Day 5 - My elite friend, Alan (and a bit of Moorcroft)

After last night's 1 mile run in the barefoot shoes, I thought I might wake up this morning feeling a bit of soreness. But so far, still nothing. I'll take that as good news and carry on as I am doing. I'm happy to have a full mile under my belt, and happy to be making a steady transition while keeping a bit of club-running up.

My elite friend, Alan
One of the guys at our church, Alan, is a former elite distance runner. He was running in the time of Foster and Moorcroft, the golden age of British distance running, one of many international class athletes competing for a few GB places. And I was chatting to him last week about the 10k I'd just done.

It was an undulating and windy course around Markfield in Leicestershire, and I was really pleased with how the race panned out. None of my usual running partners were there, and hence I didn't have the usual people to carry me round at a good pace. So I decided to be quite measured and run well but within myself. This meant letting half the field (not quite half, but it felt like it) charge off in the first mile and then spending the rest of the race picking people off. In the final kilometre I had enough left to chase down and pass 8 runners, and I finished in 39:24 which was my first sub-40, and a respectable time.

So I was standing chatting with Alan and the vicar, Michael, who is also a runner, and telling them I was quite pleased with a steady race and a sub-40 PB. Then I remembered that Alan had been an elite athlete (he's a humble guy and doesn't go on about it) and realised that it probably wasn't all that impressive to him. So I quipped, jovially, "How's that time, Alan, is it within 10 minutes of your PB?" Alan thought for a moment, rocking his head gently from side to side as he did the sums, and then looked at me with his most encouraging face. "Yeah… nearly."

Talking to someone from that golden era got me thinking about Dave Moorcroft and his extraordinary run for the 5000m world record in Oslo, 1982. It made me want to track it down on youtube because I've heard all about it but couldn't remember actually having seen the footage. It really is quite special. Enjoy.