Race week!

A few weeks ago, during the 30 degree Summer heat-wave, this seemed like a good idea. Staring down at the gloomy water, clouds darkening by the minute and a fresh to strong wind howling down the promenade, this idea of swimming 200 meters and running 2 miles in the Mounts Bay Harriers monthly aquathlon was rapidly losing its gloss. The setting for the race would be hard to match anywhere in the world - a unique art deco sea-water lido with a backdrop of the truly beautiful Mounts Bay – especially when the sun is shining and the water blue. Unfortunately the weather last Wednesday was not playing ball.

I have completed many running races, triathlons and duathlons, in all distances up to Ironman, so the distances for this race, on paper at least, appeared easy. However, anyone who has raced anything near serious in these sorts of events will know the shorter the race the harder you have to race it. Mark Cavendish (top professional sprint road cyclist for those not familiar) talks a lot about cycling in the red zone when nearing a sprint finish. This is how I would describe racing one of these short aquathlons. You are in your red zone from the off. 14 minutes of pain for me… but a kind of weird enjoyable pain.

In the end I was pretty happy with my overall performance. Just over 14 minutes for both swim and run and 9^th out of a field of about 118. Considering this was my first multisport event since 2009, I was happy. Next up was the Indian Queens half marathon on the Sunday.

This was a last minute entry as I took the place of someone who was injured. I had decided to do the race out of curiosity more than anything. My last (short) road race was back in 2011 in Doha, and I hadn't competed in the Cornish Grand Prix series since 2009. I knew that I could run a long distance, as I have been doing a lot of mileage in training, however the sum total of my speed work in the last 2 years consisted of a couple of track sessions a few months ago in Qatar and the aquathlon on Wednesday evening. My plan was to run the best I could and hope to achieve at least a reasonable time.

Sunday morning arrived with the sound of torrential rain on the windows! Great… I was really hoping for a repeat of the heat of a few weeks ago. Having spent the last few years running in the heat of Qatar, hot racing conditions would have definitely worked in my favour. Alas, this was not to be. I was racing in Cornwall after all. What did I expect?  

There is always a real mixture of emotions leading up to the start of any race. Feelings such as nervousness, excitement, happiness, panic, fear… the list goes on. The more important the race, the more these emotions are accentuated. Leading up to the race I had been pretty relaxed. I entered just to see what would happen. No pressure. Standing on the start line surrounded by hundreds of other runners, feeling slightly damp from the rain, waiting for the gun, the nerves were rapidly setting in… "this is meant to be enjoyable… what am I doing this for… it's bloody raining again… I should have just gone for an easy training run this morning…"

There was just time for a quick reassuring glance to Caz, who was busy capturing this mixture of race day emotions on camera, before we were off. I have to be fair and say the race went well for me, although it wasn't the perfect race by all means. My pacing for the first 3 miles was quite frankly stupid. I decided that I would go out hard and see how long I could hold on. Well, this meant I was leading the race at mile 2, but soon slipped back. By mile 5, I was 5^th overall. Still good, but I was really beginning to think the wheels were about fall off. Visions of me staggering over the finish line in last place were flashing through my mind. What was I thinking by going so fast at the start? The rain had started again as well.

Thankfully my pace leveled out at this point and I was able to get into a rhythm for the next 8 miles – a nicely painful but just bearable rhythm – which enabled me to hang onto a really pleasing 5^th place overall (and 3^rd in the 35 – 39 age group – oh my god I am getting old!). Even more of a bonus was the time. 1 hour 17 minutes was only about a minute off my P.B. set way back in the mists of time of 2008. These small personal victories were crowned by the sweet kiss of congratulations from my lovely wife, Caz, who has followed and supported me steadfastly on all but a few races over the years.

All in all it was pretty successful return to racing this week and already in my mind were the beginnings of plans for races over the next 18 months. However, a more pressing thought was to get back to Penzance and celebrate with a couple of jars of Cornish real ale…

One final word... I have to shout a 'huge well done' to all the Mounts Bay Harriers who completed the race at Indian Queens, especially those who had never raced so far. A half marathon is nothing to be sniffed at, especially in the windy and wet conditions of Sunday. Also while I am shouting, can I also shout a 'huge thank you' to all the marshals, who stood in all that rain and wind for hours on end. Without volunteers like these, races and events that I and others love would not happen.