Book em, Philo

The weather forecast was abysmal, high winds and rain, but I entered my second Weston Prom Series race of the 2019/20 season. I was looking to finish the year on a personal high as my racing recently had become turgid and my training less than it should be. I’ve been suffering a bit with BLT; Busy, Lazy and Tired. Running had became a bit of a drudge and with just a couple of weeks and two races left in the year I decided to finish, as I have ran most of this year, steadily.

The road trip consisted of Kelly ‘The’ Sherriff, Tracey ‘Fourth Favourite’ Benton, Madame Pompomadour, and myself. The Christmas Spirit was in full effect with accompanying seasonal tunes. Once in Weston, Kelly parked about in Portishead, a snotty Cheddar runner asked her to reverse because she couldn’t get her SUV into a parking bay. Kelly was very polite whilst the rest of us made other suggestions.

The Weston Prom Winter Series has become very popular amongst the Harriers as entrant each want to complete the series and improve or just have an excuse to get out on a Thursday night and avoid mind numbing television. Unfortunately regular Little Timmy Byrne was living it up elsewhere with his Happy Mondays moves and Mark ‘Benton Benton Benton’ Benton arrived too late from Basingstoke to take part. Other than ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly, Captain Tracey Benton, and myself Team Yellow were represented by , Super Sue Nicholls, Phil ‘Hawaii Five 0’ Hobbs, Harold Petheram, Tony’s McKee and Gore and Adrian Smith.

Start time and off we sprinted with conditions much better than forecast. The rain had passed and the wind not as strong as predicted. We started pretty much together and I ran for about half a mile with Tony G., a generous and knowledgeable man. I caught up with ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly and the previous evening about we were discussing personal bests. The course was a 3 looper and Kelly doesn’t like loops and my theory was to coerce her to run faster than she realised by using distraction (easy as the runners running the opposite way of the loop are only metres away and Harriers to cheer on) and to run at a steady but slightly faster pace than she would normally. Easy yeah and when Kelly stopped talking and insisted I run on without her I knew it was working and voila 10 seconds faster for 5 miles. I was really pleased for her on a fantastic achievement and her hard work. She’s a great runner and a terrific asset to the club. Kelly helped me at the Pawlett Plod and I though it was time to give something back.

All Harriers put in good performances. Harry ran well even though he might not have thought it. Every race is part of a learning curve. I would love it if he ran quicker than I did 10-12 years ago and I would have really enjoyed to train with him, but not now! I’m sure he will run much faster. Watch this space. Great runs from Tracey and the Tonys after illness and injury. A special mention to Phil Hobbs who turned up on a dark December evening to share his 50th birthday with us, and I for one felt privileged to be with him . Team Yellow retreated to celebrate Phil and our evening together with fizz, cake and drinks