Still Running (weakly). Issue 114

PAST – inspiration – “COE’S TRAIL OF SHAME shouted the newspaper headlines 45 years ago this week, as Seb lost the 1980 Olympic 800 title to great rival Steve Ovett.  I remember it like it was yesterday!  A tabloid picture showed him running off into the distance on an 11-mile run that at the time was presented as him running away from his failure, but which subsequently proved to be somewhat cathartic, as he came back to win the 1500 six days later.  I think REDEMPTION was the headline they came up with then!

After that 800 and the 100 final, won by Allan Wells, one foreign journalist suggested that we could win all the male flat track titles – Wells again in the 200 (he got silver), David Jenkins in the 400 (7th), Ovett in the 1500 after his 800 triumph (bronze), Dave Moorcroft in the 5000 (eliminated in semis), Brendan Foster in the 10,000 (11th), and Ian Thompson in the marathon (DNF).

It was not to be of course, but we did come back with four golds, Wells (100), Ovett (800), Coe (1500) with Daley Thompson in the decathlon being the other, those two silvers from Wells in the 200 and Coe in the 800, and four bronzes – Ovett in the 1500, Gary Oakes in the 400 hurdles and both the 4x100 and 4x400 women’s relay teams.

It was also redemption for the athletics team as a whole, after we had won just a solitary bronze in 1976 – Foster in the 10,000.

PRESENT – perspiration – “Does she stay in both events or does she come out of one and just stick with the other?  Lots of things are up in the air, but it’s a brilliant position to be in.”  So said Jenny Meadows of her charge, Georgia Hunter Bell’s World Championships plans.

Hunter Bell has qualified in both 800 and 1500, with the second and fourth fastest times, respectively, in the world this year.  Meadows also said that, if the 800 were first in Tokyo, then they would double, but with three hard rounds of the 1500 coming before the shorter, speedier event, doubling is a hard ask.  Kelly Holmes had the 800 first when she won both in the 2004 Olympics.

What is remarkable about Hunter Bell is that she had five years out of the sport from 2017, only doing local events and parkruns.  She’ll be 32 in October, but has fewer miles on the clock – and fewer hard races in her legs – than many younger athletes.  She won Olympic bronze in the longer event last year, but the 800 may well be her best chance in 2025.  It will be interesting to see which event they choose – and how she progresses in the championships.

FUTURE – suggestion – “You’re leaving your race on the training track.”  Too many runners do too much too close to an important race.  So, on a ‘rest’ day, is it best to do nothing or to do something?  And what might that something be?

My recovery days used to be two easy runs of between 3 and 6 miles each, with a lot of stretching afterwards.  I found that this was actually relaxing, helped me recover, and was a positive relief from the normal grind of hard sessions.

Even now I find it better to do something.  At my advanced age – and diminished fitness – this might be as little as a mile jog, followed by stretching all of the leg muscles.  I think I feel looser the day after, compared with the times when I do nothing at all.

It may just be psychological – but it is no less valid for that.  And actually doing something reminds you that, even on a rest day, you are still an athlete.