Worlds Best Road Race
published on
Here goes!!!
Ladies drum up a desert Storm - men not so slow either
Well a few days on from RAK and still a little astonished by the performances yet again...
5 Ladies under 68minutes, never been done before, World Best debut by Elvan the Turkish
Lady, 4 men under 60minutes, local records.. Ladies course record, veterans record...it
goes on and on and hopefully we have laid down a marker for the other big/fast Half
Marathons to aspire too and hopefully in a selfish way they wont match us and we will be
voted World Best Road Race again in 2010.
All of the top 8 ladies ran pb's plus 5 of the top 10 men, and the course was re-measured
to ensure accuracy, gladly no shouts of "My Garmin said this and that"!! Why is it in UK
we are so cynical that when someone really runs well the first thought is short course
rather than celebrating a great run. Wokingham Half Marathon... it does seem strange
that chip times are 8 seconds faster than gun times but in the chilly conditions I think
the guys (especially Jean/Ben & Paul) ran outstandingly well, watch for Mr Moreau in
his marathon as it seems to be shaping up very well.
On a side note how about banning GARMINS in races just like walkmans/ipods are nowadays??
Just get down to racing again?! Just a thought from Ladders the Ludite.
Team Mizuno (my group) had a good start to the season with Burundi boy winning although
I understand Ben gave him a real hard time, funny how when an athlete has a few off XC
results people write them off isn't it, everyone thought Jean would struggle but they
didn't realise that he has been training through the XC races but still supporting the
Team at Birchfield (ill wait for the flack for that comment......) and he is getting
into good condition. Mizuno have agreed to kit out my UK based guys and some
Brits that I'm helping so you can expect to see Mizuno at the sharp end plenty
in the coming weeks, it will make a change from three stripes and a swoosh .....
Anyway, that's it for today. I will do another piece in a couple of days when
Matt Pierson has the energy to write us a few Paragraph's from a warm but muddy
Kericho, he seems to be reveling in it and has to be said he is giving Stan and John
a lot of hard times on long runs and sessions. It's good as we have had a fair few
enquiries from others who fancy a spell at boot camp!
Here's a tough session Matt did which we started with Keith Anderson way back when
he stayed at Kericho, 3 x 5k off 3 minutes on muddy tracks! Well Matt nailed it and
backed it up with 2 1/2 hours the following day while most of the Kenyans had a
day off....Motivated or what!!
Some really good performances in recent weeks on the road, keep at it
guys (and girls) Wilmslow Half Marathon might be a great race and for sure Reading
and London will be interesting.
Lastly - Anyone not running London Marathon but fancies a marathon?
Tim Hutchings at Brighton Marathon has a few places, I am putting together a small elite
field so please let me know if you fancy it, just leave a message below.
Cheers
McL
Comments On "Worlds best road race - Ian Ladbrooke - The Managers Office"
64.59
Hear hear! 64.59 should be awarded I think! =P I think giving him a hard tome is generous Ian. He was away after 4miles but I ket him in sight and he was looking back nervously for the last 3 miles but I'm not sure I tested him all that much!
Ben M Posted on February 25th, 20103x5k
I did that same session a couple of weeks ago - I thought it sounded a lot harder than it actually turned out to be!! Got it again next sat.
aly Posted on February 24th, 2010Wokingham
Hi Ian, have you lost any weight yet?
Your friend from Dublin 1993 Posted on February 24th, 2010Some interesting comments about Wokingham. Over the years this has been a regular race for me as a build up towards London.
I'm afraid that the conditions this year made for a very chaotic start. It was lashing down with rain and the temperature was barely above zero - so everyone left it to the last minute to strip off, and some ruuners were still queueing to stow their bags when the gun went. There were lots of slower runners at the front, which is annoying, although the weather was largely responsible.
However - for a race with a Gold Label - the leaders should not have a differential of 8 seconds between Gun and Chip time. Jean should have been given 64:40 and Ben 64:59. Seeing as the existing course record was 64:50 it could have cost Jean a course record bonus, and seeing as 65 minutes could quite conceivably be used as a qualifying time for a major championship half marathon, the time differential could cost Ben a representative race in future.
To balance this, I must say that in general the race organisation at Wokingham was very good, but the start and timing needs reviewing.