Still Running (weakly). Issue 163

PAST – inspiration – “Come on, Steve, you can do this!”

On 16th July 1994, I had come up to Hull to compete in the Humberside 24 hours.  I had made pretty good progress in the first half of the race and was actually well in the lead with half an hour to go.

However, reduced to a slow walk due to the exertions of the previous 23 or so hours, I was going to miss my personal best (134 miles) by a mile or so – and with it the chance to seriously impress the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Ultradistance Team selectors.

My wife’s above exhortation changed all that.  Somehow I suddenly started to run at about 8-minute mile pace, managing to keep that going for the next 25 or so minutes, enabling me to add a mile or so to my personal best, rather than miss it. 

I guess it was partly the case that I had walked for a while so my running muscles were not quite as shredded as they could have been – and partly that, in the context of years of training and 24 hours of effort, to put myself through the ringer for just a couple of dozen more minutes was just about conceivable.

It became one of those few perfect races – a win – by 14 miles – plus still-standing PBs at 100 miles (16:43:13), 200km (21:33:20) and 24 hours (135 miles 500 yards.)

I think it was after this race, in the changing room, that the guy who came second was so tired that he fell asleep sitting next to the sink, unfortunately slumping towards the porcelain and knocking himself out, necessitating a 999 call.  Dangerous stuff, this ultradistance running!  He was OK.

Exactly ten years previously, on 16th July 1984, my friend Rod and I had jogged over to Battersea Park from Blackfriars where we worked in Sainsbury’s head office, to take part in the Monday night Sri Chinmoy races.  These were usually two miles around the carriageway, but in the summer featured the ‘Grand Prix’ of 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile and 3 miles races on consecutive weeks.  This time it was the mile.  I clocked 4:56, my only ever official sub-5, though I would like to point out that I did in fact run several seconds faster in training!!

PRESENT – perspiration –This coming weekend, I will attend another mile race at the London Diamond League, where, all being well, Josh Kerr will attempt to run slightly faster than 4:56 in his attack on Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record of 3:43.13.

If he succeeds, he will be the first Scot to hold the record since William Cummings ran 4:16 1/5 in 1881 in Preston!  No Brit has held the record since Steve Cram, who ran 3:46.32 in 1985 in Oslo, the British record that Kerr broke with 3:45.34 in May 2024.  And no men’s mile record has been set in this country since Derek Ibbotson ran 3:57.2 at the White City in London in 1957.

Keely Hodgkinson is also hoping to attack a world record at the same meeting – Kratochvilova’s fabled 1:53.28 800 from 1983.  After a perfect winter of training and a world indoor record in February, Keely has not had things all her own way outdoors, losing to Audrey Werro (Switzerland), the only woman in history to have run two sub-1:54s, in Stockholm in June, albeit in a new British record, and then to world champion Lilian Odira (Kenya) in Eugene on 4th July, albeit hampered by a recent fall which saw her racing with heavily taped knees.

Again, no Brit has held the women’s outdoor 800 record since Ann Packer ran 2:01.1 to claim a hugely unexpected Olympic gold medal in Tokyo 1964.  And the last one of these records to be set in the UK was the next but one after Packer – Vera Nikolic of Yugoslavia’s 2:00.5 at Crystal Palace on 20th July 1968.

FUTURE – suggestion – I say it every year!  With the summer upon us, more and more mile races – on track and road – are appearing on the horizon, often on midweek evenings.  I would urge you to have a go at one or more of these.

Why?  They are hard but fun – let’s face it, they’re over quite quickly.  Depending on your racing history, you may well get a personal best.  And they are great training for longer distances – run a faster mile, and you’ll probably run a faster 5 or 10km. 

But – try and do a few more speed-orientated sessions in the lead-up to the mile race – some 200s, 300s and 400s at faster than mile pace, with short rests.  These are great for your 5km races or parkruns too.  And do please warmup well before the actual race itself.  Even in hot weather, unsuspecting hamstrings or calves can easily tear when they are being asked to exert like never before!

But maybe don’t try this session. 

In the 70s, Steve Ovett trained with Tony Simmons (European 10,000 silver, Olympic 10,000 4th place) as they were both coached by Harry Wilson.  Legend has it that they turned up for a track session one time and Ovett asked his coach, “What's the session, Harry?”

“4 times 400 meters in 60 seconds, please, guys,” said Wilson.

“OK.  What recovery?”

“No recovery.  Tony, do the first lap, Steve the second and third, and finish with the fourth lap, Tony.”

And so they set off and ran a four-minute mile in training!

Harry Wilson did explain his thinking: “Steve always starts too fast, so I wanted him to sit down and see what pace was required, then take the middle at the same pace, and have Tony use his stamina to keep that up to the end.”