Vjog 8 - Silver medal at the British Masters M55 Steeplechase

hi welcome to vog 8 just been up to darish here for a very busy weekend of racing in the National Masters uh championships in the m55 age group 1500 meters on Saturday and then a steeper trace on the Sunday so let's roll see what happened 5:00 in the morning on Saturday 27th of July and um mainly because the race 1500 met is very 10 and I like a big margin for the Journey about two and a half hours 5 three should get there for hopefully something night 9:00 so uh usual breakfast don't to change any routine nice Pot Coffee good to go in 20 minutes so here we go with the 1500 M on the Saturday off running bit of a delayed start which I'll talk about after this race but we can tell the first three there who were pretty much on paper the favorites for the medals set off at a cracking opening pace so immediately I've decided I just need to settle in here aim for a season's best as we all do uh that's my friend John just overtaking me deciding the pace isn't hot enough for him so he's going to chase after the leaders John and I have had a lot of rivalry over the years John used to be my training partner down at ORD and haringay and uh I would say 90% of the races we've ever had John's come out on top so following the usual narrative there's the three leaders pulling away already John chasing after and then I'm in fifth place with Barry Blackwell for company uh in sixth now this opening lap I didn't know whether it was the uh lack of warm up or the fact that we warmed down a little bit before the gun went and felt very very fast so I was really pleased when they did call out a 76 split for the first 400 cuz it certainly felt like it but settled in the next lap I've uh taken out the video that was an 80 and then this is the third lap where Barry starts to put in a bit of a surge knocking me back into sixth place now and uh I'd have been quite happy to let him go um I'm just grinding it out now trying to get a season's best better my 451 from the indoors so we go through the Bell there 338 in my head I'm thinking if I can just rustle something turbocharged up a 73 or something then uh maybe equal in the 441 451 is on the cards and uh to help me just about now down the back straight there Barry begins to come back to me and we therefore have one of the very rare urren is for me in the 1500 M where I actually managed to catch somebody and go past somebody and normally I'm hanging off the back so here we are just raising as much as I got left for the last 200 I'm flat out now there's nothing left in the tank this is this is committed this is eyeballs this is as hard as it gets not leaving it on the track as they say now definitely Super Shoes help here I think in the ' 80s and '90s or wasn't even racing in the ' 80s but in the '90s uh I'd have been rocking back on the Hills now the form would have gone but the the carbon plate definitely keeps you on your toes and you can keep some sort of semblance of a strong finish as long as you gr it out looking at the clock I can see it's not going to be The Season's best but 454 I'll take that and uh Happy Days there's Mark Sims the winner 4117 amazing time for an m55 and there's Barry just coming behind me so an enjoyable start so as we're up in darash for the weekend because we're staying over for the steeple chase the next day we decided to find a National Trust property because we got our membership cards and just up the road was kendl Hall which uh if you're up that way is well worth a visit acres and Acres of grounds which we didn't walk around cuz I wanted to conserve energy of course but the house itself is apparently never been lived in it was one of these house houses that's just designed as a showoff piece for some very wealthy family which I've forgotten the name of now but if you ever visit it um you'll get the full tour and explanation but uh all Greco Roman I understand that's why it's called the pillars and uh really quite beautiful and lovely grounds to uh wander around as well so great place to have a bit of lunch and uh recuperate after the 1500 before going back to our overnight hotel to to get some dinner and uh yeah look even had a pool table so uh I've played Steve at Paul once in the past and I think I beat him as well and have chance to have a little rest so fortunately our hotel was good quality good bed good night sleep and this is my overnight box fruit Viber banana and a bowl to eat my breakfast raisins they're apparently good for everything and uh milk that can't go off whole milk good planning and Poppy granules and uh yeah I mean I just don't want to break my routine so I got the same breakfast I normally have so here we are day two the British Master Athletics Champs you see the track behind me there um yesterday 1500 M um event was running a bit late to be honest and uh we'd all warmed up for a 20 past 10 kickoff and uh by the time we we actually went out on the track it was about I'd say 10:50 so a good a good 40 odd minutes uh later than we scheduled the trouble with that is you've warmed up and then you don't know whether to keep warming up keep striding and you end up well I warm down basically I completely warmed down by the time they called us out I thought we'd get a couple of strides on the track but we didn't they just took us straight onto the track and said line up off you go but it was the same for everybody and uh even given that the first three home were absolutely stunning times uh 417 for the 1500 m55 is uh pretty cracking I was way behind that but today's the steeple chase and that's what we're really up here for and I haven't done any steeple chase barrier practice because brain tree track doesn't have a steeple chase barrier or water jump to practice on so all I've done is uh a few hurdles over the high hurdles lowered to two foot 2 and 1/2 ft which is the steeper Chase barrier height and uh it wasn't that didn't go too well I was clipping the hurdles with my TR leg and I don't want to risk that happening today so today we'll be one foot on every barrier for safety uh including the water jump of course nobody hurdles the water jump unless you're a mad Canyon and uh yeah so we'll see what happens between the barriers I feel reasonably strong and I think I'll be able to put a good Pace in between the barriers and hope that my one foot on doesn't slow me down too much so going to start warming up now race is in an hour uh we got be in the call room 20 minutes before that hopefully it's all running on time today so uh let's see how this goes so here we go steeple chase first one in 22 years we're behind that cage there lining up quite a lot of us um it's the 35 up uh age group so you got 35s to 40s you got the 40s to 44s 45s to you know anyway 5 year age groups right up to the 55 to 59s because they don't let the v60's Run 3,000 M steeple chase I don't know why maybe they think it's going to going to break I don't know I'll find out when I'm 60 uh they drop down to 2,000 M when you get to that age so last few years for me to have a have a swans song at my favorite event from from the past so first inside water jump so we don't do the water on the first uh lap and we don't hit any hurdles till we just go through the over there I actually prefer inside water jumps there we go that's the leaders showing you how it's done well some of them uh that was uh yeah some better than others and I'm coming up to the water jump here no practice first time in 22 years I've no idea what's going to happen so it's just commit commit commit commit go for it oh I wasn't the best but there you are I'm still on my feet which is a big bonus now I know at this stage after one and a bit laps I'm actually the leading m55 but having done a little bit of power 10 uh stalking beforehand which I think we all do I knew the guy in the green vest there is uh probably the most likely rival and uh I haven't looked behind yet cuz I D to see if he's in in shop but you can sense these things can't you so I've only left the steeple chase barrier in the video just to show you how close guy behind is and also because that's where Jenny and my um wife and awesome camera lady was standing and we're far too far out of shot to um put any other footage in so we're coming around for about the fourth jump I guess now just as bad as all the others but I think the key here is when I was racing these in the 9s and early u0s I'd done tons of practice um and it's a technical event it is it's not just about running you can make up so much just by hurdling the hurdles and I was putting one wet foot on each one which is actually more dangerous than uh hurdling to be honest but I practiced over some 400 hurdles lower to the right high and I knocked them with my knee Trail leg a couple of times didn't want to chance that today I just wanted to get round so steeple Chace barrier uh with one foot on it's not it's not the best technique obviously hurdling you keep your momentum and everything now if we look at this this is the last lap there you go just been past and yeah I spoke to him afterwards he's a 400 meter hurdler as well so he's always going to get away on this last lap with that turn of speed I think our 800 M season's best are identical as well but I'm flagged um last water jump there I'm thinking if he took it really bad then I might be able to chase after him but he took it as badly as I did sorry I hope he doesn't watch this video um and yeah that gap's too much to make up now but going for it holding the pace thinking cleared his last one don't fall over yes no more hurdles to clear so all we got to do is run in to the Finish First One in 22 years and finish in silver medal position which is one happy jappy can't argue it that at all now next year I'm thinking I'll be deep into Dragon back mileage by then and maybe the strength from that will make this Podium finish that we look at here in second place 38 a little higher who knows certainly we'll practice for next year that's got to be worth three or 4 seconds a lap well under well deserved congrats couple of Stills look at that oh and that what a big splash but it doesn't matter does it if you finish on the podium and you get one of those goodbye for now