Still Running (weakly). Issue 161

PAST – inspiration – “Today we have seen a performance that gives meaning to the word courage.  All honour to John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania,” wrote one journalist after the marathon in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

At the 19km point of the race, there was jockeying for position between some runners and Akhwari was pushed.  He fell, badly injuring his shoulder and dislocating his knee, but he continued running and eventually finished last among the 57 competitors who completed the race (75 had started).  The winner, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia clocked 2:20:26.  Akhwari finished in 3:25:27, when there were only a few thousand people left in the stadium, and the sun had set.

When interviewed later and asked why he had continued running, he said, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race; they sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”

Akhwari was in fact a world-class marathoner during much of the 1960s and 70s, for example coming fifth in the 1970 Commonwealth Marathon with 2:15:05 behind Ron Hill’s winning 2:09:28.

The history of the marathon is of course littered with many stories of bravery in similar circumstances to those Akhwari experienced in Mexico City – Dorando Pietri in the 1908 London Olympics, Etienne Gailly in the 1948 Olympics, again in London, Gabriela Andersen-Schiess in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and Steve Jones in the 1986 Stuttgart Europeans come to mind – but watch the heartbreaking footage of the Tanzanian online and you might agree with me that this man’s courage takes some beating!

PRESENT – perspiration – The Commonwealth Games start in Glasgow on 23rd July with many good medal chances for the home nation.

I can remember when the games were held in Edinburgh in 1970 and Scots Ian Stewart won the 5000, Lachie Stewart won the 10,000 (ending Ron Clarke’s last hope of a major gold medal), Rosemary Stirling won the 800, and Rosemary Payne won the discus. 

A year later, Stirling married marathoner Trevor Wright, and their grandson is Sam Ruthe, who ran a 3:48.88 mile this year at the age of 16.  In 1970, Payne was married to Howard Payne, an Englishman who won the hammer at those games.

In 1986, again in Edinburgh, a certain Liz Lynch won the 10,000.  She’s better known as Liz McColgan. 

This year, the likes of Jake Wightman (1500 World Champion 2022), Josh Kerr (1500 World Champion 2023), Liz’s daughter, defending 10,000 champ, Eilish, and Laura Muir (2022 1500 champ, this year going in the 5000) will try and extend that track record of tartan glory.

FUTURE – suggestion – One of the best possible sessions for a 5km, 10km, half or marathon runner is 3 times 1 mile on the track with a slow 400 jog in between (if necessary, in an outside lane.)

It sounds simple, but, done well, it can bring huge benefit, as you operate at about or just under 5km pace for about 5km (!!) with limited recovery, which obviously translates into great benefit for 5km, 10km, half marathon or marathon sustained speed and endurance.

You cannot do this session every week – it is too mentally demanding for one thing – but perhaps once a month can show you where your fitness is.

Look at your watch at least every lap, and adjust your pace if you are up or down on schedule – but only if your runner’s intuition confirms that you are indeed pushing too much or not enough.  You may just be a bit fitter than you realise!

Don’t run the first one too fast or too slow.  It is important that it is demanding, but not so much that it negatively affects the rest of the session.  I once went out a bit quick and realised in the third lap that I had the chance of a sub-5 (something I always craved, because I didn’t manage it very often).  Tempted, I went for it, and paid the price later, my times being 4:58, 5:25, 5:45.  Disgraceful pacing!

So it is vital that you know what to aim for in the first two miles.  I guess you can go for it if you want to in the third, but too fast a third mile will tell you that you should have gone faster in the first two!!

The best I achieved for this session was 5:07, 5:08, 5:07.  This was when I was running 16-17 mins, 33-34 mins, 1:11-1:15 and 2:40-ish for the distances mentioned above.

Even then, though, my mate, Bob, looked at the 5:07, 5:08, 5:07 results that I proudly showed him later and said: “What happened in the middle one, then?”!