It’s Eerie – the competition just disappeared!

Final showdown for men 55-59: the Eerie Erie 5k, penultimate race in the Colorado Runner Racing Series. I need to NOT get soundly thrashed (again) by Heath Hibberd and Devin Croft. And I need to beat any "rogue" 50-59 year-olds who might cost me the points I need…

I’ve been chasing the Colorado Runner Racing Series “yellow jersey” since January.
In June and July I missed four races in the Series with a combo of a hamstring pull and a side-trip to England to run the British Masters 5k championship. I came back with a bronze medal and to a shock: in my absence Hibberd and Devin had been racking up the points as the Series got down to some serious business with the Garden of the Gods 10-miler, the Slacker half-marathon and the Scar Top Mountain 12k in quick succession.

The pair of them forced me into a mind-bending few weeks; I had to run ALL the remaining Series races – including the gruesomely lovely Lead King Loop, 15 plus miles up and down the side of a mountain – while also fitting in a non-series 6-mile cross country race and 10k road race demanded by the England team selectors who, on the basis of my 5k bronze, were holding out the carrot of a place o the national team for an international cross-country in November.

Much as I enjoyed the Lead King Loop it also marked my lowest point: although Devin didn’t run, Hibberd beat me by 23 minutes! I vowed I would have my vengeance back on my kind of territory: a flat-out fast 5k.

Coach Ric Rojas was as relieved as I was that the hard grind of travelling and racing had narrowed down to a confrontation which called for pure focus. The poor guy has been adapting and rewriting my training schedules all year as I added new goals to an already outlandish vision. 5-minute mile. Plus Colorado Runner Racing Series. Plus I need a fast 10k AND a good cross-country performance to win England selection. At which point I’ll need to be prepared for 6.5 miles cross-country, hilly and muddy. And Ric… after that can we switch back to the mile?

Oh yeah, and let’s bear in mind the Racing Series is no joke. Its 15 races this year (number not including one we don’t mention, the one at Palisade that got its results pulled) stretched from January to November and included four 5ks, an 8-mile trail race, 2 half-marathons, two 10-milers, two 10ks, a 12k and a 25k trail race, spread all over Colorado and some at 8,000-feet plus. At one point I had three races in one week – the 15.5 mile Lead King Loop on the Sunday (3rd in age group), a 6.5-mile cross-country race out at Longmont on the Wednesday with a heart-sinking massive hill right after the start! (14th overall, first in age group – unofficially), and then a 10k over in Buena Vista on the Saturday (3rd overall, first in age group, in 41:08 – not nearly fast enough for the England selectors, even though it was at 8,000 feet).

Somehow, none of this seemed to have deadened my legs – a tribute to how well Ric adjusted the training. Two weeks after that little lot I set a 100-metre PR of 14.6 in training; two weeks later I won the age group in the CSU Homecoming 5k at Fort Collins with miles of 6:10, 6:05 and 5:55 on a wet and cold day. So I knew I would be ready for all-comers by the time the Eerie Erie came round.

But they never showed.

And I got maximum points.

I won the race’s 50-59 age group, and even got 7th overall. So I win the 55-59 age group in the Series even if Hibberd runs and wins the finale Panicking Poultry 5K in Boulder on November 16.

I was so psyched for this one I took off like a scalded cat and covered the first mile in 5:50. I owe some of that to the inspiration of an 11-year-old.

About 800m into things I drew alongside Zachary Alhamra. This kid had gone out super-fast. When I caught him he was dry retching without missing a stride. He even managed a “Thanks!” when I told him “Good job!” To use a good English expression, he stiffened my resolve. I took one look at the effort he was pouring out and compared it to mine; I HAD to pick up the pace.

After the turn, I took a scheduled “bad patch” that I’d planned into my race strategy. I timed it just right, because as I eased off slightly we turned into a sapping wind and Littleton’s Robert Kessler, yellow jersey in the 50-54 Series standings, came hurtling past. I tucked in behind him as he navigated a testing course through the oncoming mass of the rest of the field, headed out to the turn on collision course with the faster runners. We had to move out to the centre of the road, which then put us in direct confrontation with vehicles. No, the roads hadn’t been closed.

At two and a bit miles I moved past Robert and took a turn at the front as we closed on Lile Budden, a 48-year-old from Colorado Springs who was holding a solo 7th spot just ahead of us. Back into the wind, Robert came by again and took us right up to Lile’s shoulder with well under a mile to go. I weighed my options: sit in and wait to kick within sight of the finish line, or blast straight past? I decided the blast would be a psychological killer blow and went for it.

That move committed me to a long, long sprint for home – from about 500m, I think. I didn’t know at the time, but that was too much for Robert: somehow I managed to take 19 seconds out of him with that kick. Round the final corner and ready to turn onto the high school running track for the final 50m I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone still there, so I dredged another kick from somewhere – it gave me two seconds over Lile at the line.

Mile splits: 5:50, 6:04, 6:13. My Garmin says I hit 4:56 pace in the final sprint. Nice. Total time: 19:02. Much slower than I wanted, but the course was slower than we all thought it was going to be; and we were slowed down by the human and vehicular traffic, and the fact that the turn was incorrectly place, costing us all an extra 50m. My series record: run 9 scoring races, won 4, two 2nds, 3 thirds.

Zach never stopped trying, although I think he must have eventually stopped heaving. He finished way up the results in 20th place in 20:55 – sub 7-minute pace!

* Latest – and almost final – standings in the Colorado Runner Racing Series are up on the Colorado Runner website here

* Full Eerie Erie results were produced live and fresh at the race with Benji Durden’s usual efficiency and were posted in full on the
Boulder Road Runners website within a few hours of the race finishing. Thanks again Benji and Aimie for the exemplary service

* And talking of efficiency, or lack of it...I twice emailed the organizers asking for details of the course because both Benji’s original USATF certified course map and the slightly different map posted on the event website did not add up to 5k when I ran the course before the event. The organizers never responded and on the day got the course wrong anyway. The traffic situation needs corrective action, too, as one of these years someone is going to get hurt.
One last beef: once again, there was no, zero mention of the Colorado Runner Racing Series in the pre-race publicity, nor at the event. Not at the prize presentation either. Not the first time this has happened, and it always makes me cross. Events selected for the Series universally boast – as the announcer at this one did – of a big increase in entries. They don’t seem to understand why. Posters for the Panicking Poultry are up in all the Boulder running stores. Do they mention the Series? No, of course not.