Weymouth 10

18/10/2003 Martin Lascelles

Arriving at the seafront the first thing I noticed was the chilly wind blowing from the sea. I didn't like the look of it, nor the feel of it when I finally emerged from the warmth of the car after admitting to being a runner and paying my �2 for a concessionary parking ticket. I went in to the race HQ in the pavilion and picked up my number and ran back to the car to pin it on.  As I passed the lady selling parking tickets she was asking a succession of puzzled motorists if they were running 10 miles today. A few of them seemed to be considering the offer.

Met up with Phil England and we went for a warmup run arriving at the starting line with 5 minutes to go. There were a number of bemused looking promenaders but suprisingly few runners, but it turned out that most of them had decided to stay in the warmth of the Pavilion for as long as possible. After a last-minute pit-stop I lined up in my usual place, about a 1/4 of the way back from the front of the runners massed behind the start line. After the customary inaudible race briefing, we were sent on our way by a man dressed in a suit and a lot of very ostentatious jewellery, who later turned out to be the Mayor of Weymouth.

       Phil and I got off to what we both agreed was a fairly steady start and made good progress along the seafront towards Preston. The wind was fairly brisk, but not really too bad once you got going. After a mile, we were joined by the winner of the Greenford Gallop, Paul Rose. Would we be able to salvage the club's honour by avenging our recent defeat? Erm, actually no. The flat part eventually ran out and we started up a steepish hill which got even steeper half-way up. We were fresh enough that it wasn't too bad, but it was clearly going to be worse on the second lap. By now Paul was steadily pulling ahead, as expected. Graciously we let him go. The road led down past the Holiday camp into the caravan site winding past 3 miles well on schedule for a sub 70 minute time. We arrived at the drinks station ( gulp, choke, splutter,

splash, gasp) and then out onto a fairly rough section uphill on to the main road where we turned left and ran steeply down past the shops, dodging pedestrians, bus-stops and bollards and then a flattish part which included a short detour up a sidestreet around a traffic cone and back to the main road and onwards towards the seafront. Phil and I were having quite a lengthy conversation which is unusual in races because you don't usually have enough breath for more than a couple of words at a time and we were talking in complete sentences. Reaching the 5 mile marker, we had lost almost a minute in the last mile and were now barely under 35 minutes with the big hill to come.

The conversation suddenly dried up as we negotiated the hill which seemed a couple of hundred yards longer this time, and we reached the 6 mile marker another 25 seconds behind target pace. Digging deep, we managed to stop the leaking away of precious seconds with a solid 7 minute mile to the 7 mile marker ,and then another 6:30 on the slighly downhill road tothe sea and we were again well under the 70 minute schedule with the wind behind and only 2 miles to go. This was the part I had been really looking forward to because I knew that the worst was past, it would soon be over.  We started to catch up with a couple of runners, and I was suddenly feeling really strong. With just over a mile to go, I started to gradually speed up and then I noticed that Phil was no longer running beside me and in fact had dropped back enough that I couldn't hear his footsteps any more. I was still catching up with the runner ahead who was really struggling. I continued to push the pace,  feeling very grateful that I hadn't been forced to tire myself out on that hill. I managed to pass a further 5  runners and with a 5:50 last mile lowered my PB by 10 seconds (68:16). Phil was not far behind and close to a PB as  well. After bidding Phil goodbye, I spent an enjoyable hour in the Pavilion with some Egdon Heath Harriers, including a friend from the Runners World Forums, Dawn, or "Hilly", who had picked up a prize for FV35 as well as the Ladies team prize. I'm finding that the best part of taking up running is not how fit I've become, but how many really nice people I've met through it.

Next week, the Exmoor Stagger. Only 4 miles longer, but it'll take over twice as long, if I survive it.