BRR Blog – 26 August 2024
The BRR Team at the Phipps 5k
Salute Road Runners!
You know autumn is almost here when the summer handicap ends and the Phipps 5k, BRR’s very own ELVIS race, has been run. It’s all shorter days and longer nights from now on!
A big thank you to Greg for organising an excellent handicap competition. Having organised the handicap series myself a few years ago I know how time-consuming it is to crunch all the numbers, so I really appreciate all the work that Greg puts into it. I know there has been some discussion about the scoring system after the series ended. The next Club Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 24 October, and everyone is welcome to submit proposed changes to the club rules, including competition rules.
A big thank you too, to Jess for being the Race Director at this year’s Phipp’s 5k. I’m sure everyone will agree she did a great job, ensuring the race went smoothly. I can’t pick out other individuals who did well on the day, as everyone who was able to be there did their bit, whether representing the Club in the race itself, or volunteering on the day. I think ours is one of the most popular races in the overall series (I’m being modest…) and you all help it to run like a well-oiled machine. It is definitely BRR at its best, all pulling together to ensure a fantastic outcome.
August Committee Minutes
Here you can find the August Committee minutes, with thanks to Isabel. As you’ll see, a lot of the meeting was about final preparation for the Phipps 5k – we really had nothing to worry about!
Athletics in the News
There have been two Diamond League meets in the past week, as the outdoor athletics season draws toward its close.
The first meet, in Lausanne, saw plenty of medals for GB athletes. Dina Asher-Smith won the women’s 100m in 10.83, a Season’s Best. In the women’s 800m it was a GB second and third, with Georgia Bell finishing in 1:58.53 and Jemma Reekie finishing I 1:58.73. The GB women also won the 4 x 100 relay in 42.03. For the men, the best performance was from Matthew Huds0n-Smith, who won the 400m in 43.96. Next best performance was from Elliott Giles (he of the strangely-shaped buttock) who finished 7th in the men’s 800m with a Sason’s Best of 1:44.32.
There were fewer medals for the Brits at the Silesa meet but, to be fair, fewer Brits were competing. Georgia Bel was third in the women’s 1,500m in 3:58.11 with team-mate Melissa Cortney-Bryant just behind in 3:39.55, a Season’s Best. Daryll Neita managed fourth in the women’s 100m in 11.01. But the best performance (ignoring a few World Records) on the night was from the meeting mascot, a large blue elephant. The elephant was a lot more proactive than the Phryge at the Paris Olympics, hugging finishers, doing a back flip with men’s high jump winner Gianmarco Tamberi, and high-fiving Armand Duplantis after he broke the men’s pole vault World Record – again. We have decided that the Phryge must have been working to rule, in typically French style.
The Silesia Diamond League elephant
I Predict a…Marathon
Generally, the method used to predict a marathon time is to take your half marathon time, double it and add on 10-15 minutes. An alternative recommended by Frank Horwill in his book Obsession for Running is 5 x 10k race time, minus 10 minutes. Of course, it has to be a recent 10k time, not what you managed when you were ten years younger. The numbers would look something like this (10k time on the left, predicted marathon time on the right):
32mins - 2hrs 30mins
34mins - 2hrs 40mins
36mins - 2hrs 50mins
38mins - 3hrs
40mins - 3hrs 10mins
42mins - 3hrs 20mins
44mins - 3hrs 30mins
46mins - 3hrs 40mins
48mins - 3hrs 50mins
50mins - 4hrs
52mins - 4hrs 10mins
54mins - 4hrs 20mins
56mins - 4hrs 30mins
58mins - 4hrs 40mins
60mins - 4hrs 50mins
62mins - 5hrs
64mins - 5hrs 10mins
66mins - 5hrs 20mins
68mins - 5hrs 30mins
70mins - 5hrs 40mins
72mins - 5hrs 50mins
74mins - 6hrs
Of course, no race time predictor is ever going to be 100% accurate; some of us are naturally faster over a short distance, and some of us excel over longer distances, but it gives you a ballpark figure to work on, and you can refine your expected marathon finish time as your training progresses.
Discretion is the Better Part of Valour?
Rose Harvey, from her Instagram account
After the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, it was revealed that British athlete Rose Harvey had completed the race with a stress fracture in her hip. Harvey developed some tightness in her hip around three weeks before the Games. Despite getting treatment it didn’t improve but, against the advice of doctors and physiotherapists, she decided to go ahead and start the race.
The 31-year-old told the BBC that it became obvious from early in the race, about two miles in, that continuing to run would be “really, pretty painful.”
“It was really tough,” Harvey told the BBC. And the hills on the course didn’t make it any easier: “The downhills were just agony, and it just got worse and worse.”
Harvey went on to finish the race, crossing the line in 78th with a time of 2:51:03; not bad for someone with a stress fracture, but far from her qualifying time of 2:23:21 from the 2023 Chicago Marathon.
When her injury was revealed, Harvey earned praise for battling through the pain and not giving up. But, really, is this something that should be celebrated?
We all know Noah Lyles competed in the 200m while suffering from Covid and managed to earn himself a bronze medal. But Harvey was taking a much bigger risk by running – and for a long distance – on an injury. She could potentially have made her condition much worse and prolonged her recovery significantly, with no prospect of a medal.
It's a really difficult to drop out of a race for any of us, let alone for an elite athlete who has focused on a major race for a long time. But sometimes the bravest and wisest thing to do is to pull out and give your body the chance to heal, so you can live to run another day.
What’s Your Goal?
We all run for different reasons. You may not be conscious of your reason but you definitely have one - if not you probably won’t keep on running for long!
Running goals give us a “why” for running, and the motivation to keep on keeping on through the searing heat, pouring rain, or freezing cold that the British weather throws at us (and that is just in the summer!). However, if you’re having difficulty remembering your ‘why’, perhaps you need a new running goal.
The best running goals are stretching enough to challenge and excite you, without being so tough that they are unattainable and you give up. Here are some categories of running goals to give you some ideas:
Performance running goals – setting a new personal best over a particular distance, beating your previous time in a particular race, improving your age grading at parkrun, running a negative split (i.e. second half faster than the first half) in a race or at parkrun.
Milestone running goals – running a new distance, running your longest-ever run, your hilliest run, your first cross country run, completing a running streak, running a certain distance in a week, month, or quarter.
Experience running goal – meeting parkrun challenges, completing a race abroad or an iconic race in the UK, completing a themed run e.g. a colour run or night-time run,
Training running goals - doing a speed workout every week (hello, track!), doing a hill session once a fortnight, stretching after every run, strength training at least once a week, taking a rest day every week, running strides at the end of a run once a week.
Race Report
Handicap race winner James Hall
The last race in this year’s summer handicap series saw a win from James Hall. James Sheridan won the overall competition with 491 points, with Clodagh O’Callaghan and Ron Vialls in joint second place with 487 points. Well done to everyone who participated in an exciting series.
The 2024 summer handicap trophy winners
George Hiller completed his first 10k race at the Lee Valley Velopark, finishing in a fantastic time of 1:03.02.
George after his 10k race
BRR fielded a strong male and female team at the Phipps 5k, with the men’s team scooping first prize overall. In second place overall, and first for the ELVIS cubs, was Joseph Grange in 15:22. Also in the prize-winning team were Paul Grane (16:15) and Ayoyinka Obisesan (18:56). Stuart Mackay (19:21), Paul Withyman (19:39), Peter Jackson (19:48), Mark Odeku (20:04), Tom Brennan (20:11), Adrian Davison (22:02), Colin Jones (22:02), Mark New (22:29), Kevin Wotton (23:39), Ron Viall (24:56), John Whan (25:16), Steve Colloff (26:29), Gary Harford (27:37), and George Hiller (28:11).
Two thirds of winning men's team.
First BRR woman was Belinda Riches (23:12), followed by Sian Mansley (26:14), Louise Chappell (28:04), Rachel Sharples (35:24) and Zahra Akram (40:20).
The full results are available here.
Barking parkrunners
Barking – Owen Wainhouse 20:42, Nehal Patel 21:39, Adrian Davison 22:35, John Whan 25:43, Rosie Fforde 30:43, Martin Mason 31:21, Les Jay 37:25, Liz Stokes 48:23, Alan Murphy 48:33.
Liz at Barking parkrun
Chalkwell Beach – Belinda Riches 27:20, Stephen Colloff 28:26, Ron Vialls 28:28.
Belinda, Steve, James at Ron at Chalkwell Beach parkrun
Eastbourne – Jason Li 28:14.
Jason at Eastbourne parkrun
Harrow Lodge – Rory Burr 26:33.
Valentines – Mark New 24:38, Kevin Wotton 56:05.
BRR Diary – August/September
7.00pm, Tuesday 27 August – Speed Development Session. Jim Peter’s Stadium, Mayesbrook Park. After the Bank Holiday race, I am going to go easy on you. No, don’t be silly, of course I’m not! This week’s session is called matched pairs because the length of the rep matches the length of the recovery:
· 3 x (2 mins fast, 2 mins recovery)
· 3 x (1:30 mins fast, 1:30 mins recovery)
· 3 x (1 min fast, 1 min recovery)
· 3 x (45 secs fast, 45 secs recovery)
· 3 x (30 secs fast, 30 secs recovery)
Various times, Sunday 1 September – The Big Half (GP07). Tower Bridge. This event is now closed to new entries.
7.00pm, Wednesday 4 September – Crown to Crown 5k. Westley Heights Country Park, rear of the Miller & Carter (Crown) Public House, Langdon Hills. A mixed terrain route on bridleways and some tarmac. You can enter on the night, or online in advance at https://www.entrycentral.com/Crown-to-Crown
9.30am, Sunday 15 September – Pleshey Half. Pleshey Village Hall, Pleshey, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 1HA. Not a club grand prix this year, but a nice run through the Essex countryside (if a HM can ever be a ‘nice run’!) Entries at https://springfieldstriders.org.uk/pleshey-half/
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. We usually go to the Great Spoon of Ilford for post-race brunch afterwards. https://events.kronosports.uk/event/192
Cracker Corner
I put some grease on the front door just for fun. Chris wasn’t impressed. He flew off the handle.
I planned to start a business selling crystal balls, but I couldn’t see any future in it.
I was thinking of taking a job in a mirror factory, but I couldn’t see any future in it. Then on reflection, I thought, why not?
Boom! Boom!
Quote of the Week
“When I run , I am in touch with my deepest self. I feel alive and invincible.”
Deena Kastor, 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medallist
And finally…
How far would you go for a beer? Or four beers?
American Mark Dowdle, a runner from Chicago, recently ran 475 miles to participate in the 10th annual Beer Mile World Classic at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.
Dowdle normally celebrates the end of each month with his own beer mile. When he discovered that the beer mile world record holder, Corey Bellemore, comes from Essex County in Canada, the county in which the Beer Mile World Classic was being held, he decided to run there and meet him.
Speaking after the event, Dowdle said, “I run so I can drink beer. And this is the extent I’ll go to be able to drink four beers (you get a beer for each lap of the track). It’s funny, I’ve stopped at pubs and bars along the way, and every one of these guys and gals at the bar is like, ‘I love that idea. I would do that. Let’s just remove the running aspect to it.’ Like, fair enough.”
You can watch the race here.
