Race Review - North District Championships

400m Hurdles

My warm-up was ‘bitty’.  I did a few hurdle drills. I walked around a lap stepping over hurdles. I did a few strides and mobility exercises. I put my spikes on and did all of the same drills again. My race was merged with the Senior and U20 Women’s races so I had two female athletes outside me (going over lower hurdles) to pace myself against. 

My actual race was a huge (13 second) improvement on last year. Some of that was down to the improvements in my ankle, but a lot of it was down to a much better pacing than last year. The time was still so terrible that I am not going to write it here. 

When the gun went I pushed about 4 strides but as soon as I came out of that, instead of moving through a drive phase, I eased into a more relaxed position. I reached the first hurdle on a near-perfect stride, with a clean left lead and cleared it almost level with the two other athletes on the outside. In hindsight, there were possibly two extra strides in there, but I hadn’t noticed them so I carried the same stride and pace to hurdle 2 and arrived on a right leg lead.

Given that my right ankle is the weak and damaged one it may seem logical that since I can hurdle equally (equally badly most days) on each leg that a right lead with the drive coming from my strong ankle would be a good thing. What it actually means is a heavy lead landing on a weak ankle and a very ugly trail leg as it rushed to get through and avoid a crash landing. 

Fortunately, 25 years of hurdling has left some hard ingrained lessons and I instinctively knew that if that stride pattern was a whole stride out then I should not try and fix it until after hurdle 3. Clean over 3 I noticed the two ladies were a little ahead but still in range. I briefly considered shifting my stride pattern down (shorter faster strides) to try and chase them but sane pacing strategy took over and told me to try and lengthen 3-4 to get a safe or stretched left lead rather than a shuffle. That worked nicely and took me through 5 and 6 as well. Still in touch with the ladies, but they were easing away slightly. 

7 was ugly. A shuffle into a right lead and an almost dead stop vertical landing. This was where things really fell apart last year but I knew I had paced it so I wasn’t completely dead at this point. I managed a fairly tidy left over 8 before fatigue started to really bite and a right over 9 ended any thoughts of catching the outside athletes with a big finish. 

10 was tidy and I think I did actually manage to pick up slightly in to the finish. So maybe the pacing wasn’t quite perfect but it was certainly an improvement. 

5,000m

I did another solid warm-up for the 5k. My plan was to try and run steady 4:00 / km and hope to have a little left at the finish to sneak under 20 minutes. That works out at 96 second laps, or 48 second / 200m.

I started a bit too quickly with a 43 second first 200m before settling in almost exactly on pace fro the next 800m to take me through the first kilometre in 3:53. I was lapping exactly on target for the next kilometre. Taking me through 2,000m in 7:54. I was lapped by the two leaders at this point and I moved out to let them chase faster times. Those few extra yards cost me just a few seconds, but it was enough that I lost those few seconds through the third kilometre, taking me through in 12:03. That is still as close to perfect pacing as I could hope for.

And that is where things started to slip away. By this point I was sweating so much that it was stinging my sunburn and my whole chest was agony. I didn't feel like I was working any less hard but somehow the pace started dropping by 6 and 8 seconds every lap. Instead of 16 minutes through 4km I was 16:18. Even allowing for a few wider moves to let the faster athletes past I can't account formal of that lost time. And for the last kilometre I was out on the track on my own so I was able to keep the inside line, and push on knowing it was the final km and still somehow lost another 22 seconds on my pace.

It was a solid minute faster than Spain, so I am at least happy with that. I should still be doing sub-20's though and I need to figure out why the second half of my race collapsed so badly.

110m Hurdles

Last year I decided that my dodgy ankle wasn't going to get me over the big hurdles. They are 3'6", go and get a tape measure and check how high that really is and then imagine how high that is for a 42 year old with an arthritic hip and two races already in his legs. I had already picked up my championship title over the 400m Hurdles so there was no need for me to even attempt it.

Really I just wanted to know if I could still do it. But I wasn't brave enough to even try  warming-up over them. I considered my start position and based on the shortened strides from the morning I went with a 8-stride approach to the first hurdle. I used to vary between a stretched 7 and a safe 8 depending on how my training was going in any given week. I can start off either leg, so it makes little difference. The key aim is to get my left lead to the first hurdle, carry some pace over that, and hopefully keep that pace and get 3 strides to hurdle 2, and maybe even 3, before I drop to a 4-stride / alternating lead pattern.

Turns out I needed 9 strides to get to the first hurdle, so I arrived on my right. It was high and ugly and killed any momentum I might have had going in. Again I had to fall back on pure instinct from there and went straight in to a 4-stride pattern to hurdle 2, getting a decent left lead and a not-too-horrible clearance.

And that was the pattern for the whole race. 4 strides - right lead disaster, 4-strides - clean left, carry some pace, .... I clipped 9 with my hamstring as I ran out of gas and then took a very tight line over 10, with a hamstring and knee both clipping it and nearly toppling me towards the finish line.

Enough to rack up another victory, but 5 seconds off my own championship record from 14 years ago.

Overall

Scottish Athletics may not want to call the Senior events 'North District Championships' this year, or to recognize my 24 years worth of hurdle titles, or to give me the medals for this year, but frankly they can go and fuck themselves.