Members Stories
Bruce's Marathon - 25th April 2010
Bruce Harrold's running has come on leaps and bounds in the last two years since he began to take his training very seriously and all the hard work is definately paying off. The story below, written by Bruce, shows exactly how much effort is involved in completing the London Marathon, he set a very impressive PB and nearly caught Nick Hodges!!
“The first half was fun, I enjoyed the crowds and got lots of good support from various club members around the course. I set off a touch too fast and went through halfway in 1:17:49 (feeling incredible comfortable), which was about 40 secs ahead of schedule. From about 17 miles it was feeling like hard work, but I was able to maintain my pace. At 21 miles I started to slow, but not drastically. I saw my family at 22 miles which was a nice boost and at this time I was overtaking a lot of tiring runners. Rob Russell gave me a big shout at 22 ½ miles, who told me Nick was just ahead. I overtook Nick soon after.
However by 25 miles I was really starting to struggle, the pace started to drop more quickly and other runners began to reel me in. I was losing the plot a bit, but was still managing to keep running. From there it got progressively worse and with about 800m to go, runners were passing me regularly and it was taking every sinew of effort to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. As I turned the corner
at Buckingham Palace, there was about 500m to go up The Mall, but the finish looked so far away, Nick came back past me at this point. In my confused state I focused all my efforts on reaching what I thought was the finish line, but was in fact a set of traffic lights! I only realised my mistake as I crossed what I thought was the line. I stopped running and couldn’t start again. I tried to run, but couldn’t lift my legs and could only walk, the crowd were screaming at me and willing me to run, after a while I managed to break into a trot and got a big cheer. I literally staggered over the line for 2:40:09.
Nick had beaten me by 21 seconds and was waiting for me. He looked after me and helped me into the medical tent. I soon got out of there, said goodbye and thanks to Nick. I had a Mars Bar and Lucozade and was pretty much ok. I took a slow walk to meet up with family and friends in a nearby pub
So overall, I am pleased with a 4 ½ minute pb, but it could have easily been better. The last 2km took 10 minutes, I’m sure that with slightly better pace judgment earlier on, I wouldn’t have bunked so badly at the end.”
London Marathon 2010 - A Spectator's View
With a large group of Dorking athletes taking to the tarmac, a large supporting team went up to the streets of London to cheer them on.
After an early start and a breif rain delay that forced us into the cafe along the Embankment for a bacon sandwich, we ventured out onto the road to cheer on the competitors in the Mini Marathon. The atmosphere was great and the Dorking entrant ran a blinder. This set us up for the main race later.
We jumped on a busy tube and headed towards the 13/22 mile mark. The contrast between athletes as they went out to when they came back in was stark. However, they all had a smile on their face even if it was sometimes forced!
We shouted at all Dorking athletes and at thousands of other runners, dressed in anything from lycra vests to foam beer bottles. It was great when one of your cheers resulted in someone that was seemingly struggling breaking into a trot.
As ever, the crowd was great, the atmosphere superb and the emotion intense. A lady shouting next to us broke into tears of joy as she saw her son going past. Such is the effect the greatest run on Earth has on people.
In 2011, whether you plan to run or watch, help out the start or cheer on from the sidelines, just make sure you don't miss the best day of the year!
London Marathon 2010 - A Junior's View
The Marthon was amazing! The atmosphere was incredible and by the end of the marathon I was encouraging people that I did not even know. Everyone racing and watching were all so friendly and encouraging to the racers. At the start it seemed like millions of people were coming in down the road like a wave of water. It was incredible the amount of people. Never ending. I think the people who were sponsoring companies who had to wear big costumes were amazing to do that. It must have been so hot and stuffy. But they sure did make the crowds of people laugh. I will never ever forget it and I hope to be there next year, cheering on the Dorking Mole Valley runners. They did so well and when my coach and I saw them coming down the road we shouted for Dorking. As loud and encouraging as we could. Well done Dorking!!!
Nigel Stevens at the European Duathlon Championships
I got talking to Nigel at the recent Men's League Match and found out that he qualified to represent Team GB at the European Duathlon Championships in Nancy, France on May 2nd. Nigel did fantastically well coming 6th in his age category! Below is his summary of the event.
I started the year with the objective of trying a couple of half ironman races - on the basis that my swimming is not fast enough to be competitive for Olympic distance but the swim is a smaller proportion for the longer races. As part of my build up I competed in the Ballbuster duathlon in March and another duathlon at Steyning at Easter. I surprised myself by winning the age group at Steyning and with it the chance to pull on some GB age group kit for the European Age Group champs on 2 May. April shot by in a whirl - spending money renewing various bits on the bike, entry in another duathlon at Milton Keynes (regrettably not as successful as Steyning) and a couple of hard weeks training. I headed off on the Eurostar on 30 April to Nancy in North Eastern France and met up with the 100 strong British team aged between 18 and 70! Friday night was a pasta party, Elite races were on Saturday afternoon and evening. Sunday was forecast to be dreadful weather but fortunately the vets race started at 8am and the rain held off till I was off the bike. I have to say it was a pretty cool feeling lining up with kit showing "GBR" and my name on it! The first run felt pretty easy though a boring 4 lap 10k course - given that I clocked just over 35mins it was also on the short side... My main worry was the bike since I am not very experienced and this was a nerve racking 8 x 5k course (also a bit short!) with a couple of dead stop turns per lap and some other sharp corners. I really was not sure how this would work out particularly in a non drafting race ie where you should be no closer than 7 metres from the bike ahead unless overtaking. Fortunately the vets field was small enough for this not to be a problem till I was midway round lap 6 when a group of 15 bikes pulled past me and slowed down again. Since they were really tightly packed there was no way to pass or push the pace. After a second quick transition the heavens opened and we were drenched on the final 5k run. I finished 32nd out of the vets field of 100, and 6th out of 21 in my 50-54 age group - a tantalising 50 seconds off 3rd: (if only .... ) So, plenty to work on for next year, and time to pack the water wings away!
Since writing this account Nigel has found out that he has been selceted for ITU Duathlon World Championships in Edinburgh in September. Well done Nigel, best of luck with the training and we definately want another story about it!
Your Stories
If you have any stories of your sporting experiences that you would like to share to inspire, motivate or just to boast ;-) we'd love to hear them. Please send a copy of them to the webmaster at website@dmvac.org.uk and I will get them put up here.
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