South Leeds 5 Mile Road Race

Rather than thrash out some mile reps on the grass track at the back of my house, I decided to do the 5 mile run at south Leeds. It was a spur of the moment thing, as I thought I could treat it as speed training - and I always find one rep easier to count than five! I wasn't preparing for this run so there was no tappering or easing off. With this weeks milage of approximately 50 miles, including some fast tempo runs, there wasn't a feeling of rareing to go at the start.

There was quite a turnout for the run, and I had checked out the results from last years race, with the winner coming in at around 29 minutes - there was a possibility of a top five place.

To those who know the area, the run made it's way from the John Charles stadium to the Town Street entrance to Middleton park, and then back through Middleton woods, and then back round again - making 2 laps altogether, finishing in the stadium(on the track). The conditions can be described as cool and windy, with a severe wind at the top of the hill.

Among the recognised runners was Tim Midgeley from Bingley, Craig Keedy from St Theresas, Keith Magee from our club(Spen).

I set of at a conservative pace today and hoped to catch runners up who were fading on the second lap. This plan seemed to work and I managed to catch and overtake some runners who set off too fast or run out of steam.

I achieved a 9th place overall and 2nd vet 40 - not a bad reward and a reasonable workout.

Finishing time approximately 29-18.

This was the first race I had done wearing the new orthotics and everthing seemed to be fine i.e no knee pain or blisters.

Norton 9 Mile - 3 Minutes Faster!

After having a few easy days of running, after the Liversedge Half, It was a trip to Norton this Sunday to do the annual nine mile road race. It's an unusual distance, but certainly can't be classed as a short easy 10 miler. The weather and temp were perfect for running and the rural setting provided excellent scenic running conditions. There were a reasonable mix of quality runners up front, with ex international Andrew Pearson from Longwood Harriers providing this years challenge. Andrew has come back on the running scene after a few years off and gaining a couple of stone in weight. Although probably not yet at his best his historic 10k time of sub 29 minutes shows it would be expected that he is up there with the front runners today. There was also Carl Ryde from Doncaster,Kev Lilley(sheffield),Chris Birchill(Leeds) and Paul Marchant(Rothwell) all ensuring Andrew Pearson couldn't treat this as a steady Sunday run.

I set off very steady today and gradually overtook runners who found the early pace too fast. I feel strong as an ox, and the weight training is helping with my strength on the hills. I now need to convert this strength in to forward motion and speed.

I finished the race in 52-28, which is 3 minutes faster than last year. Once again I was 3rd over 40(discounting Kev Lilley, who is over 45), So I can't complain about todays result, which also provided another training workout in prep for the Leeds Half in May.

The race was won by Andrew Pearson in 46-26