Pre-race was a pretty good atmosphere. Plenty of club members turned out to support Tim. Most would be racing as normal and then cheering him in at the end. Others were going to run with him for a while and then see how things went (some would speed up, others would slow down). My official job, reinforced by instruction from Tim's wife, Mandy, was to make sure that Tim finished in a fit state to enjoy the rest of his day. My unofficial job, reinforced by the knowledge that Tim is a stubborn so-and-so and deeply competitive, was to make sure that Tim finished in a state only just fit enough to enjoy his party, and just exhausted enough to know that he'd actually raced as well as his body would let him.
The man of the hour surrounded by friendly support. (courtesy of Steve Sandalls) |
I'll be honest, I don't much like the Tewkesbury race, and would never have entered in normal circumstances. So, I'm pretty sure I groused a bit for the first mile or two as we made our way up the non-descript main road towards the motorway. Once we got out of town, I lightened up as we continued to play the "slow down, there's a long way to go yet" game. Caz and Katy eased off the pace a bit, and I made an innocuous comment about the weather that inadvertently triggered a short burst of speed.
Have you ever accidentally caused a fellow runner to engage in a monologue about something really quite dull and pointless (i.e. something not related to running, food, running, beer, or running)? Well, at around 10K we got to hear all about how Kit Marlow wrote most of Shakespeare and how the Titanic didn't sink. Personally, Marlow and Shakespeare are rather long dead, so I'm pretty convinced that it doesn't really matter to either of them who gets the credit / blame for creating Romeo, Othello, and Bottom. As for ship conspiracies, they happened in the water, and I'm not a big fan of water, so I'll steer clear, thank you very much. Anyway, you get the picture. Tim and I gently increased the speed until we could return to our own very enlightening conversation (it may have been about running, or possibly beer, who knows?) - it was the only time all morning that I didn't tell him to slow down! We lost Chris at this point, and I wondered if perhaps she now had a new friend to chat with.
The sun continued to shine, Tim unsurprisingly started to tire, and I continued to yap inanely as we made our way to the finish line. We sent Sue on her way to chase down a negative split and a PB. With the benefit of a steady first half, she nailed it. Having done very little training during his convalescence, Tim held the 8:30 pace remarkably well until 10mi, where the course's only uphill comes to play. We eased off for the final 3 miles, with a few short walking breaks to keep things under control. It was interesting to watch Tim manage his resources. Under normal circumstances, he would have been willing and able to dig in and keep close to that 8:30 pace in spite of the pain and fatigue, and I would have been quite happy to push him through the barriers. For this one race, though, the time was secondary. This race marked his return to running as a healthy man, and doing unnecessary damage just to go slightly less slowly would have lessened the achievement. So, we ran, walked, jogged, and chatted as we pushed just enough to cross the line with the right level of exhaustion.
At the end, Tim insisted I finish next to him or in front of him. He knew full well that I would quietly drop behind him in the final yards, and let me know that wasn't going to happen. So, we made our way across the line side by side as family and friends cheered him on. He needed a good sit down in the shade for a bit, but wasn't so tired that he couldn't worry about some of the club who were still out suffering on the course (and later at the finish), so it seems we judged the effort about right. For my part, I'd had a good run out with a friend and managed help him achieve his worst ever half marathon time (1:55). Maybe next year we'll manage to pace each other to that sub 1:30. If we do, I can guarantee it still won't touch the satisfaction of yesterday's race.