PERSONAL WORST
PODIUM 5K
Quite often this blog, diary, rambling or whatever it may loosely be classified as, is a rod for my own back. When I have a crap race I might want to talk about it briefly and may even spout excuses, but I don't particularly enjoy making a written record of it. I just want to stew in my own self deprecating thoughts, try and work out what happened and why, then get out there and try again before thoughts of taking up Crown Green bowling return with serious intent. In life, I have, and continue to fall short of making good of things that I might actually have a talent for. So why on earth do I expect to buck that trend over something that I'm not so talented at like running? Psychological flaws would be the answer to that one.
I'm not a good enough runner to take things too seriously, but I'm serious enough to be disappointed and embarrassed after recording a shock personal worst 5K time at Podium. What an absolute joke of a performance! Training had been suggesting for a few weeks that a sub-17 minuter was on the cards. Worst case scenario, I can always dig out a sub-18, even off not much training backbone and at least warrant my place within the current 'A' race time band. But I couldn't even scratch that bare minimum requirement on this occasion, falling well short of doing enough to even justify my albeit insignificant participation.
Instead I suffered a second all time top five worst race in the space of less than four months. Hardly a statistic to fill my heart with joy. There was no lack of effort, I grimly held on for the last two kilometres despite the fact that it felt as if this possibly flattest 5K course in the country was actually on a hill. As far as the stiff back was concerned, it felt fine when running. In fact I felt great warming up - sometimes a bad sign! There's no excuses for this result, but there has to be some sort of tenuous explanation after probably the most solid bank of uninterrupted and intensive interval training I've ever done.
At the time of the wheels falling off on Saturday night and the immediate aftermath of what had just happened, all seemed inexplicable. But the subsequent post-mortem pointed towards the previous weekend's extreme deviation from training routine and the two short but very sharp up and downers that I couldn't resist upon the slopes of Helvellyn's Dodd's. Quad muscles mashed, subsequent lactic was seemingly flushed out by a decent flat speed session which restored confidence in still being able to run well at Podium. But remembering back to Saturday evening and locating where the stride shortened and the wheels buckled, it wasn't the usual suspect of hamstrings, adductor or gluets. It was the quads. Could this have been my undoing? The morning after, it was the quads that felt the most worked-out muscle set, which is extremely unusual after a flat 5K . It's normally the calf muscles or the hamstrings doing the screaming. That said and if true, it's still a poor do that I couldn't even hang on for anything near a sub-18. An all time personal worst of 18:19 recorded and last place all to myself by a distance. One or two other competitors bailed however, which I consider a bit of cop out at this sort of distance unless you're injured. It did cross my mind to join them, but with a DNF only last month I can't make it a habit. I stayed on and took my punishment.
I was hoping to have a bit of a ding-dong with my former Blackburn clubmate Paul Guinan as he continues to progress through his most recent comeback. But after all the pre-race bantering by myself, Guiny must have been wondering what a load of deluded drivel I had been banging on about. In retrospect, so do I! He pulled away from me about half way around and that was that.
The next race is going to tell me what's going on. Training has been going well all in all so I'm thinking it was a blip, fatigued quads, very bad day at the office or something like that. What I must stop doing is bigging myself up before a race which is something I've noticed has crept in to my game. I don't do it through arrogance - I have nothing to be arrogant about! - I think it's just sporting nerves and getting myself revved up like back in the footballing days, but it's got to stop. More often than not my words don't match my actions and I end up looking like an even bigger dick than already perceived! If that's possible?!
Lest not I completely smother the good name of Podium 5K in my own misgivings and shortcomings, for I really ought to comment on observations I made at the other side of the track on a night when the course record was beaten again. Talented St Helen's racer Matthew Crehan's trademark confidence was evident. He's not afraid to have a go and took this one out from the front like a man possessed. Every time I glimpsed across he was well ahead, officially by eleven seconds at one point I am informed. Crehan equalled the old record on the night but I was surprised and equally impressed to hear that wily GB runner Tom Lancashire produced the perfect finish to reel him back in and take the race - and the record - in the very closing stages. That's what Podium is actually about, not some ageing average half beat four minutes adrift who dreams of a long term Indian Summer of racing form from within the confinement of the icy caverns of stark reality.
So why do I really invest considerable time and effort in an activity that I'm pretty average at and unlikely to improve upon at forty bloody four? Well, I love it. Not all the time, but most of the time.
However if the grim reaper of athletical capability really does show me his hand this year, then switching codes to the bowling green is right back on the agenda.

Saturday 7th April 2018
PODIUM 5K   Steven Burke Cycle & Sports Hub, Barrowford, East Lancs
1st Man - Tom Lancashire (Bolton Utd Harriers) 14:19
1st Lady - Becky Rigby (Preston Harriers) 16:30
My Stats - 18:19   51/51