Sun - 15/09/19

Here are two reports. The first is a reflection, the second was written shortly after the event.

Sunday 15 September 2019

This was the day of the Half Marathon. Generally, I don’t sleep too well before a big race. I went to bed very early last night and so, even though I was up early, I felt well rested. I was in the hotel foyer just before 07:30. Breakfast did not start until 08:00 but the hotel proprietor offered me a coffee so I had a small jug of black Americano. I then had about 2000 metres to walk alongside the beach to the location of the race start/finish. I had a slight bad tummy which developed further as I walked alongside the beach. I managed to find a free beachside loo and used it. However, it was later on in the “race village” that the coffee worked its trick and I had an explosive dump in one of the portaloos. This was great since it fixed my dodgy tummy. So that was last night’s meal of Irish beef steak, potatoes and mixed salad (and ice cream?) dispensed with. There had been some early cloud cover but just before the race started the cloud cover had burned away. They started the race 3 minutes early which was a bit of a shock. Anyway, I soon spotted Michael H Davies in front of me. I saw his Khaki cap bobbing up and down. I needed to beat Mike to be sure of being the third British finisher. So, I passed Mike fairly early on and pushed on. The temperature seemed to be well into the 30s. There was very little shade and there were some long straight roads on the two-lap course. I started to “feel it” at about 8 miles but I was in a small group, there were three of us running together, and there was little, if no, overtaking from anyone. It seems that everyone was “feeling it”, and that is one of mantras. It feels tough for everyone. Towards the end there were a couple of youngsters that went by. ON some of the corners I chanced a glance back and could not see any sign of Mike. The last few miles seemed to last forever but I held on (the last mile was a bit slow and uncomfortable). It turned out that Mike was four minutes behind me. Paul Whelpton had won the race by two and a half minutes. Anthony Whitehouse was third, and I was fifteenth. We had won team gold and had beaten the Germans, who took the silver, by 10 minutes. On the day of the race I reported it like this…

Sunday September 15

Today was the day of the EMAC 2019 Half Marathon at Lido di Jesolo. I had set two alarms for 06:00 and 06:15, one on my iPad and one on my iPhone. I didn’t anticipate needing them They were just a safety net. I was actually up just after 05:00 to potter around and get things ready in a relaxed manner. I knew it was going to be a hot day so I drank plenty of water with electrolyte while I was preparing my gear. I was on my way by 07:20. In the hotel foyer the proprietor offered me a coffee (breakfast doesn’t start until 08:00) so I had a swift jug of black Americano and departed with his blessing, and the blessing of the waitress too. I had packed a windproof jacket but even at 07:30 I realised that, even with some cloud cover, it was just “T” shirt weather. The weatherproof jacket was dead-weight! I had a stroll of about a mile and a half along the beachside footpath to Piazza Milano where the action was happening. I sussed out the call room and the secure bag drop area, start/finish area etc. After last night’s big meal, I had a little tummy trouble but after a visit to one of the portaloos that was rectified. The 10K road race was due off at 09:00. That race started at 09:10. We due off at 09:30. They actually started us three minutes early which was a bit of a shock. I had done some “homework” I knew I had to finish in front of Michael H Davies (from Les Croupiers) in order to be the third member of the scoring British team. I could see his khaki cap bobbing up and down in the midst of a group of runners about 20 metres in front of me. I overtook him after three kilometres or so. At the point I had to make sure I stayed in front of him. I also caught up with Angela Copson the 70+ year old runner from Northampton who holds a number of world records. I knew from hr power of 10 record that she had not done much long distance work this year so I went past her too. The heat started to take its toll after as little as 6 – 7 miles though I held it together quite well until 10 miles at least. Reciting my mantra (it gets tough for everyone at 10 miles) I pushed on. My last mile was a 9 minute mile. I was hoping Michael H Davies wasn’t sneaking up behind me. In fact he was close to 4 minutes behind me. I finished with a time of 1:48:44 and was 15^th finisher in the M65 age group. With my two teammates finishing first and third we had won the team event by 10 minutes from the Germans. After I finished sweat was literally pouring off me. I drank about two litres of water laced with about 4 electrolyte tables.

When I met up with my two team mates they were ecstatic. Anthony Whitehouse was particularly ebullient, he repeatedly complimented me on how well I had run in those conditions. I haven’t counted the exact numbers but out of about 460 runners there was a nearly 10% drop out rate.

After the race I was listening to the contrasting fortunes of our M40 runners. They had three entries, just enough to make up a team. The two runners that I was chatting to ran well, one finished with an individual medal. The third British runner dropped out. They were guaranteed a team medal if runner number three had completed the race. They stood a very good chance of getting team silver. Their comments were particularly scathing.

The medal ceremony dragged on and on … I left after 5 hours. The Jesolo air show had just started when we got on to the stage. If there are any podium videos the sounds of jet aircraft flying past would probably be evident. Most people had gone by the time we were on stage so its fingers crossed for podium photos. Further disappointing news. They had a load of medals stolen so I didn’t get to keep one. I just had time to take a photo of one. Since the ceremony was dragging on and most people had gone, they stopped handing out medals and taking them back again. They stopped playing the national anthems to save time too. Note that the Italian National anthem that they were playing was a long version, so repeating that as often as they did probably took an hour or two of accumulated time! At least when we got on the podium we did have a full complement of 9 runners on stage to be presented with our diplomas.

The official photographers had a load of equipment stolen. How wonderful! I am hoping to see some official photos appearing on their web site in a couple of weeks or so. When I see Archie the Team Manager next Saturday he will be able to tell me about the progress of obtaining replacement medals. These will be forwarded from Italy to our team management for distribution to the athletes. I had the same missing believed stolen medal experience in Lyon and got my medal from that event several months after the race.

I had a couple of drinks at a beach side café after the race (and presentation) with my fellow runner Michael H Davies and Yvonne, his wife. I was very weary when I got back so I had a quick shower and just went up to the Royal Oak. I also had a nightcap at a nearby bar with a terrace overlooking the main street where I watched the world go by and pondered on the stupidity of Brexit. I then went back to the hotel and slept like a log.