On Sunday I take on my old friend the WAMC ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) Point Walter 16k (10 miles). Last year, although I managed a podium, it came at a price and even typing this post now I can remember the pain of the event and the emotional roller coaster I was strapped into. What I need to do now is try and put a positive spin of the whole event and prepare myself for the start line and the obligatory time in the ‘pain box’ that goes hand-in-hand with racing.

All week this event has been playing on my mind with different strategies and out comes but ultimately ‘when push comes to shove’ it’s all about trusting in your training. As I said many times running is the most honest sport but when you have tired legs and its a struggle to make the stairs in the morning you do worry ? This is all part and parcel of the sport  , feeling tired constantly and always second guessing yourself. Normally when the race bib is on the chest and the starters pistol goes off all is forgotten and the mind and body switch into ‘race mode’.

Over the many years of racing I’ve only really had a few bad races where I’ve let my mind convince my body all is not well and slowed accordingly. These lapses of concentration have always been around the 32k mark in a marathon so maybe, on both occasions,  it was more to do with hitting the wall because of poor nutrition/hydration rather than mental fragility.  This is not to say any race is ever easy, if it was then you’re not racing. Racing itself is really an excuse to put yourself in the ‘pain box’ for as long as possible and the runner who spends the most time deep within the box, normally curled up in the fetal position, normally wins.

Personally I believe a good runner who does well in racing compared to a good runner is the ability to endure pain. Steve Monaghetti mentioned this when I asked the question ‘what makes an elite compared to a club runner’ ?  It all comes down to pain management or endurance. Obviously being a pro runner gives you the ability to train more and reach a new level of cardio fitness and this , combined with the pain endurance, produces an elite.  Throw in some genetic advantage and training programs, e.g. like the Kenyans, mix it all up and you have a world beater.

For me it’s about not slowing down, at 51 I would assume my days of PB’s are probably behind me and the best I can hope for is to get as close as possible to past glory’s.  I am comfortable with this as the training is the part I enjoy the most, just getting out there really. (The muffins and pancakes are also an enjoyable, integral, part of running.) The racing is a by product and needed to keep me honest, good results and you are invigorated and see new goals and boundaries to push. Bad results and you are determined to get better , which in turn invigorates you and gives you new goals and boundaries to push.

A friend of mine mentioned to me at the end of the Fremantle running event last year that every runner had a look of pain etched on their face as they entered the finishing straight, he couldn’t understand why we do what we do. That sums it up really, only a runner knows the feeling. Be it one of a natural high when you finish a goal race and achieve a finishing time you could only dream about or devastation when you stumble over the line. As he waddled off to pay with his paddle board I realized he, and all non-runners, would never understand and it was pointless trying to explain really.

Right, enough blogging I have a race to prepare for. I’ll add a footnote to this post with the result and will hope to go sub 59 minutes for the 16k. My best is in the lows 58minutes range and my worst 59:59 so I have a small window to play with. The pack will be in hot pursuit and I’ll be doing my best to keep them at bay, maybe for just one more year…. maybe.

Post race :- Just back from the Point Walter 16k and I managed to sneak in for a 4th place finish and a time of 58minutes 44 seconds. So overall , from a time point of view, it should be seen as another successful run. Again , as with last years event, there was the periods of self doubt and the urge to just stop running. This year it was mainly in the second lap between 8k and 12k with a headwind and a 4th place position which I suspected would not improve, I was right. On the positive side yet again I conquered my demons and finished with a credible time but it was another painful experience both mentally and physically. Is this the way forward for me as I battle ‘old Father time‘ and his insistence that I slow, probably ? I have mentioned several times before that I believe the reason the older runner eventually slows down is mainly a mental battle that eventually he cannot win as the fatigue, ordered by the mind,  cannot be over ridden. As we age the central governor , as described by Tim Noakes, just becomes too strong and the body responds , with the help of the runners mortal enemy fatigue. I certainly felt that today and yet again had to work very, very hard for my finish time. Not slowing down too much but I feel I went to the well again and avoided paying the piper this time, unfortunately I can feel the piper wants paying but will be doing my damndest to avoid this for as long as possible. Right, two weeks and it’s the Darlington half, can I go one more time, we’ll see…….

How can a race so short teach you so much ?

This morning I lined up for the West Australian Marathon Club ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) Point Walter 16k (10Miles), my first race as a fifty year old. I’d ran this race twice in the last three years and managed a second place finish both times (58:24 and 59:59:07 , that 07 is important as the club (and Strava) rounded it up to an hour dead !, the first time was a PB and is important for later in this post…) I had a mini taper for this one as I was determined to go faster than the 59:59:07 I ran last year and the Race Director and Club President both knew I was out to set the record straight.

So to the start, I turned up and saw my friend and training partner Ross warming up in the car park and this threw me a bit as he had earlier commented he’d be running with the lads and Ross is on fire at the moment, winning his last two events. Mentally this was a blow as I was hoping to cruise to a podium, truth be told , and seeing Ross I knew I was probably now one place down. Speaking to Ross at the start and it seemed another ‘gun runner’ was doing the 16k (there is a 5k option as well) so I moved myself one more place down the finishing list. I was now, probably best case, gunning for 3rd.  Next thing alongside me my friend Zac turns up after running a 1hr15mins half the previous week (a 5 minute PB, oh to be young again!) , so much for a cruise to a podium, although I knew Zac would probably fade he has the benefit of youth, something I can no longer draw on. This was not a good start to the race and add in a hot day , it started at around 25c and rose quickly, together with a headwind for the first 4k (it is an 8k loop twice); I was mentally finished before I even started.

Once we started I found Ross and sat behind him, cocooned between the 5k runners who went off like scolded cats and a group of 16k runners who would challenge for the podium places. At the 2.5k point the 5k runners turned and the 16k race unfolded before me. The gun runner Ross spoke off was well ahead and barring injury a shoe in for the win. Ross was comfortable in 2nd and I was just behind him with young Zac hot on my heels.

I found the initial pace taxing into the wind and came up with all sorts of reasons why I could pull the pin and end the pain, which was unusual for me. Maybe this ‘tapering lark’ is not all it’s cracked up to be, either way by 4k I was in trouble. Zac went past me about this time and moved away with Ross and with him all thoughts of a medal. This added to my anguish and did nothing for my mental state which was now at its lowest. I had spent all week reading Matt Fitzgerald’s ‘How bad do you want it’, and realised about the 5k mark I didn’t want it at all ! This was the compounded by another runner cruising past me , so I had now moved to 5th and was seriously thinking of pulling out at the 8k mark.  I have raced hundreds of races in my time and never DNF’d so the thought of doing so on a 16k WAMC race was never going to happen but option ‘B’ was to start a long 8k cool down, and work out valid reasons for this approach; truth be told I could think of none. (Funnily enough I was on Facebook yesterday, as I was tapering, and replied to a comment about taking days off as a sign of weakness, here I was thinking of pulling the pin on a 16k race; karma I think! )

Right, halfway in around 28:30; on track for my sub one hour target but on the inside well and truly finished. The Race Director and Club President cheered me on and informed me I was right on time but I remember thinking they were dreaming if they thought I’d be back within the hour, never going to happen. Reluctantly  I moved onto the second lap and knuckled down to endure what I thought would be more of the same. The 4k headwind embraced me and my pace started to drop above the 3:3xmin/k I had targeted, only just,  but enough.

Well at 9k it happened, the whole race changed in an instant. The lead ‘gun runner’, who was well ahead, was on the side of the path and obviously out of the race. Suddenly I was in 4th place and looking up ahead young Zac was now paying the price for racing the half the week before and I was catching him. Boom ! Suddenly the voice inside my head which was shouting for mercy was now shouting for medals and it was on like donkey kong for young and old !!

The headwind didn’t help me but Zac was paying the price big time and I know from past races he is not the best finisher. (He’s young and starts every race at suicide pace, it won’t be long before he finishes the race as the same pace and then he’ll be out of my league; if not already. ) Put these two things together and I knew I was with a good chance of a podium. At fifty my days of getting on, or even near, to a podium are limited and I was quite prepared to put it on the line for the last 6k to grab one more before my time is done. In about 4 minutes I had gone from pulling the pin for the first time in my career to putting my head down, finding a second wind , and rolling in the runner in front of me. This I did at the last turn around with 4k to go. With the wind behind me I was able to maintain the sub 3:40min/k average pace and even managed to get within less than 20 seconds to Ross, who at one point was just about out of sight. How did I do this ? When the lead runner pulled out and I could see Zac struggling my whole mental approach changed, and when I convinced the mind I could grab a medal the limiters were taken off and I was allowed to run quicker, with fatigue ejected to the back of my mind.

Although this was only a 16k race I had been through the ringer when it came to emotions. I was finished at 2k, pulling out at 4k, heading to a world of pain and 8k and reborn at 9k. This running really does teach you so much about yourself. If I had pulled the pin at any time during that race I would be typing such a different post, as it is I am happy that yet again I managed to pull it out of the fire and convince myself I could finish, and finish strong.

Was the book helpful, (ref: Matt Fitzgerald)? To tell you the truth probably not, it’s easy to sit on a train on the way to work reading about all the great athletes who have dug deep when faced with impossible odds and how the mind has helped them achieve their goals. When you’re in a massive hole at the start of the race you know it’s the mind telling you to stop but ignoring it, or even convincing the mind it is wrong, it not so easy. I suppose the real answer is to trust in you training, if you’ve put in the hard yards you will come good, you may not get the PB you were chasing but you will finish; never ever stop.

Overall I managed to grab that podium and even managed a 1 second PB finishing in 58mins 22seconds, a second quicker than my 2013 time but a world apart for race experiences. Three years ago I was in the form of my life and this was another PB in a long line of PB’s, those days disappeared for a few years but I have been lucky enough now to sneak a few more. Today I had to work so hard for that 1 second PB but I’ll take it and really it is worth so much more because of the mental torture I put myself through to get it. I’ve asked this question before about how many times I can keep going to the well and pulling these runs out , eventually the well will be dry , eventually ? Until then it looks like running easy PB’s is never going to happen (not that they really ever did?) for me in the future, at fifty if you want a PB you are going to have to REALLY WANT a PB. No worries, today I have the medal which whenever I look at it I will remember the pain and the pleasure I put myself through to get it. That piece of metal is worth so much more to me, to me it is memories of another run where I asked myself some serious questions and , this time, came up with all the right answers.