…I’ve played your records backwards

I was quietly confident of getting a 5 mile PB at Sefton Park, the venue of my PB and PW at 5 miles. I’d had a great 5 week block of solid training, the speed session at Wavertree on the previous Thursday underlined the fact I had the speed back and hopefully the stamina. Even treated myself to a rest on the Tuesday, ran my shake up run Wednesday morning and headed to the Park with plenty of time to spare.

I had a good warm up with James McNally then done a few quickish strides and took my place on the line. The course in Sefton Park is two figure of eight laps and the start dips downhill for less than 800m then drags up a slight incline towards St Hilda school, then there’s a superfast run from Cleopatra’s Needle towards the lake. My plan was run 5.40 pace but I was going to run the 1st mile around 5.50 to get my lungs going then blast the next mile and settle into the 5.40 pace.

The crowds were fantastic for the race, with plenty of PLS support cheering us on. I stuck with my mate Gerry Lenehan who’s the same age as me and in good shape, we both took it steady for the 1st mile and like me Gerry blasted away on the turn. The conditions were fine, not too hot and dry but the course itself had a lot of slippy parts, particularly the small path after 2 miles which even without the bad weather is a poor surface, the bushes were over grown and a lot of tarmac had been eroded.

I went through the 1st half in 14.34 – a bit behind the pace I wanted but I felt in good shape. Pushing up towards the school for the 2nd time I passed a few runners and felt strong, Gerry was still in sight and we were now closing in on a lad from Chester Tri, Ian McGill and a young lad from the Harriers. Gerry was pulling away and with 1.5 miles to go I kinda bottled out of upping the pace. I’d left it too late to catch McGill but passed the Chester runner and really tried to catch the Harrier kid but he crossed the line just ahead of me.

I was 11th overall and got a new PB of 28.57. I was chuffed with the performance but disappointed with the time. I ran the last ¼ mile in 66 seconds so obviously had more to give and maybe if I’d have upped the pace I could’ve got close to Ian and Gerry.

All the times of the runners at the business end of the race were down which proves the course was harder going than the times suggested, the winner Richie Burney was 26.14 with our own James McNally 2nd in 27.11 – I’d expect both of then fast cats to be at least 30 seconds quicker.