OUT OF STEP AND OUT OF BREATH

LANCASTER THREE BRIDGES

Sunday, 11th April 2010

 

Mid April started the new running season properly for “Team Colby”. The first race we decided to brave was in sunny Lancaster, just close enough to home for us to have a leisurely breakfast. With the new season upon us, we decided to make sure we could get ourselves organised for races a little better than last year. I am sure good preparation is key to running fast; it can’t just be about great physiology, can it?

 

The alarm awoke us from our slumbers nice and early, a bit too early as we never get a decent sleep in! After dragging our weary bones out of bed we headed for the pre-race fuel station, better known as the kitchen. A scrumptious bowl of porridge was made and devoured without further ado, well we can’t be hanging around, and we have the team supporter to pick up on the way out of Fleetwood.

 

Our kit was of course already meticulously prepared the night before, a vest, shorts, socks and trainers take a lot of organising so are always best done and dusted well in advance. Wouldn’t want to be exhausted before the race, just because you had forgotten to do such a big job the night before.

 

Once kitted up in the Wesham blue we shot out of the door full of excitement, that enthusiasm didn’t last long when we hit the cold morning air. Still, the Wesham sweatshirts stopped us from shivering too much and the heater warms up quickly in the car. Next stop was picking up the loyal supporter of “Team Colby”, that is my mum of course. This job done and it was off to the race, no problems on the roads, so we had a good arrival time.

 

Once we got our numbers on we had a little chug round the track a couple of times to get warmed up. These preliminaries over with and off to the start line it is. The next thing I remember is trotting along the side of the River Lune, panting like a crazed dog. I could tell I was going pretty damn quick, (well for me that is), as I was blowing out of my backside more than usual. Dreams of a PB started flooding my brain, motivating my feeble little legs to rotate marginally faster than usual.

 

I could see people I knew usually stuff me out of site, they only had a few yards on me, yet more motivation came my way. A check of the Garmin told me I was a long way under 7 minute mileing, good going for me. This was surely the day I would grab a big PB, then the steps appeared.

 

Having to run up around a million steps at roughly the half way point of the race really knocked my stride to bits, I dug in though and pushed on even though I thought my lungs would explode. The last mile I held everyone behind me off, but I had no real kick left once I got on the track and had to watch a couple of ladies scoot past me.

 

I came in at 43.04, a new PB was in the bag, just! I felt I should have been at least a minute quicker than that, at the half way point I was easily going to manage it. Still it was a new PB for a full week, before I beat it somewhat more convincingly on a much tougher course up at Great Langdale.

 

The course at Lancaster was nice and flat, so quick but I really didn’t enjoy the steps. It really does turn your time upside down a little. I don’t think I would rush to do the race again, the marshals seemed pretty miserable and it was chaos at the finish funnel when I got there. I even ended up giving my t-shirt to Rod Berry, as he was a bit upset that none were left when he came in. At least I kept the name of the ‘Friendly Club’ going strong with this gesture.

 

Written by: Charles Colby

Submitted: 28th April 2010

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor