…a merciless despot with nothing to lose, in my Dick Quax running shoes

Two weeks since my last update so apologies to the legions of fans who don’t read this blog. Where to start then, 3k at Trafford – another PB with a 10:01 – 2 seconds off my sub 10 target but I’m sure I’ve got this sussed now. I felt fine for the 3k, just got caught up in traffic for the first few laps and rather than panic and start running long I bided my time and worked through the field. Problem with these short distances is one or two seconds over and suddenly you’re left with an improbable task, I passed the halfway in 5:09 which meant clawing back 10 seconds in the final 1500. I pushed as hard as I could and kinda bottled out of sprinting the last 400, I did wind it up and belted the last 200 but it was in vain. Still, 10 secs off the PB and the last 1500 in 4:52, plus the knowledge that I can cope with a sub 5:20 pace for the 3k. Last chance for this season to get under 10 tonight but I’m confident I can push 78 seconds laps, here’s hoping!

I had a few days away in Sitges, Spain with the wife the following week bit late to call it warm weather training but I managed a few decent runs. My favourite was an 8 mile slog from the hotel along the promenade then up a massive climb and back – here’s the google maps link http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=PR8%201SQ&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1

Plenty of great restaurants in Sitges so I was bon vivre-ing it up but wasn’t worried about putting the pounds on because it was so hot. I got back Friday night and decided to run the Southport Seaside 10k on the Sunday. I still managed a 12 on the Saturday with the PLS lads (who stayed on for 22) as well as the Park Run, which I plodded around at glacial pace (23:44!). I thought the Southport run was the Natterjacks one but discovered twas an event organised by Legacy Event Series and 2k of the 10 were to be ran on the beach. I didn’t fancy that so looked around for another race – the City of Salford 10k didn’t have any ‘on the day’ entries and Tameside 10k looked a bit too tough for a PB.

Anyway, I settled for the Southport race because the weather looked fine and there was virtually no wind forecast. I travelled up with Martin who, like myself is in training for the Liverpool marathon. The event itself seemed more of a fun run that a ‘serious’ race. It was £13 to enter and they claimed to have 500 pre-entries so along with the day entries it promised to busy. The route was a loop on the seaside front, starting on the beach then along the seafront, dropping back onto the beach then back on the seafront and then finished on the beach, phew.

The beach itself at the start was compact and provided enough traction. As I suspected, the field wasn’t strong and I after the first kilometre I was in 5th place, about 10 seconds behind 4th and 20 seconds behind the 3rd placed runner. I quickly over took the 4th place runner, planning to stick to 3:36 per km. I’d forgot to charge the garmin so was relying on my own judgement and the stop watch. Again, this was a good exercise for me as I’m usually lousy at judging my pace, even over short distances. I went through 4k spot on my 3:36 goal. The young lad who was third pulled up just before 5k – I pushed on and passed through the halfway in 18:12, not sure how I managed to slow that much for the 4th to 5th km but I was well behind the two leaders and comfortably in front of the 4th placed runner. The turning point was a hairpin through a fence then we quickly descended onto the 2nd beach section. This was really soft under foot and the only slightly compacted section had a camber. I still fancied a PB though and knuckled down making the most of the lead I had.

With it being more of a charity/fun run event, the crowds were great and coming into the last 2k I was cheered home, a podium finish in the bag, I kicked as hard was possible on the beach and sneaked a pb with a 36:48 finish. Defo worth a few seconds more with the beach and running the race pretty much alone from 3k was testing. I got third prize which turned out to be protein shakes and shared the podium with the winner Southport and Waterloo’s Ben Johnson (34:45), and the runner up Liverpool Pembroke’s Ian Roberts (35:16).