Obsessive running

107:  a chip off the old block

Another year older and another PW(personal worst): 46:56 in the Trossachs 10km trail race. I had won this race in its previous incarnation in 1990 after coming second the year before. The route has changed a bit over the years, it carves round the forest with four or five short sharp hills, lots of tight bends and a fair bit of debris from timber operations. My only intent this time was to help the local charity Rainbow Valley and to see if I could match my time of 8 years ago when I last did the race. I was within a minute of my 2006 time and pleased that Gregor (107) managed to come third for the second time despite a training regime of football and only running once a week.

My preparation had not been conducive to a good time as I had just returned from 3 weeks in the States. The only runs I had managed whilst there were an early morning in Yellowstone and a couple of runs in Central Park before arriving home on 17 September. I needed to run 85 miles by the end of the month if I was to achieve my monthly target of 100 miles. Apart from a couple of months when away on holiday or once with a torn muscle, I have managed this target every month since January 2012. It provides a sense of achievement during the lazy days of retirement and keeps me healthy apart from my feet which are suffering from a lifetime's abuse from energy-sapping activities.

The obsessive running gene kicked in as soon as I returned from the States. I had the cardio-vascular benefit from two and a half weeks at 7000 feet above sea level in the high plains of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. I went out every day on getting home, twice in one day, and achieved my highest weekly mileage (62 miles) for twenty years.

These runs included a 6-mile run with the running group on the first wet and dark evening of the autumn. I had neglected to take a head torch with me but the other four who turned out were all properly equipped and took some tricky paths in the forest. There were lots of tree roots, steps, switchbacks, protruding rocks and occasional deep grass to trip over. I had to play follow my leader and fell behind the others, only the sound of Colin's heavy footsteps and an occasional flash of disappearing head torches kept me on track. The three women in the group had escaped, their beams of light were 300 metres in front as I gingerly jogged out of the forest. As we hit the road with some street lighting, my pride was aroused and I managed a 6:30 mile to catch them before the village.

The following four days involved another 34 miles of running so my muscles were still aching as I lined up at the start of the 10km trail race. I decided to run within myself and kept a steady pace all the way around. As usual, I lost some places between 2 and 5 kilometres but then made some places before the finish and even managed a steady sprint past a couple of runners.  I began to think where I could have saved time but this just confirmed that I still have all the symptoms of an obsessive runner. On reflection, this is not a bad thing and the sense of well-being was tangible as I completed my running log whilst enjoying a beer, chicken jalfrezie and watching the football.