the M25 for a Blackheath and Bromley open. The weather was crazy with a big rainstorm, but most of us posted good times – nothing to lose?

So we decided to return this year, in the end only Jack and I could make it. Quite a few people in this race but I’d failed to do any homework, so didn’t know what the competition would be like.

In the event it was a good, close race, I was very happy with my back straight, felt smooth and ran most people down. Holding on for the finish wasn’t easy, but a win is a win and a time of 61.78, my best since 2021 / catching Covid.

Feeling positive, but a way to go yet for sub-60 running.

Video is here: https://youtu.be/M8urSavuMG0

Made my first foray into the world of international Masters Athletics competitions. Tampere in Finland were selected as hosts and I must say it’s an amazing city and great facilities for athletics. The main track was excellent and there seemed to be a couple of other good tracks very near by – one was a 300m track which was novel.

Luckily the timing meant we could make it a family holiday at the same time, renting a house in Tampere for the event days and then moving on to another place for the rest of the stay.

The organisation was excellent and it was so inspiring to see so many people competing at every age. The performances put in are incredible, a wake-up call for me now and something to aspire to in the years to come.

There is a great spirit of camaraderie amongst the athletes and so much work put in by officials and organisers.

By lucky chance I was drawn into the TaFMAC (Track and Field Master Athletic Category) study carried out by the DLR Institute of Space Medicine. A wonderful team and the closest I got to flying in the whole tournament. They carried out a wide range of tests and gave me some real insights into my physical condition.

You might have noticed that I’ve been avoiding the topic of running. Yes, procrastination. I crashed out in the first round of the 400m. This mirrored my worst fears as I’d contracted Covid some months before. My symptoms were quite mild but I found in training that when I “hit the wall” it was nothing like I’d ever experienced previously. In some early 400 races I would get to 200m in a good time and feel really strong. Then my performance would fall off a cliff. I know a 400 often feels a bit like that, you can be deceived at 200, but this was different.

On the day I drew an outside lane, not a big deal I’ve mentally put myself into the “all lanes have a positive” mode. As a taller runner I know I have gentler bends in the outside and hit the straight early. I was somewhat shocked by how quickly a couple of inside runners overtook me but I felt I could respond and was feeling good at 250, then it just fell apart. This had happened in previous races and whilst I don’t have the splits I reckon I was about 29 seconds for the first 200, and it went so badly in the home straight that my second 200 would have been about 38 seconds. That wasn’t me giving up, I fought my body to the line, but finished a convincing last.

It’s been a while since posting here. I won’t bother with why, just time to get organised and keep sharing.

Our first match post-lockdown for our Vets team with a trip up to Stevenage. The rain held off for a large part of the match. I haven’t run 100m for a while so took the chance for this. Had been put down into the 40-50 section, no doubt for good reason but with people dropping out and team manager isolating for Covid the reasons were lost. Great to catch up with a number of familiar faces on the Masters scene…..

I’ve been struggling with block starts recently and haven’t found time to diagnose, particularly with a focus on helping coach a number of our younger athletes in blocks has taken my mind off it.

Didn’t feel like the best start with two guys blasting away from me. Managed to get into 3rd place. I was totally surprised by a PB of 13.3 – it didn’t feel like a good race at all.

Half an hour break, this time in the 50-55 section. Suddenly 100m feels more draining than I’d anticipated – get in the excuses early as they say…….

Nothing feels quite right about this race, it’s cool, a bit breezy and starting to rain. I’m slow out of the blocks, back straight a bit more effort than it ought to be. 150m to go I was paying the price, felt a bit more like 400m hurdles than flat. Last 20 metres were through treacle. Happy to clock 60.3 on that.

A great wrap up in the 4x100m, in fact three of our middle distance guys stepped in to make the team and did a great job. We messed up the final handover so I pretty much had to stop and restart, but we did well for the scratch team.

Next up is a 400m hurdles at the London Inter Club Challenge.