I have learnt that I need an incentive to keep running. Just plodding up and down streets for the sake of getting fit is a dull and lonely experience. Back in 2009 this is just what I was doing and it was no fun and really had no point to it. I had done my couch to 5k, got a medal and a Tshirt and to give me a challenge I started looking for another race around 5k to have a go at. I couldn't find any, only fun runs for kids while the grown ups were doing a 10k or 10mile. I chose the Mortimer 10k road race (organised by Reading Road Runners). I had about 2 months to prepare for it.
Googling 5k run in the Berkshire/ Hampshire area returned parkrun with the nearest to me being Basingstoke. So, after registering I turned up on 15th August 2009 at my first ever parkrun about 45minutes early and helped out setting up flags, course markers and finish funnel. We had the pre-race briefing during which I was cheered for being a new runner. What a great feeling and what a happy place to go for a run.
Basingstoke is a course that is part tarmac, gravel paths and grassy field and undulating. I managed a sprint to the finish line suffering in the heat panting, a Niagara of sweat streaming down my face, which was red as a beetroot. At least I stayed on my feet to get a finish number token and didn’t vomit on anyone. So I had turned up, ran and didn’t die: Success! Time 26:29.
Now, anyone who knows about parkrun is familiar with the usually slick operation of registering your run. It’s all about barcodes – print and bring your runner’s barcode, run, collect a finish number token with a barcode on it and go get them scanned. All done without fuss. Back then barcodes were just a twinkle in Paul Sinton-Hewitt’s eye. You got a metal token with a number stamped on it then queued up to drip sweat on the poor volunteer who’s responsibility it was to log your name and finish position on to a laptop. Sometime later in the morning, after visiting the local café, the runner’s finish places would be combined with the finish times using a fiendish piece of software before being uploaded to parkrun central. You might get your result mid-afternoon or the next morning. Now, with the barcode system and new software, all the results can be assembled, checked and uploaded within half an hour of the last runner crossing the line with results texts winging their way to runners before 10:30. Amazing.
I ran there three more times over the next six weeks as training for Mortimer. I think we actually had a summer that year and I suffer in the heat and, as I was probably carrying 5 or 6kg of extra insulation than I am now, I only managed to improve my time by 2 seconds in those four runs.
As I had found out from looking up some training plans, you don’t need to run a marathon when training for a marathon and I thought I could apply the same logic to a 10k. That’s novice runner thinking at its most optimistic. As I could manage an 8k run I thought I was reasonably well prepared for Mortimer. Actually all that meant is I would be able to finish the run.
Mortimer is a really well run nice family event. There’s loads to do for spectators with stalls and rides set up on the fairground on the edge of town. Race day for me didn’t start well. I decided to bring the family along to witness my great achievement, but the excitement, or just the twisty roads, were too much for Alfie’s breakfast to cope with so it decided to jump ship. I got dumped at the venue with my kit while Julia and the kids went home for a clean up. They did get back before the start though.
The race had 460 runners of all abilities, so a good happy crowd set off in sunny warm conditions. I knew nothing about the course, which was probably just as well. It starts off flat doing a lap of the fairground and local houses then heads north along undulating roads before looping back and passing the fairground again at 5k. You then start going downhill for about 2k. At first I thought this was great, a welcome bit of relief, but after 10 minutes of this I thought “Bugger, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to get back up all this before we finish.” There was about 1.5k uphill. The kind of uphill that kids you into thinking it’s over before revealing another stretch of hill just round the next corner. I found myself jogging and walking and being overtaken by 70 year old ladies. At last the hill was over and I managed to stagger over the last mile to the line in 54:34.
At the time I thought that wasn’t great, I was placed 232 out of 460 and just into the lower half of the table, but looking back at that run now, it turns out to be quite a reasonable time. First 10k completed and something to be proud of. I have the medal pinned up at my desk at work.
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