GOOD ENOUGH TO CARRY ON
RODDLESWORTH ROLLER
As the main title to these pages of ramblings suggest, I am indeed a nobody in particular. But that does not exempt me from heaping self induced pressure upon myself as if I was actually a somebody. I was certainly getting a bit twitchy leading up to Roddlesworth. Despite easing the training volume a little, a feeling of freshness was in slow supply and I never felt spritely all week. This culminated in to the very real underlying fear that this weekend could produce another poor race and with it a complete pointlessness to the whole notion of running to compete.
A performance anything less than reasonable would not only indicate a cold front frosting those green shoots of the forecasted Indian Summer, but in fact the beginning of an Ice Age as far as racing is concerned. As such, this year's Roddlesworth Roller had become a race of ridiculous self importance. I suppose this could be perceived as a bit dramatic, the dummy ready to be spat from the pram, the towel dangling in to the ring. But as far as competing goes, I need to feel like I am actually competing or what's the point? It's black and white when it comes to racing. Sometimes I wish I could relax and just turn up at races for pure pleasure, but that's never really going to happen!
In addition to being billed as this do or don't race, I was to be joined at the line by my Thursday night run chum Johnny Horrocks. I don't think either of us knew how it was going to pan out and I think both of us were a little nervous at going head to head. Moons ago I challenged John to beat me in a race before I turned forty, this never happened and, all be it having rarely raced against each other for years, I retained these bragging rights.
At the perfect age of 26, with natural running ability and the genetic advantages from his father Mark Horrocks who was a top class fell runner in his time, Johnners has it all to come. At the athletically degenerative age of 43, of little pedigree and having bashed my body with football, drink and smoke until eleven years ago, I knew the tide was to turn eventually.
Although clubbed with Chorley, John has been consistently joining our track sessions at Blackburn over the Winter and has been gaining yardage on me since the turn of the year, getting himself in really good nick. He races most weekends and I knew I was going to have to rely on, or hope for a one-off day of feeling great to keep him behind me. Once the race was underway, tension elapsed and I got myself off to a sensibly paced first couple of miles. Johnners had nipped ahead of me, which was something of a relief after feeling much of the first half mile with him on my left shoulder. I held back on an early descent to let him by where I could see him and just concentrate on my own pace, meanwhile his young club mate George Norris passed the pair of us with a full-on surge of descending skills. As far as the Horrocks was concerned, the rest of the race simulated a Tuesday night track session as all I could see was his backside five to ten yards ahead of me and it was a view I couldn't alter. On the brow of the main climb to just past the half way mark, Horwich veteran Rob Jackson puffed by to stake a claim for a higher position, but I was comfortable doing what I was doing and recovered well on the following road section to pass George and get tucked in just a few strides behind John again. Jackson was also close at the top of the final uphill section, these two were well within the realms of catchabilty but I felt restricted to biding my time, I certainly didn't have the confidence in my legs to attack with over a mile to go. In any case, the pair of them got away from me with an extra gear once we hit the road to the finish. Less than ten seconds separated us in the end and importantly, the time clocked was reasonable. A minute quicker than last year, a minute shy of my course best. A fair to middling run and good enough to carry on and fight another day.
So the day after, I set out for a seven miler from work and was surprised to feel great, stronger than I had felt for a few weeks and really enjoyed running hard. Maybe I needed that race in my legs. Running really can be a funny old game.

Sunday 12th March 2017
RODDLESWORTH ROLLER   5.5m    Abbey Village, Lancs.
1st Man - Tommy Harrison 32:23 (Bolton Utd Harriers)
1st Lady - Lindsey Brindle 38:08 (Horwich)
My Stats - 35:36   9/218