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Your
Race In Your Words
Ian
Murdey doesn't hang around on street corners
Alsager
5
6th February 2005
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This race was not what I
expected. As someone whose geography is really quite poor, I
had no idea where Alsager was and imagined that it would be
a smallish town with a smallish race involving 200-300
runners. I even had thoughts about bringing home some prize
money. I had no reason to alter these preconceptions when we
arrived at 9.15 to find a tight course with a surfeit of
sharp street corner turns. The race started on a small
residential road where even 200 runners would seem a large
crowd. I was delighted to see that prizes went down to 10th
place and started to plan my winning strategy.
Imagine my
disappointment when it was explained to me that this was a
race that attracted 1000 runners and had an expected winning
time of sub-24 minutes. Turns out it's one of the top two 5
milers in the country.
At 10.45, fighting for a
place on the start line, 200 still seemed like a large
number of people to be squashing into such a small area.
Mind you, 1000 seemed like a lot more; I guess the lady who
tried to reverse out of her drive, just five minutes before
the start, must have had the shock of her life.
Of course, a large crowd
in a small area makes for a manic start and, with road works
after 800 metres taking up half the road, this start was
extremely busy. Normal race tactics were abandoned as the
first mile was spent weaving in and out of the crowds. In
the second mile my plan was to find a group that was running
at my planned pace, around 5.15-5.18 per mile, but this was
proving difficult. In local races you have some idea of who
is at your level but here most faces (or backs of heads)
were strangers. Luckily I managed to latch onto the back of
a runner who was gradually accelerating through the groups.
Would you believe it? Out of a thousand people, the one
person I chose to follow turned out to be my training
partner Matty.
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Aside from having to
stare at the back of a head I'd seen enough of over the
preceding few weeks, this was no bad thing because I knew
he'd run a good pace.
Together we worked hard
to get to a fast moving group of around six runners that we
felt could work with us to the finish. Unfortunately, as we
got to them at three miles, the group broke up and we were
left running in ones and twos for the final last couple of
miles. If you're looking for a fast time, this is the down
side of running in such a big field over such a short
distance. Groups don't have time to form before the race is
over and you have to have the confidence to pace
yourself.
I finished in 24th pace
with a time of 26.29. Although I had been hoping to go
closer to 26 minutes (and win!), I was reasonably pleased
with this performance. Overall, I thought the race was OK,
well marshalled and organised but probably too big for such
a tight and twisty course. I would recommend picking up your
t-shirt before the start, the queues afterwards were huge
(mind you, one runner in the queue already had a t-shirt on,
I don't know what he thought he was waiting for). Allow
plenty of time to leave; where we parked no-one got out
until the last runner had finished.
There are other, equally
good, 5 milers closer to home that can produce fast times,
such as Wolvey or the Joy Cann - but it makes a refreshing
change to run out of county. Thanks
to Dave our coach for driving, supporting, and providing
coffee and doughnuts on the way back.
http://www.alsager5.co.uk/
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