Dear Blog,
Have you made a decision about committing yourself to this serious marathon running lark???
Went down to watch the final race of the season of the Midland Women’s Cross Country League at Cheltenham on Saturday and the final race of the Birmingham and District Cross Country League at Cheltenham on Saturday. Do any athletes or their coaches give any consideration about how to tackle a cross country course?? There was a stream crossing in each of the three laps of this race, not as deep, not as muddy as it usually is. But the vast majority of runners did not know how to tackle the crossing. It was not very wide, not very deep but it did have a sharp drop down on the approach. Did any of the men watch the women cross during their two lap race to give them an idea of the best way to tackle the obstacle? Not many. Did any coaches help the women to think about what to do? I didn’t see much discussion going on. .. I wonder if any of their coaches even went??? Of the many I watched racing across the stream, about three quarters of both fields, you could count on the fingers of one finger the few who did not waste time by an efficient crossing. The grand sum of two legged jumpers was many in number! Landing on BOTH feet at the same time for goodness sake … in a cross country race … I ask you? I bet they will be sore the following day … I wonder if they will realise and learn???? Many just pottered through, wasting a bit of time in the process. It wasn’t just the time wasted in a lousy jump, it wasn’t the time wasted in losing momentum, it was the effort required to get into top gear again that was costly in energy, and therefore time consuming in the later stages of the race when tiredness kicked in. One lad from Loughborough, who incidentally was way down the field, was one of the very few who knew exactly what he was about. Excellent. I wonder if he was a steeplechaser so efficient was he every time. One thing for sure, I shall watch what he does in the future. Not brilliant now, or even very good, but he had a head on his shoulders. So I shall be interested to see his progress or otherwise.
I was never much good at university but I won or was placed in a stack of races when I should have been beaten by better runners but I thought and they didn’t. In a marathon race once, I may I HAVE TOLD YOU before Blog, but it is worth repeating to illustrate a point. The runner concerned was renowned for his finishing kick. He sat on me for 25 miles. I tried all the tricks of the marathon trade to rid myself of him … running close to cars to break his stride, shaving every corner I could to force him to lose a few metres, putting in a spurt before a drink or sponge station to make him miss out on a drink or force him to make an effort to catch me up. I tried everything to get rid of him. Everything. EVERYTHING. I had to use my head in a big way. A BIG WAY. I knew that the last 150m were on grass, so with about 600m to go I started moaning a bit and slowed slightly, enough to make him think I’d had it. I had but not enough to let him win. I wanted him to dance to my tune after dancing to his for two plus hours. He took the bait and went in front for the first time in 26 miles. The very first time, I kid you not Blog. I tucked in behind but not on his shoulder, just enough off his pace to encourage him to think I’d gone. I knew I hadn’t, but he didn’t. Just before the grass I accelerated very hard to build up momentum onto the grass. I was moving passed my opposition but it was too late for him to repond, to accelerate. To accelerate on SOFT grass after 26+ miles running on the HARD road is not an option. Sorry matie boy, I thought I deserved the few thousand quids more than he did. I did. There was no way after doing all that work that he was going to beat me. NO WAY matie boy. Similarly, I remember in a cross country race once. After a race long battle between three of us, one a sub four minute miler, two of us knew who was the faster finisher! So use your head. Pretend the fast man has got it, and while he is busy waving his victory salute, I pop by on his blind side. A trudging marathoner beating a sub four minute miler, Blog, I kid you not. I enjoyed that one. One I should never have won in a million years. But I out thought the opposition!!
Sunday I trudge over the country. At last the temperature was rising but not enough to thaw the frozen sub soil. So it was a case of don’t break an ankle Colin!! Go through the motions boy. It can only get better. I have told you about the times I questioned the accepted rules of physics while at the Pink Panther University, well, while in the first or second year at school when we were learning all about the Middle Ages, I dared to question the wisdom of the theory of the ridge and furrow system. It seemed illogical to me that villagers would tramp miles here, there and everywhere to bits of land to cultivate when, with a bit of horse trading, they could have all their land in a single parcel. I passed quite a few furrows on this morning’s long trudge … they reminded me of my school days and what I have been trying to do in my own kitchen garden for some time now. Believing that the ridge and furrows came about simply by repeated ploughing in the same direction and pattern year in year out, I have tried to mimic this routine. I couldn’t get a plough between the small gate of my sheltered kitchen garden, and my wife doesn’t like horses and she wouldn’t allow me to shackle her up to the plough and whip her into action so I had to make do with my spade. Over a five year period I dug the soil over starting and finishing in the same place each autumn / spring. Slowly a set of ridge and furrows seem to be appearing …. But … every time I think I might have a conclusive result along come the rains and along come the floods and the garden sinks into the wet and the land is levelled by the flood waters … flattened and all my digging has been a waste of time. And the brassicas suffer, and the root crops suffer, but the water cress comes on a treat!!!!!!!!!!!
Colin
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