Race The Train - Tywyn, Wales - 20 August 2011...

Distance: 14 miles (approx)

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
01:23:34 Personal Best!!!

Finishing Position: 3
Number of finishers: 918
Putting me in the top: 0.32%

I really enjoyed this race last year, though it really did take it out of me... this year my intentions were to go and enjoy the race as a long hard training run, and not to treat it as a race - therefore my plan was to train normally in the week leading up to it without any kind of taper, and accept that I'd be racing on slightly tired legs. Training during the week consisted of a double on Monday (2x 7mi), a tough track session @ Coventry Godiva on the Tuesday, 2x7mi on Wednesday a 14mi threshold effort on the Thursday (2mi easy, 10mi hard, 2mi easy) and 7miles easy on Friday before driving over to Wales... a good weeks training in my mind.

We arrived in Wales and pitched our tent and eventually got round to ordering Chinese takeaway - perhaps not what you'd consider the best pre race meal but I was here to enjoy the experience... that was continued the following morning where I had bacon and egg sandwiches as a secondary breakfast (after a bowl of porridge of course). The night's sleep had been absolutely dreadful with wind and rain battering the tent and waking us seemingly every 15mins.

Race time came around and at the start I came across two guys from Coventry Godiva - one I'd met briefly and heard he'd be doing the race - Damian Carr - needless to say I'd cyber-stalked him beforehand to find out his general running form. I knew he'd already beaten me a handful of times in the year at cross country and also when I set my 10k PB in January, his half marathon PB was also several minutes quicker than mine so I didn't expect to be able to beat him, but hoped my knowledge of the course/terrain would fall into my hands... his accomplice Nigel Marley was someone who I hadn't met before, but had scoped out on www.powerof10.info (cracking website if you've not used it before), and found it was someone who I should be able to keep up with, if not beat.

My race strategy was that I would run nice and comfortably with minimal exertion until halfway and then push on in the second half of the race once we'd reached the turnaround point and then see how many (if any) runners I could catch. After leaving Emma at the train station (she would again be spectating from aboard the train) I completed my warm up and prepared for the race start.

Race underway, I kept to the side of the road allowing the usual opening charge to unfold ahead of me, as we ran through the town I was well down the field, but after my recent failings in the Evesham 10k and getting caught up in opening charges, I wasn't in the slightest bit bothered. I kept an eye on clubmate Phil Gould and pulled level with him shortly before the first mile marker. I continued to run comfortably with Phil, edging past those who were already beginning to fade. As we made our way off the farmers tracks and into the first main field alongside the train line, I could hear the train approaching fast - it was my goal to be alongside the train so I could enjoy running alongside the spectators as I did last year. I had to put in a bit of a spurt to make sure I'd fall inline with it - this broke me away from Phil but that didn't matter... I saw Emma and waved at the spectators as they cheered the runners. I forget how long this went on for but it's the most incredible feeling - it seems to make you feel so powerful as well that you're able to keep up alongside this huge machine under the power of nothing more than your own two legs (admittedly the train could go a lot faster if it wanted - but regardless the feeling is incredible).

As the trains track diverged from the race route and went out of sight, my mind came back to slight matter of the 14mile race I was currently competing in. I noticed Damian Carr from Cov Godiva not too far ahead, and realised that I was able to maintain, if not close the gap whilst running at a comfortable pace - so I focused on slowly closing the gap on him for the next mile or so until I was alongside him, a few words of encouragement and I soon passed him on a bit of a descent - next runner I remember was his counterpart, Nigel Marley, whom again I progressively closed the gap on - by this point I wasn't running as easily as my race strategy had called for, but I was running strong and comfortable - definitely not wasting excessive amounts of energy. I closed up to Nigel and we ran together for a while through a few areas of spectator support and then across a number of grass and crop fields. Soon I could see the turnaround point, and thus the halfway mark - it was still a field or two away, perhaps half a mile... at the same time we could see the two runners ahead in the distance and later we would see the leaders already on their way back towards the finish. Nigel kindly informed me "the guy in green over there is in third place"... there was another runner behind him, and then us in 5th/6th place - I honestly had no idea we were that close to the front and I was filled with confidence knowing that 3rd place was only 400m or so ahead and I'd not been fully exerting myself. "I'd best try and catch him then" I said, and started to pick up the pace before the turnaround point.

7mi down and I took a halfway split - but I'm buggered if I can remember what it was! The course turned back towards Tywyn and joined the narrow sheep track along the steep bank; just about wide enough for one person to run along and with no room for passing, a steep bank upwards to the left, and a nasty banked drop to the right, it's not even worth trying to get round anyone because if you get it wrong it's not going to be much fun getting back on track (assuming you survive the tumble okay!). That was by-the-by though, I was running solo at this point and trying to close the gap to 4th place. There was a drizzle that'd been in the air for the first half of the race - lovely and refreshing it was, although as it turns out, that was only because it was in what must've been a trailing breeze since for the journey back towards the start/finish area, this refreshing drizzle seemed to be a light but driving rain - making it very awkward to see where you were going. I soon closed in on 4th place, and it was the runner in the green vest who had been in 3rd place before the turnaround point... I prepared to settle in behind him but by the time I'd pulled up behind him, he had found a ‘passing place' and momentarily stopped to let me through - "very kind of him" I thought, and I continued on my way to catch 3rd place.

After a bit of solo running I caught 3rd place - I seemed to catch him at a reasonable rate and thought "Brilliant - I can pass him here!", yet as I drew alongside him he managed to dig a little deeper and run with me, and then push on in front leaving me struggling to keep up with him. "fair play" I thought... "I'm just going to hang in here as best I can - if he's got it in his legs to keep pushing this hard all the way to the finish then he deserves to beat me". My legs were hurting, and I was already exceeding my expectations for the race - I was in the situation where I'd rather maintain my 4th place than overcook it and blow up whilst trying to come third. A few instances arose where he would begin to open up a gap of 5-10metres, but I was always able to close the gap on either a gentle descent or the flat. We approached what I think was the final off-road climb of the race, which was a steep descent earlier in the race... I knew it was a tough one where dropping to a power-walk was as quick as trying to run it.

Still sat just a pace or two behind the 3rd place runner we hit the bottom of the slope and he instantly dropped to a walk - "THIS IS IT!" my mind said - "all or nothing... break him on this hill and you've got third place, otherwise you're settling for 4th". I managed to push hard as I reached the bottom of the slope and carried enough momentum to carry me perhaps a mere 2-3metres in front of the 3rd place runner before I dropped to a hands-on-knees power walk, and worked my legs hard and broke back into a run as early as I felt was possible, I could feel my lead growing. "Yes... yes... this is it... push hard now..." and without looking behind I pressed on as best I could over the next two fields with my legs feeling increasingly heavy until I eventually succumbed to looking over my shoulder. I could see the now fourth place runner, but perhaps 100m behind "Brilliant!" I thought, if only I could maintain a reasonable effort then 3rd place was surely mine. The grin on my face grew and I was on a pure runner's high - I thanked all the marshals for their support as I passed with a grin from ear to ear, one supporter shouting "Highest ever placing for Kenilworth!" as I went passed "WOW!" I thought, and that was all the motivation I needed to keep pushing hard as I rejoined the road for the final mile.

Basking in the support of the crowds I came into the finishing straight to see the finishing clock ticking by 1:23... a good 4minutes faster than last year, despite worse course conditions. Awesome! The finish felt effortless and I waited to greet the others as they finished - the two Coventry Godiva runners, Connor Carson and Phil Gould from Kenilworth, Rob Minton from Stratford and then as many of the rest of the Kenilworth team as I could before I started getting bloody cold.

I did my usual "eat anything which is edible from the race goody-bag", and my stomach wasn't happy - started to get really bad stomach upset and cramping - worse than I've ever had before and it crippled me for most of the remaining hours of the day, I could barely move without terrible discomfort... even heading to the evening's presentation and celebrations I couldn't bring myself to manage a celebratory beer - it really put a downer on an otherwise near perfect event. Once I started to feel a little better after the prize giving we headed for a curry - yes perhaps not the best thing whilst recovering from stomach pains but I placed my order and amazingly managed to consume the whole thing.

Third place overall and 1st place team - really couldn't have hoped for much better!