Alloa Half Marathon, 21/03/10
First Club Championship race of the year not counting Parkruns and marathons and there are quite a few reports and photos circling, waiting to land. I'll put them up as I can find time meanwhile here is Ian's interpretation. (I wonder if that warpaint is toxic?) More to follow... (if you want to tell your story email it here.)
Part 1
RADIO: ‘Viking: Southwest, backing south for a time, 4 or 5, Slight or moderate. Rain. Good becoming moderate, occasionally poor. North Utsire….’
MIND: Hmmm….6.20am,I can’t believe we’re not actually going to race today, and the first club race of the year. How are you anyway?
BODY: Asleep and clammy, in summary, and as they say, ‘good becoming moderate, occasionally poor’. Listen, I’m ill: sent home from work on Friday afternoon, high temperature, and asleep by six. Saturday better but not great, Sunday rest day maybe a light excursion, the Botanics? But no running, no cross training, no racing and no Alloa. You agreed, it’s even on the chatroom. You posted it.
MIND: Yeah, Listen its boiling in here, let’s go for a quick 3 miler along the promenade and see if we can get to a decent pace, then we can decide?
Part 2
MIND: Now that wasn’t too bad? That’s almost a quarter the distance, just another three and a bit of them. Look, its almost 8.30 now, we’ve missed the bus, We’ll need to drive. Come on I’ll be fun.
BODY: Like the striking BA cabin crew, this flight is officially cancelled. I’m not running.
MIND: We should really be there by 9am. We’ll really need to test this piece of precision German engineering. Jump in pilot, no cabin crew with you today! Sunroof open for a bit of vitamin D, some fresh air, huh?
BODY: This is such a bad idea, I’ll go, but I’m not running. I’m not some performing circus animal.
MIND: You’re so miserable, you need some music to get you going, lets see what they’ve left. Fred Astair, Bob Dylan, Scissor Sisters, Britney Spears, hmmm…no Whitesnake, maybe no bad thing, huh?…Franz Ferdinand. ‘You could have had it so much better’.
BODY: Indeed.
Part 3 (start)
BODY: Listen, are we really here? It’s never too late to turn back, Look a café! I’m thinking latte,small orange juice, croissant, little pot of jam, sunday papers…
MIND: This is Alloa, not Avignon. Right the plan is strong first mile, steady pace, negative splits, middle float, up the pace second half, and full speed last mile then a final 200m sprint. Good huh?
BODY: ….and they’ll probably make a little ‘A’ for Alloa with the chocolate powder on the milk froth……. Negative splits? Are you joking, I’m here under duress, hoodwinked, without full consent…you’ll be lucky to get an even pace, might even be positive splits, we’ll see how I feel.
MIND; Right you, Race Mode. We’re off now, Chocs away!
BODY: (Groans)
Part 3 (mile 4)
MIND: Good going, see this is dead easy, 6:40 decent pace. Look it’s getting a bit busy back here, lets push 6:15 and see if we can hold a surge to lose some of these guys…..6.00, Nice work, keep pushing, hold it, let’s leave a good clear 30m. Perfect, great delivery…Where did he come from? Boy on a Spring.
BODY: Don’t push it pal, I’m breaking the picket line here. This feels okay, lets hold pace with him, six forty is do-able. Only just. No more surging.
Part 3 (mile 6/ 7)
MIND: Good stuff, on schedule here, this is the life….Hey! two blue and yellows left hand side….Mel and…can’t get the other ID. These guys are trailblazing must be negative splitting, just tail them, Six thirty, maybe a bit more, can you give me what you’ve got?
BODY: All systems go here. Hey, where was that water I asked for….not that old ‘too fast to get the eye hand co-ordination to work’ again? You’re useless.
MIND: Gimme a break, there’s a lot happen up here. I’m trying to hold onto this pair, and there’s like this red stripe, and he is so noisy, a real deep bronchial scream, really distracting, no way should he be moving at this pace. Keep focused.
Part 3 (mile 8)
BODY: What on earth was that, What are you playing at? Are we there yet?
MIND: They’ve like not measured the course properly, and shoved a dogleg along the only decent straight section of this course had going for it, sorry didn’t see the cone, else I’d have got you to jump. I’m losing it here, lost my stride ….really need to stay focused.
Part 3 (mile 9)
BODY: What’s happened to all the mental pacing…4…4…4? Where’s that water? What happened to the carb loading? More fuel! More everything. We’re seriously getting short of fuel here, We’ll be burning the furniture soon. No reserves and we’re close to shut down pal. Lactic acid levels are way too high.
MIND: Listen, you were carbed up on Friday evening, and you threw it all back up. And you didn’t seem that keen on anything yesterday either.
BODY: You secretly knew that we were running this race, and all I got yesterday was 2 litres of Irn Bru, I can’t run a half marathon on that! We are seriously running on empty. I’m not well and I need TLC, and you take me to Alloa. You’re a liability, You’re a basket case. You really need sorted out pal
MIND: ((Silence) but slightly achy due to dehydration)
Part 3 (mile 10)
MIND: Listen, sorry, I know you’re busy, incidentally good pace, although could be a bit quicker, however, we may be shortly experiencing some ‘surface turbulence’, and possible for some considerable time.
BODY: You mean a big, long, slow, energy sapping, vitality draining, hill? I can just stop you know, I did warn you. I’ve done my 13 miles today anyway. You’re such an idiot.
Part 3 (mile 12/13.1)
BODY: Right, glad that’s done. Okay we’re taking over from here, You’re being relieved of your command, back into your box, and take that stupid Garmin as well, oh and those facepaints. Right get that stride shortened, pace right up, and higher turnover please. Okay 4 runners 100m dead ahead, pick them off please, steady……one – good…..two – good, less of the screaming, that guy’s just jumped out of his skin. Poor soul, he’ll survive. Keep pushing. Pushing.
GRAHAM HENRY: Keep going, just 100m round the corner.
BODY: Right, 100m sprint mode, big long strides please, as awkward as they come.
Part 4 (end)
MIND: Hey, 1:30.29, and new PB by 13 minutes, from the Glasgow half last September, not that bad for our third half, huh? Can’t believe we even took 2 players on that last half mile!
BODY: It’s freezing here, right put on the t-shirt. Where’s the water? Banana’s: great, just take a bunch. What on earth has happened to the hips, never felt like this? Great, another new injury. Never again, that was hellish. Where that lovely little artisan café?Race Transcript/ Report
Ian McMillanJim Ramsay's tale...
Immodium check, plasters check, vaseline check, safety pins check, Immodium check (just to make sure), carbo gels check, Garmin check, sanity..... hmmmm let me get back to you on that one!
Standing at the start line I couldn’t quite say if my decision to run the Alloa half was sane or not. Hailing from Tullybody I knew how ‘undulating’ the course would be, I knew that the wind would be blowing along the hillfoots road and I knew that at mile 10 I’d have to face my nemesis also known as Menstrie Brae. And as if this wasn’t bad enough I had my knee strapped up (after a fall last week) and I’d been popping Ibruprofen like Mel pops pre-race chocolate buttons!!!
Anyroadup, the gun went off and I had the fortune to be starting off with Karen. This was a good omen as I knew Karen would be a great pacemaker. The first few miles seemed to fly by (and I use the term wisely) as did Karen, despite the ‘wee’ climbs into Sauchie and up through Fishcross which were aided by my family's cheers. In fact they were under strict instructions to shout at every Porty vest that passed, so you can imagine they were quite hoarse by the time I eventually passed.
Turning into Tillicoultry, the first thing I saw was how much the Sterling Mills flags were blowing and as per usual the wind was going to be head on as we turned left along the hillfoots. However luck was at hand as I drafted behind two Carnegie Harriers. I say luck as a guy of my proportions was never going to find another single runner big enough to shelter behind. Having let them do the work I pushed on and over took just in time for the dreaded Menstrie brae. Come back Coillesdene, all is forgiven. Now for anyone who doesn’t know - I hate hills more than I hate sobriety. So I dug deep, fixed my gaze a few yards ahead (and never once looked up) and with each step started my Hanley inspired mantra ‘I love hills, I love hills, I love hills’. All around me people were dropping like flies (whatever that means) and walking which only fuelled me on.
Having conquered the hill I glanced at my time and knew I hadn’t lost too much ground, but the rest of the race was a bit of a blur. One by one I tried to pick off as many runners as I could. As strange as it sounds, it seemed to break the last few miles into mini races. Which in turn took my mind off the distance left and the pain I could now feel in my knee. However, I had worked too hard (both in training and) today to let any chance of a PB slip away with less than 2 miles to go.
As I neared the 13th mile marker I was running on empty but I spotted Emily and Nat (who’d both done brilliantly 1:36 and 1:25 respectively) who were screaming and shouting at me. I looked at the time and knew I had to move it to keep my desired time. So with one last push I stretched out my legs, roaring all the way (well it works for Ian) and crossed the line at 1:55:57. Now I know it wasn’t the fastest time on the day, or indeed from our club, but it is 3 minutes off my Edinburgh half last year.
Well done to all other Porty’s who ran and thanks to the individuals (you know who you are) for your encouragement and guidance to date. May 23rd here I come.
Report Jim Ramsay
Michael G's race report...
3 Weeks Ago I was 100
3 weeks ago I was 100% sure I wasn’t going to run the Alloa Half Marathon. 2 weeks ago I was 90% sure I wasn’t going to run the Alloa Half Marathon. Last week I was 50% sure I wasn’t going to run the Alloa Half Marathon. So inevitably on Sunday, my 25th birthday, I lined up to run the Alloa Half Marathon, and what a race it was. I set off knowing the course quite well having visited Alloa more than your average town in Scotland and having run this race twice previously. The race’s new start point and increased number of participants meant the start was pretty congested and as soon as the word ‘go’ was yelled, I set off trying to cross the start line (18 seconds), but even though I told myself not to, I set off like a train, and I fear I was not alone in this situation. Why of why didn’t I just accept the obvious fact that the race is never won in miles 1 and 2. By mile 3 I was already feeling the heat and I really was not enjoying myself. Though, I consoled myself with the fact the next couple of miles to Tillicoultry were predominantly downhill, but didn’t get much consolation from the fact that runners were still overtaking me.
As I approached Tillicoultry and turned towards Stirling, I felt a wee bit better, the Ochils were right beside me and it felt good to be out of Edinburgh, so a wee bit of progress was made into the jokers who thought beating me was a viable option. However by 8 miles the joke was on me, I felt terrible, and people were beginning to overtake me again. I had no idea what sort of time I was doing and I fantasised about curling up into a ball on the side of the road. Then, just as I’d basically accepted the fact I was going to be rocking up to Alloa in a state, two runners from Shettleston who I had not seen all race eased past me, one of which told me to ‘get on the bus’. This seemed like a good idea, so I told myself I was going to stick with these two runners as long as I could. Now what was brilliant about this was, these two runners had clearly run the race a lot more sensibly than I had and were running at a consistent pace which seems pretty rare at this stage in proceedings and to my surprise they actually managed to get me to 10 miles (and past a few runners) relatively painlessly. At this point however, you encounter a hill. Nothing too serious about that but it was at this point Runner A told Runner B to ‘go for it’ and that ‘1.25 was his’. This alerted me to the fact that although I was having a miserable afternoon, at least I was going to come home with a semi-respectable time, but it was very worrying that my pacemakers were about to leave me. So as Runner B set off up the hill far to fast for my liking I attempted to follow, and for a full 5 or 6 seconds I was right up there with him before my body told me to get serious and just focus on getting to the finish alive.
Another 5 or so minutes of torturous running, then Runner A appeared again, now I suspect Runner A, who looked far to fresh, is well capable of a better time as he came up along side and said ‘stick with me and you’ll break 1.25’. This seemed a damn good proposition, only problem is I was a broken man, but not wanting to admit as much to my running saviour, I continued desperately trying to keep up with him, at this point we passed the school where the old finish used to be, which I have to admit, hurt a lot. The final mile and half was agony as Runner A edged ahead, I tried desperately to keep up but couldn’t. As I passed the 12 mile marker, Runner A shouted ‘1.17’, which in my head meant I had to run 1.1miles in under 8 minutes, tough when your this tired but not impossible, when I mercifully crossed the line I was pleasantly surprised to see the clock was still showing 1.24, so a slight injection of ‘pace’ and I was over the line to thank Runner A for his immense help during the race who said ‘I looked like I was struggling’ when he went by. Understatement of the 21st century. For finishing the race we were given a t-shirt, medal, water (very important), banana and a mars bar. This for me is the ideal package for finishing a race, nothing more, nothing less. But God was I tired.
My friend Ciaran from University crossed the line in 1.31 in only his second half marathon, a fantastic achievement, and we went to Asda to drink tea and dissect the races events, at which point I tried to convince him to run the Edinburgh to North Berwick race at the beginning of May. I swear I must just be a glutton for punishment. Really good day out though, I love this race, probably cause it was the first proper race (I don’t count the Edinburgh 10k as a proper race) I ever did and I have good memories of it even if my time was a good 4 minutes shy of my previous times here.
Congratulations to all who took part, and I apologise for the self obsessed report, I hope everybody had as memorable experience as me. A big thank you also to the two Shettleston runners who saw me through the darkest points of the race, without whom I might be lying in a Clackmannanshire ditch at the road side.
Report Michael Geoghegan.
Scott Balfour, hero.
Mike Lieberman, ditto.
Peter's version...
A couple of weeks of physically taxing work and the training had dropped right off: I came home too tired to pound out any dark evening miles. As Alloa approached my fears grew of a dismal slow run while watching a constant stream of PRCers cruising past in the latter stages.
Then a post from Karen on facebook recalling how she managed a pb at Alloa years ago after 10 days of no running, reminded me that less can sometimes be more. I decided to hedge my bets that the daily 80+minutes cycle commute was keeping me fit and so did virtually no running from the previous weekend apart from club on Wednesday, where Michael G left me wheezing. Better to arrive at the start fresh. And just to complete the slacker picture I wore comfy trainers not speedy ones. (But then drank more caffeine drink than ever before in one day which probably contributed to the uneasy feelings directly before kick off.)
Both Mary and Willie had encouraged me to rein in the start pace. I took this on board for a change mainly because I was tired, and ran 40s slower over the first 3 miles. Maybe I would enjoy less pain in the last 3? (It seemed unlikely.)
I ran alongside Willie and Marc with Gareth coming through and drifting forwards. I enjoyed the Porty presence but wondered about the wind strength for the long back straight which would be the determining factor. I managed not to chase off after Gerry S (ex Porty, now Bella) who my sources (from last week at Gartmorn) had said was going well. However a half is on the long side for Gerry and I thought he may slow up later on.
roadrunpics
roadrunpics
roadrunpics
roadrunpicsAfter a long rising turn past furniture warehouses we were onto the dreaded infinitely long and painful back straight. However the wind was lighter than forecast and Willie and I swapped places drafting each other and making excellent progress. That shifted my focus off the misery and onto the fact we were fast approaching Davie Burgess whom I never get to overtake. Sensing I (like a numpty!) was about to run past, Willie, who was running smarter, flagged us in behind Davie and no.92 where, right enough, we got some shelter and progressed as a pack. We had a chance to see everyone just ahead and behind at the funny Alva Finger Loop (What The Flip I hear you text,) and I shouted on nearby Porties – Marc was just beginning to drift off the pace. Gareth was just ahead and in a bit we caught him up.
Fab four. PB, Davie B, Willie, No.92 (roadrunpics)Positions changed and Gareth wasn't long in picking up the pace coming past again and as we turned left off the long long straight. Himself, Willie (and Mr. Burgess) all made off up the series of hills, first small then rather bigger. I could see Gerry up ahead and reckoned Willie and Gareth stood a good chance of reeling him in. Unfortunately my finest miles of the day were behind me and while I did what I could it was just damage limitation and that familiar feeling of trying to sustain some kind of pace while flagging horribly. I was toast, and with a generous spreading of I can't believe its not lactic acid.
I mentally waved to the old school finish and wondered about the previous years' first mile being cut and pasted as the new last mile. I'm not complaining about the downhill but that mile did seem to go on longer than before. Lots of crowd support – thanks Gerry's sister Louise, then finally (didn't see the 13m marker?) chugged over the line. Then I realised its probably my second fastest half ever. 1.20 and a course pb by the best part of a minute. OMG (as the txt generation would have it) and where did that come from? Does that mean I have to start every race moderately from now on? And taper like I was running a marathon? No way!
Gareth (1.18.53 chip time) was first Porty in with a massive pb. It was an honour (and a lesson learnt) to run the first 10 alongside Willie who was 2nd 0/50 and at 1.19 was one place ahead of Davie B who will be looking for 2.45 at London. Gerry managed 1.19 also but I don't think plans to swap up to the marathon.
And on the subject of timing its interesting to note the difference between gun time and chip time. The results place competitors by gun time but due to a slow, jammed start there were folk logging faster runs that ended up coming in behind slower runners who set off further forward. I'm glad I'm not determining championship points.
Report Peter Buchanan
A very big field managed very well by the Wee County, with results up superfast. First 3 women under 1.19! New course record and the weather was as near perfect as Alloa gets.
Mr. Ferguson senior at the finish line catching the first folk on camera.
Other photos PB with apologies for heading indoors about the 1.40 mark as I was going hypothermic. Congrats to all who ran well, (quite a busload of pbs) and if you want to write a few words we'll put them up here as the photos come in.Roadrunpics here - excellent photos! (Gareth on the front page.)
Mary's blog
Photos here from Barry Davie aka BazaDouglas sent this table of PRCers in though he has preferenced it by chip time whereas Alloa results (here) preferenced by gun time.
Click here to open PDF
Number One.Here is Gareth's report...
Don't know what happened at the start. The gun went and my legs felt like they had forgotten how to run. Fortunately they started to wake up after the first mile and I slowly started to close in on Willie, Peter and Mark. By the time I caught them I was feeling much better and when a tall runner from Ayr came past I decided to stick with him and use him as a pacemaker, though as I went through the 5 mile mark in under 30 mins I was concerned that I might be going a bit fast.
roadrunpicsThe runner from Ayr managed to get away from me on one of the downhill stretches but I slowly reeled him in as we got to Tillicoultry and on to the long straight. He did a really good job of pacing me through to Alva where I exchanged brief greetings with Willie, Peter and Mark on the finger loop. As we closed in on Menstie Peter and Willie came past and I went with them. When we turned the corner I realised that we were within striking distance from the finish. There were a number of runners just in front of us and I managed to overtake them on the hill climbing up to the roundabout.
My legs were still feeling good and so I increased the pace. I was with a runner from St Andrews but this time it was me that was pushing the pace. I was pleased to see the sign saying we were back in Alloa and dug in deep for the last mile. The St Andrews runner had a fast sprint which I wasn't quite able to match but I was really happy when I crossed the line in exactly 1hr19.
I then went to watch the highlight of the day which was Ian's sprint finish. He didn't disappoint and was on top form as he made the final dash for the line!Report Gareth Green
After being bunged up with the cold and having not ran for over a week i nearly didnt make the bus never mind the start ( again sorry folks for a bit of a delay) i should have decided earlier if i was going to run or not but i wanted to see how i felt on the saturday night and then decide.
An easier decision to make was where to stand at the start and it was right at the back so with taking nearly two minutes to cross the start line the first few miles were hard going and i was beginning to think this was not a good idea to run but by mile three i was fine. i've ran this half a few times and have been lucky with the conditions meaning i have missed the gales, rain and even snow so at the turn there was not much of a breeze that road is hard enough without having a full blown gale to contend with. reaching the hill my main aim was to keep running even if it was a shuffle to keep going and try not to stop so getting to the top was a relief i cant remember much of the last few miles apart from the the last hill which just sapped the last bit of energy out of me.
when i crossed the line i thought i had stopped my watch and when someone asked what time i had ran i was about to tell them when looking the watch it was still going D'OH never mind
a bit of a mixed bag the first few miles and last mile were hard going but the rest of the run was okay so i cant say if i enjoyed it or not.
Report John Pickard
