Hello Road Runners

A quieter week for BRR, with only Nehal doing a sneaky Half, that I’m aware of. I thought Nehal might have been joined at the Porto Half by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who made his Half Marathon debut at the weekend. More info in the Athletics News section.

I stuck to a shorter distance, but missed the obvious clue in the name of the Dunton Demon 5; a bit like when I was surprised that the Horndon on the Hill 10k was a bit hilly. I should have taken heed of the trail running advice, below. I also probably shouldn’t have gone out and danced for two hours the night before, but that’s a different story…

Trail Running Mistakes

As we move towards cross-country season you may be thinking about doing more training on the trails in preparation. Road runner (not one of us) Alex Cyr went to a week-long trail camp in the French Alps, thinking his road skills would translate directly to the trails – he was wrong. Here are his five trail running mistakes/tips. Although Alex was undertaking much more strenuous runs than we usually do, and at altitude too, there may be some read across to your experience.

Don’t think about pace. You will be slower than you are on the road.
Walks and hikes count as training. They involve the same muscular effort as running especially on downhills.
Don’t make your training all about hills. Hills are good but intersperse hill work with flat runs to give your legs a break.
Find out in advance how technical the course you will be running is, so you can prepare accordingly. This includes wearing the right shoes.
Respect the stressors as the ups and downs, the pace, length of run, appropriate kit etc, and you will enjoy the experience more.

Predicta 5k

Well done to everyone who took part in last Tuesday’s Predicta 5k at track, where participants had to predict how long it would take them to run 5k, then try and run that time without the benefit of a watch. I know some of you were unhappy about running without your watches – we are all addicted to our technology and stats!

Steve Colloff was particularly unhappy about taking off his watch, as it was due to be his first-ever session wearing a running watch. But Coach Alison said that might actually help him, as he was more used to pacing himself by feel rather than relying on his watch. And, of course, Coach Alison was right, as Steve came closest to matching his actual time to his predicted time, finishing just nine seconds adrift. Belinda was in second place with a 16-second difference, and Nikki and Hannah were third with a 23-second difference. Given how unused we are now to running without the help of our wrist-based friends, everyone did really well. Doug prediction was furthest from his actual time but I would be very happy to run one minute and 18 seconds faster than expected!

In traditional race terms, Tom B was fastest overall, followed by Ayo and Belinda. Here are all the results:

Sportsshoes.com Discount

Foe England Athletics members, in case you didn’t get the email, you can now link your EA membership with your SportsShoes ULTRA account to receive discount automatically at checkout. This removes the need to enter a code at checkout, making receiving discounts a lot quicker and easier. The discount on offer has also changed; you will now get 15% off in-season products. Some exclusions apply to this promotion, including Coros, Garmin, Shokz, Maurten products and a few shoes.

Follow the link for an explanation of how to set up your account to receive the discount here: https://www.sportsshoes.com/store/england-athletics

We should still get the standalone code for non-EA members.

Keep Your Cool

If you watched the Paris Olympic Marathons last month (was it really that long ago…) you’ll have seen Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan wearing strange, radiator-like, headbands.

The space-age headbands are made by Omius. On its website, the company claims: “Using thermally conductive and porous graphite and a patented coating, the Omius technology increases the evaporative surface area of the skin by as much as 7x. This amplifies the body's natural cooling mechanism and dramatically increases comfort and performance in hot conditions and during strenuous exercise.”

Sounds like just the thing for next year’s Big Half. Unfortunately, the evidence doesn’t bear out Omius’s claims. A research trial put 10 “trained runners” through a rigorous protocol to see if the headband boosted their performance. After a 70-minute easy run on in a hot, humid laboratory, the runners completed a 5k time trial, going as hard as they could. They ran one time with the Omius headband and another with a fake headband. They weren’t told which was which.

Result? “Time trial performance did not significantly differ” between the Omius and fake bands.” The researchers concluded that “Omius improves forehead thermal comfort and reduces forehead temperature but not rectal temperature, heart rate, and perceived exertion during, nor 5-km time trial performance after 70 minutes of easy running in the heat.” Of course, those wearing them might get a placebo effect. But, as the bands cost around $200 (approx. £150), it’s probably better to use a normal cooling towel or maybe soak your headband or hat, like Steve did at the Big Half, to save yourself from overheating. Not that we are likely to have worry about overheating for a while now.

Athletics in the News

It was the final of this year’s Diamond League, in Brussels, on Friday and Saturday. Event winners stood to be Diamond League champions, but the only Brit to earn that accolade was a bit of a shock.

In the men’s 400m, Matthew Hudson-Smith, the pre-race favourite, pulled up after not many metres. While all the attention was on Hudson-Smith’s closest rivals, fellow Brit Charlie Dobson snuck up from lane seven to take the win in 44. 49.

Otherwise, it was second place all the way, with Dina Asher-Smith finishing second in the women’s 100m (10.92), Daryll Neita finishing second in the women’s 200m (22:45), and Georgia Bell finishing second in the women’s 800m (1:57.5).

Josh Kerr was absent from the League, leaving arch-rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the men’s 11,500 in peace. Instead, the week before, Kerr had been busy in New York breaking the 43-year-old record at the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile in a time of 3:44.3, over three seconds faster Sydney Maree’s 1981 record of 3:47.52.

Kerr forewent the halfway prize of $1,000 to stick to his race strategy, patiently waiting to surge towards the end, leaving the other competitors trailing in his wake. Amazingly, 17 of the 19 participants finished in less than four minutes.

Meanwhile, only two days after winning the 1,500m at the Diamond League, Jakob Ingebrigtsen made his half-marathon debut in Copenhagen. It sounds like he made the classic beginner’s error of not respecting the distance, having spent the season training for much shorter races.

The Norwegian started well, running the first 10k in a national record time of 27:27. However, after that he ran out of steam, stopping, walking for a bit, and then huffing and puffing his way through multiple stops until finishing in 34th place. His time of 63:13, five minutes and eight seconds behind the race winner, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe, wasn’t too shabby but Ingbrigtsen was obviously disappointed with himself . “Half marathon is just no joke” he admitted after the race. “I ran until I was about to die, and stopped, ran until I was about to die again and stopped. It’s probably not a very smart or clever way to run a half-marathon.”

I expect he will be back to have another go, but next time he might he might train better for the distance.

Greg’s Race Report

Nehal Patel travelled to Portugal for the Porto Half Marathon finishing in a time of 1:44:05 despite the 26 degrees temperature.

Closer to home and somewhat cooler at 16 degrees Alison Fryatt ran in the Dunton Demon 5 miler finishing in a time of 1:03:24. With 170 metres of elevation and a hornets’ nest to negotiate it was a tough run.

BRR parkrunners

Barking - Mark Odeku 20:18, Owen Wainhouse 20:52, Belinda Riches 22:45, Mark New 23:49, Faye Spooner 36:33, Jason Li 27:32, Joyce Golder 28:11, Andrew Hiller 29:55, George Hiller 30:05, Martin Mason 30:37, Julie Gillender 34:42, Nikki Cranmer 36:30, Greg Adams 39:53, Micky Ball 47:06 and Alan Murphy 47:15.

Brentwood - Rob Courtier 36:01.

Gunpowder - Paul Ward 25:44.

Margate - Stuart Mackay 21:43.

Raphaels - Doug King 25:24 and Robbie King 25:25

Valentines - Kevin Wotton 23:27 and Andrew Gwilliam 32:00.

Wickford Memorial - Ron Vialls 26:12, Stephen Colloff 27:59 and Louise Chappell 28:44.

Highest BRR age gradings this week were Belinda Riches 75.53% for the women and Ron Vialls 69.02% for the men.

Ron, Louise, and Steve at Wickford parkrun

BRR Diary – September/October

7.00pm, Tuesday 16 September – Speed Development Session. Jim Peter’s Stadium, Mayesbrook Park. This week’s session will be Six, Three, Ninety:

1 x 6 minutes, off 90 seconds recovery
3 x 3 minutes, off 90 seconds recovery
4 x 90 seconds, off 90 seconds recovery

Ease yourself in with the six-minute rep, then wind it up for the shorter reps.

Then, by popular demand, we will have relays!

7.00pm, Thursday 18 September – Club run. Jo Richardson School/Castle Green Centre. Usually around 4-5 miles, all abilities welcome.

10.30am, Sunday 22 September – East London Runners Valentines 5K (ELVIS 08). Valentines Park, near the Melbourne Road entrance. The last race in the East London fiVes Interclub Series. SORRY, SOLD OUT, but we usually go to the Great Spoon of Ilford afterwards for post-race brunch, so why not come along to support and then have a bite to eat?

7.30pm, Tuesday 8 October – Chingford League 01 (CL01). Redbridge Cycling Centre, Forest Road, Hainault. Free for BRR members to participate. A fun but challenging 5k race around the cycle track…in the dark! We will be asking who wants to take part in advance so bib numbers can be allocated. You keep your bib number for the whole series. NOTE: there will be no track session.

10.00am, Sunday 13 October. Tiptree 10 (GP08). Sorry, sold out, but you can add your name to the waiting list. https://www.tiptreeroadrunners.com/tiptree-10/

10.00am, Sunday 20 October. South Essex Cross Country League 01. Hadleigh Country Park, Chapel Lane, Hadleigh. Entry is £5 but the Club subsidises the cost by £2, so you pay £3 on the day. More details to follow.

Cracker Corner

I got a new job as a theatre set designer but was sacked within a week. I left without making a scene.

Five ants rented a flat. They were joined by five more. Now they’re tenants.

I bought a new first aid kit. I thought I’d treat myself.

Boom! Boom!

Quote of the Week

“What goes up must come down. But not necessarily on the same race route.”

Alison Fryatt

At the Dunton Demon 5

And finally…

A runner at the Edmonton Marathon in Alberta, Canada last month was arrested and taken to the local police station. Edmonton Police say they responded to multiple reports of a male runner on the race route who was acting aggressively, yelling, and attacking other participants. When officers located the man, he “resisted arrest, broke free, and began to run towards other participants.”

The runner posted his side on the story on Reddit. He arrived at the start line late and, having forgotten his water bottle, was relieved to spot a water station after just a few hundred metres. The drink he was given tasted bitter but he was thirsty and gulped it down. “This is where I believe I was drugged,” he said in his Reddit post. “Things became increasingly disjointed after passing the halfway mark at the Edmonton Convention Centre. According to Strava, my path became erratic; I was running on sidewalks and even obstructing other runners.” It was a this point he was arrested and carted off to the local nick. He was released from police custody that afternoon. He went to hospital the next day and was told that he was drugged with methamphetamine.

The runner claims that the hospital told him that several runners had experienced the same problem but marathon organisers say that they are unaware of any other instances of runners being drugged on the course or unauthorized aid stations on the route.

The moral of the story? If you are doing a race, do not take drinks from strange people. Unless it is at Mile 14 of the London Marathon*…

Happy running!

Alison

Chair, Barking Road Runners

*For new members, Barking Road Runners organises the water station at Mile 14 of the London Marathon. It is a really fun day, and you get a front-row view of the elite runners too, so do get involved in 2025!

BRR Blog – 16 September 2024