DAVID EAMANUEL COWM RESERVOIR 5K
The night races hadn't quite finished in fact. A remote fell race at Egremont initially pricked my ears and prodded my imagination. Wishing for an ideal world to just get over there and explore, a round journey of over four hours to Cumbria's most Western extremes just couldn't really be justified on a Thursday night. Fortunately that man Andy O'Sullivan came to the rescue with another Reservoir 5K on the calendar. So I headed over to Whitworth instead for the second Thursday in succession and to Cowm Reservoir in particular - a third visit this year - and a welcome test of speed on the flat.
The morning of race day though, I felt rough. Heavy head, puffy glands and slow metabolism. No amount of fresh air, purifying water and good coffee seemed to shift it. I was resigned to thinking there was no chance of racing for a good portion of the day and that was the case until late afternoon when I finally showed signs of life.
I still didn't feel full shilling but decided to give it a go. Encouraged by the words of Ben Fish still ringing in my ears from a couple of years ago and the David Moorcroft syndrome - if Moorcroft felt a bit crap on race day, he knew he was on for a good one - then that, along with another decent week of training, was the hope I was clinging on to.
Fear me not though, it didn't take much of a warm up to get things moving and realise I could probably end up running quite well... again? Could lightning strike twice? Lap one of two certainly didn't take anything out of me. Early on I shared the pace with club mate Helen Glover who went on to win the ladies contest easily. Then I nudged up to fifth spot having passed the Holcombe runner that I thought could be John Raho, but wasn't for believing it was him as I don't recall getting near him in a race before. Pace felt good and it was only in the last three quarters of a mile that I had to start working a bit harder to sustain it. I thought I'd shook off that Holcombe vest for good but could hear company closing in with maybe half a mile to go. As we turn towards the head of the reservoir for the last time I decided to try for an early break and stretch out a gap, but the Holcombe man matched my efforts and squared up with me on the drop towards the finish. With a hundred yards to go, he nudged ahead and I accidentally clipped his heels in a desperate attempt to stay with him before saving a surge for the final twenty strides. But, having thankfully stayed on his feet, he was clearly in command and responded again to pip me by a second. Turned out it was John Raho, probably not at his best, but I gave him a race. Turned out I'd knocked half a minute off my last appearance here and I didn't have to hang on so grimly either. Good signs and job satisfaction to reflect on for this now well worn journey back via East Lancashire gems like Bacup, Stacksteads, Brittania, Rawtenstall and the Grane Road which connnects the M65 to the wild West of home.
A final word then for organiser Andy O'Sullivan and the Andems Runners team, of whom I seem to be waxing literal about most frequently these days. But what a cracking guy. His organisation is impeccable, his races directly fund local causes and he does it for the love. He does it for us runners. What does he say to us at the end? ''Did you enjoy it lads?'' and you feel it's important to him that you did enjoy it. That's just it, our pleasure is his pleasure. As race organisers go, they just don't make many like this guy anymore. He was at the table doing registration, he was at the start to get us all off, he was on the course commentating on his loudspeaker after lap one - I even got a mention to treasure - ''...John from Ribble Valley coming through...'' - then he's down at the finish commentating on that too, then he's back doing the presentation at the pub... he was everywhere.
It's a bit of a bind getting over to Whitworth from my neck of the woods, but I'll be at it again next Spring for sure. I'd been absent from Andems races for a good few years, it's great to be back. In this era of ruthless profit making events companies bastardising running races as we knew them, we need the Andy O'Sullivan's of this world to keep amateur running honest, genuine and real. I heard he's been campaigning for the great Ron Hill to be knighted - the powers that be could do a lot worse than recognise Andy himself in the honours list as well.
Thursday 13th September 2018
DAVID EAMANUEL COWM RESERVOIR 5K Cowm Reservoir, Whitworth.
1st Man - Will Smith (Halifax Harriers) 16:29
1st Lady - Helen Glover (Ribble Valley Harriers) 18:13
My Stats - 17:39 6/85
A final word then for organiser Andy O'Sullivan and the Andems Runners team, of whom I seem to be waxing literal about most frequently these days. But what a cracking guy. His organisation is impeccable, his races directly fund local causes and he does it for the love. He does it for us runners. What does he say to us at the end? ''Did you enjoy it lads?'' and you feel it's important to him that you did enjoy it. That's just it, our pleasure is his pleasure. As race organisers go, they just don't make many like this guy anymore. He was at the table doing registration, he was at the start to get us all off, he was on the course commentating on his loudspeaker after lap one - I even got a mention to treasure - ''...John from Ribble Valley coming through...'' - then he's down at the finish commentating on that too, then he's back doing the presentation at the pub... he was everywhere.
It's a bit of a bind getting over to Whitworth from my neck of the woods, but I'll be at it again next Spring for sure. I'd been absent from Andems races for a good few years, it's great to be back. In this era of ruthless profit making events companies bastardising running races as we knew them, we need the Andy O'Sullivan's of this world to keep amateur running honest, genuine and real. I heard he's been campaigning for the great Ron Hill to be knighted - the powers that be could do a lot worse than recognise Andy himself in the honours list as well.
Thursday 13th September 2018
DAVID EAMANUEL COWM RESERVOIR 5K Cowm Reservoir, Whitworth.
1st Man - Will Smith (Halifax Harriers) 16:29
1st Lady - Helen Glover (Ribble Valley Harriers) 18:13
My Stats - 17:39 6/85
No comments:
Post a Comment