Still Running (weakly). Issue 44

PAST – inspiration – 43 years ago, on 29th March 1981, I ran in the first London Marathon, a very different animal from today’s extravaganza. 7,055 runners (in very short shorts) gathered in Greenwich Park in the rain, to run the 26.2 miles over a roughly similar course to the present, finishing on Constitution Hill instead of The Mall. 6,255 finished.

Chris Brasher, the organiser and 1956 Olympic steeplechase gold medallist, amazingly found time to run the race himself, passing me at about 20 miles. We didn’t even have digital watches in those days, so, although I thought I was just about on course for a sub-three-hour clocking, it was only when I rounded the last corner and got sight of the finish clock that said “2:58-something,” that I knew I’d done it.

No chip timing, no internet, so I only knew my official time when the sheets of A4 were sellotaped on the insides of the windows of County Hall (Greater London Council HQ) a few days later – “2:59:17” since you ask! Oh and the medal had no ribbon and was less than an inch across.

PRESENT – perspiration – The main athletic event in the past week has been the World Cross Country Championships, held in Belgrade, and the lack of European runners (none from Italy, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland among others) reminds me of the paucity of home wins in these events.

A notable exception was John Treacy’s win for Ireland in Limerick in 1979, retaining his title from Glasgow the year before. He leveraged that cross-country strength into marathon greatness. Using a succession of elite runners to pace him on long training runs (in much the same way as Catherine the Great exhausted teams of lovers, as one commentator had it!), he would win Olympic silver in that event in 1984.

FUTURE – suggestion – You can add value to your sessions, without using up extra time, by tweaking them, especially when you are feeling good. What do I mean by that? Brendan Foster used to cut the recovery between his last few intervals, to make the sessions harder. When running 20 times 200 metres with 30 seconds between, he would cut the rest between the last few to little more than 20 seconds.

I have often run the last few miles of a long run harder to increase their worth. I have also “sprinted” the penultimate (last-but-one) hour of a very long run, to make the last 60 minutes agonising (worth more.)

If you can hang onto a faster clubmate……. If you can add a final all-out mile at the end of a track session……. If you run to and from the gym….. If you can run in the evening, only drink water, and run again in the morning….. It all helps.

Only try these occasionally!