Alsager 5

Today we head off to do the Alsager 5 mile race. My partner remembers that the last time we did it in 2013, I asked her to check the ditches for me in case I'd collapsed. So I must have been injured that year as well. I think perhaps she best do the same again this time.

We've been posted numbers but we have to collect our timing chips on the day, which seems a bit of a waste of postage but there you go. They also hand out the race t-shirt before we start, which is helpful if you don’t reach the finish because you’re in a ditch.

The race is full and there’s nearly 900 here, an impressive turn out. Conditions are cold and I wrap up warm, with running tights in case I have to crawl out of the aforementioned ditch and walk back.

I recall that in 2013 I had to overtake L because she had started up front with the elites. I think this was because the race set off in the opposite direction to what we were expecting. We don’t make the same mistake today.

 

It starts ok and I do the first mile in 07:52, not blinding by any means but adequate. Then the tight calves kick in and I have to stop every half a mile to stretch them out. Oddly my finishing time of 43:25 is three whole minutes quicker than in 2013. I must have been really badly injured that year.

More worryingly is that I bounced back from that poor time in 2013 and ran 38:02 for five miles only a fortnight later. That’s not going to happen this time.

Alsager 5

Finally it seems that the good old British weather is going to allow us to get some outdoor racing. It’s just a shame my body isn’t keen on the idea.

We drive over to Alsager near Crewe. The race is busy, although not full. I think it was last year but I guess this year everyone’s been holding onto their pennies in case it was another victim of the weather.  

L tells me to take it easy, so I do. With a dodgy left knee and a dodgy right calf, I don’t have a lot of choice. I probably shouldn’t be running at all but I need to do something.

It’s a bit of a surprise to overtake L about half a mile in, who has clearly started way down the front. This may have been partly my fault, by mistake I told her I thought we were heading off in the opposite direction. So what she thought was the probably the back was actually the front.

My race went ok, for a while. Up to about three miles, when I lost concentration a bit, probably pushed things a bit too hard and tweaked the dodgy calf. I walked a bit and considered quitting but couldn’t see a route back to the start/finish. By the time I passed the lane end where the finish was there was just one mile to go and I was running again, so I carried on. I got through it.

The time is awful though. In the last year I have done a PW in half marathon, 10k and now 5 miles.