I’m pretty sure I should retire from running now. I may not (touch wood) have peaked in form, but I’m pretty sure I’ve peaked in terms of running-related experiences: last Friday, I ran a mile race as part of the Anniversary Games. Yes, the ones in the Olympic Stadium. The Diamond League. The actual, real, honest-to-goodness Diamond League. I’m pretty sure I didn’t dream it, but only because I have the number still pinned to my shirt to prove it.
The event was the culmination of the Nike Milers series I’ve been training with, the slightly odd flip side to my marathon training – one minute I’m plodding out 20 miles, then next, trying to “find my fast”. I’m not really sure I’ve actually found it – made passing acquaintance with it, perhaps – but Friday night was one truly incredible experience. Lining up at the startline next to Adharanand Finn, looking up and around at the Olympic Stadium – filling up already with the real athletes kicking off around half an hour later – and seeing my name up on the screen, I think I muttered a rather ineffectual profanity.
The race itself, as mile races do, went by in a blur. Primed by pep talks from none other than Steve Cram and Mo Farah, I braced myself to dig deep on the third lap. That’s the one that counts, everyone told us. Actually, in the event, the third lap was fine – it was the fourth that nearly killed me. Gasping for breath, lungs burning, the taste of metal/blood in my mouth, hugs all round, walking off the track past Paula Radcliffe doing her TV thing … A tiny tiny taste of what it must be like to do that for a living. Only rather a lot slower, obviously (5min 44sec for me, an impressive 4min 57sec for Adharanand) and with considerably less pressure. And making it look much harder than Asbel Kiprop did the next day. Mind you it is, I think, rather unfair for anyone to make a 3min 54sec mile look like a relaxed Fartlek session …
So how to follow that? Well, yesterday I ran the Elmbridge 10km, part of the Surrey road league. Clearly something of a contrast – but equally, everything that’s great about low-key, well organised, local club races. And I even got to meet and chat to a running blog regular – hi David! – and get pretty close to my PB in 39min and 46sec, while not feeling all that great (Diamond League hangover?). Better still, my Windmilers ladies team won the team prize.
So, a great weekend for me. How was your weekend running? Unless you are in fact Asbel Kiprop or David Rudisha or Dina Asher Smith logging in under a pseudonym, I suspect you probably didn’t run in the Diamond League. Sorry about that.
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