**Beware. Possibly the longest race report ever on HU. 😂**
Back when I was at school, a long time ago, I remember winning these little round badges at a school sports day for sprinting. The badges were different colours and had stars on them indicating your position in the race. I loved those badges so much and they meant the world to me at the time. My favourite was the yellow badge with the single star indicating my win in the short sprint race and another for a relay race at my junior school in Germany. I think it was yellow but I have no idea where those badges are today. There is also a pair of gold and bronze medallions somewhere that I won at an inter school sports day. I don’t know where they are today either as I moved house so often as a child that things went missing all the time. I will make an effort to find them this week as they may be at mum’s house. There’s an old photo of me from my junior school days in Germany winning a race somewhere as well as a couple of me running at a school sports day in Bangladesh where I lived for 2 years in the 70s. I remember winning 3 gold medals and a little trophy there as I won the victor ludorum prize. I was 14 or 15 at the time.
(I had a good dig around this week at mum’s house and found some of the photos but sadly I can’t find the badges and medals anywhere. 😢)
Little did I know but that that would be the last time I would race competitively in a sprint for the next 45 years.
Anyway, I doth ramble on again. Well done if you have stuck with me so far. There is a race report in here somewhere, I promise. 😂
I started back sprinting at the end of 2021 where I ran a 100 metre race for my club as they needed someone to fill the gap at a local vets league race. I didn’t go with any expectations and but it triggered good memories for me and I remembered just how much I used to enjoy sprinting. I hadn’t run a sprint since those early days so it was also good to know that my fast twitch muscle fibres were still there.
I only ran that one race as it was the end of the 21 season but it did place me 54th in the country. I was very happy, and somewhat surprised with that, and almost overnight I stopped all distance running and joined another club that had a focus on track and field athletics, Brighton and Hove AC.
2022 was my first full season of racing and I was very happy to have climbed the rankings, ending up as 14th fastest in both the 100 and 200 metres in the M60 age group. My age grading also came on in leaps and bounds during the season and I started to see some real tangible results.
My target was always to get to the top 10 in the country, in either 100 or 200 metres, and I worked really hard over the 2022 winter period to get my strength up ready for the 2023 season ahead. I was pretty obsessive about my training regime, my nutrition, and acquiring technical understanding of all aspects of the sport.
I knew this wasn’t going to be easy but I invested the time and was tenacious in my pursuit of it. I knew that there were going to be periods of real discomfort (those hill sprints 🤢), but I knew I couldn’t avoid these if I wanted success. I also knew that I knew relatively little, and actively sought feedback and coaching whenever the opportunity arose. All the time I was measuring my progress and, sure enough, little by little, I was becoming a faster and stronger athlete.
They say comparison is the thief of joy. This has never applied to me in competitive sport. I find it very helpful to compare my performance with those ahead of me in the rankings and constantly ask myself what I can do better to become better than them. What are they up to in their training plans? Can I replicate it? What do elite sprinters do? How much of it can I use without breaking myself? I watched endless videos of sprint training and drills. Noah Lyles has a wonderful series of videos where he takes you right inside his training camp and explains all his training programs. He’s such a generous and kind chap and a real role model for all sprinters of all ages. Also, luckily for me, masters athletes are very generous with their knowledge and were mostly happy to engage with me, but obviously keeping some of their secrets to themselves. 😂
I invested in a personal trainer over this period with the goal of improving my all round strength, nutrition and how to use gym equipment properly. This was a fabulous investment and Harry, my PT, was brilliant. I would definitely recommend anyone considering using a gym to get a pro to help and guide you.
I also have a sprint coach at Brighton and Hove and another at Worthing Harriers. This works well for me as I look after my mum during most weeks and I can switch between Worthing or Brighton depending on which is closest to mum or home.
Anyway back to the report. 😂 For various reasons that had nothing to do with me, I left a couple of hours later than I intended to, for the race on Saturday. The drive to Derby was utterly dreadful. Both the M25 and the M1 did their best to make that day one of the worst driving experiences of my life and if I could, I would have turned around and gone home. You know it’s going to be bad when people start getting out of their cars and stretching off on the motorway.
6 1/2 hours later I arrived at my hotel worn out and stiff as a board. Had a shower, meal at a local restaurant and headed straight for bed.
I slept surprisingly well and felt refreshed after my shower. I got dressed ready for action and headed out to the track.
It was really busy there by the time I arrived. The events were well underway. I headed to the registration tent, grabbed my numbers and headed straight off to the warmup track which is behind a hill located behind the track itself. There I found a host of other sprinters preparing for the upcoming races. I met a few familiar faces and had a chat with those for a while. It’s always friendly whenever we get together but, on the track, we are the fiercest of enemies. I got stuck into my drills and was surprisingly relaxed throughout. I just didn’t feel any real pressure and remembered to do all my drills in the right order and focus particularly hard on winning this race. In the past I have never used visualisation, but today I did. I visualised myself winning this race heading over the line 1st. I said to myself “Brian, you can win this.”
I think at this point, I should tell you about one of the athletes in my race because he featured later on at the medal ceremony. Let’s call him Mr grumpy.
Mr Grumpy beat me in Nuneaton at the inter-area competition where he came second and I came third. He was clearly up for beating me again today and avoided me during the warmup. I was fine with that and, if anything, it made me even more determined to beat him today.
All athletes have to report to the call room 20 minutes before the scheduled start of their race. This is the final call prior to being marched out to the track. It was unusual at this point as we were expecting more athletes to turn up but, for whatever reason, only 7 of us arrived and that was the declared race total. This meant that our race would be a straight final!! Gulp.
We were duly brought out to the track and positioned at the 100 start behind 3 prior races.
I remember feeling very relaxed and cool as a cucumber and really looking forward to the race. No pre race anxiety here, although my heart rate was understandably higher than normal. When we reached the top of the 100m straight I popped on my spikes and got out of my tights ready to race. I did a few reaction time tests to try and synchronise myself and tune into the starter as the other races got underway. The trick here is to try and keep the muscles warm and luckily the weather was absolutely perfect for racing. Warm and sunny but not too hot with a very gentle breeze.
Mr Grumpy had been given the lane just inside of me and I could see balls of sweat trickling down his head as he stared ahead.
It wasn’t long before the previous race was off and it was our turn!
I set up my blocks, had a jiggle in them and a practise run out. All good. I deliberately made myself the last to complete this so the others had to wait for me, especially Mr Grumpy. 😅
We were called to stand in a line about 3 metres or so back from the blocks and were placed under starter orders. He then blows a whistle to attract the attention of the time keepers. Once they give the all clear he has control of the start.
Ok, so I was a little nervous at this point, well a lot actually. So I decided to have a look at the athletes each side of me. You’ll see this if you watch the video. I made a mental note of who was my main competition and visualised again being ahead of them. This also helped calm me down, as I could also see that they looked quite intense and worried too, especially old grumpy next to me. I knew he had a faster start than me and I expected him to get ahead, but I’d been working hard on this and hoped to reduce that deficit earlier in on the race.
Outside him, in lane 2, was the guy who came first in Nuneaton and he, of course, was a big worry for me as he is really quick. To the right of me was an empty lane. Another withdrawal. Then there was Ronnie who hadn’t run much this year but again a super fast athlete. Outside him was the eastern masters runner.
So, here we go. The starter calls us to our marks and we walk forward and go through our start rituals. I’m settled nicely in the blocks, one last look up at the line. Mr Grumpy next to me was huffing and puffing in his blocks, but apart from that ridiculous noise, all was quiet on the line.
“Set!”
BANG……BANG
Oh crap. It’s another bloody false start! I stay calm and walk back to my blocks. I check they’re still stuck into the track and wait.
Was that me?
The starter’s assistant walks into my lane! Oh God. It’s me again!! I get shown a yellow card, with which I am becoming very familiar recently, and decide not to worry about it. Just get on with winning this Brian. You’re still in the race. Stay positive.
We are called forward again.
I decided not to do any jiggling around this time and settled quickly in to my blocks.
“Set!” I raise my hips and tense every muscle I have.
BANG and we’re off. Well at least the others were. I was rather left behind and basically stood up and started running. It had to be my worst start of the season. Here I go again. There was a huge gap between me and Mr G who has his usual great start along with the other guy inside him, I could see Ronnie to my right also ahead. I couldn’t let a repeat of Nuneaton happen again could I?
At 50 metres I pulled level with Ronnie and I literally said to myself, “Get on with it Brian!!”, and my legs responded! It felt like the turbo lag had ended and I felt a surge of power. I started drawing then back to me and with less than 10 metres left I was level, I carried on pushing and threw myself at the line with a dip of my head and torso and shouted out as I crossed the line! I think I won! I put my head in my hands and then went to shake the hands of the other athletes. First was Mr G and he seemed ok I thought. Maybe he thought he’d got it? I then heard my name over the tannoy as the winner. I was utterly in shock!! I wanted to dance and jump around but one simply doesn’t indulge in this type of behaviour at masters competitions, so I walked off the track smiling like a Cheshire Cat. I am British Champion!!
M60 100 metres British Champion.
I was in disbelief as I wandered back to the start line to pick up my stuff and change into my trainers, but there were so many folk stopping me and saying well done and chatting, that the reality and enormity of it set in. It took me ages to get back there.
On the way back I went to check
on the medal ceremony timing and saw that it was in 30 minutes so I had a bite to eat and a cuppa coffee while I waited.
The silver medalist arrived and we got chatting. Mr G hasn’t turned up yet so we asked the ceremony master to put a call out for him to be told that he had already collected his medal and left. I was really upset by this. It was my moment and it just wouldn’t look right with just two of us on the rostrum. Boo.
Anyway, I got my medal, that precious symbol of achievement, and was on top of the world at that moment.
Mr Grumpy won the gold on the Sunday in the 200, which I never entered, but wished I had and , funnily enough, he decided to turn up for that ceremony!
I really must try and find my school medals. These things really do have a value above and beyond winning races. They are symbols of life events, symbols of past times, countries visited, hard work, dedication and memories. This is a medal I couldn’t ever have conceived of but here it is with its own place and time in my life.
My mum gets all my medals from athletics, which is 4 so far. She was over the moon to get this one and we went to Tesco to get it engraved at the Timpson shop there. It was lovely to see her face light up when she saw it. It’s hanging on the corner of a picture frame in her bedroom.
I have the European Championships in just 10 days time and my mind is fully focused on that. There’s one race event left to do before that in London but it’s really just a training run prior to leaving. There are 55 athletes registered for the 100 and in excess of 60 for the 200. Top 16 fastest go through to the semi finals and then the fastest 8 into the finals. My goal is to reach the final in the 100 which would be simply amazing. I’m 15th fastest of the declared season’s times so it is a big ask. I might make the semis of the 200 but it’s doubtful. Let’s see! My first race is on the 21st and I return on the 27th after the 4x100 relay. I’ll keep you all posted or, if you follow me on Strava (🏃🏻♂️Brian 🇮🇹 ), you’ll see my races there for sure.
So that’s it my lovely VRBs. Well done for making it to the end. Here’s a special medal for you from me for reading this. Thank you and I wish you all fun and joy in your running this week🏅
Brian
