Great South Fun

Landmark time. This is my fiftieth Project Five O entry, although regrettably I'm writing it a number of days after the event, the Great South Run, which took place on Sunday 30th October. This lateness is a result of a combination of feeling completely exhausted after driving home on Sunday evening and the urgent need to make significant inroads into the backlog of work that awaited me on my return from Japan.

Portsmouth's iconic Spinnaker Tower

I've now taken part in the Great South Run six times. It's one of my favourite running events for a number of reasons:

• it's very well organised
• there's always a great atmosphere with big crowds and lots of bands playing on the course
• the course passes a number of interesting sights, historical and modern
• it's almost entirely flat (although this benefit is negated a little by the strong headwind that usually prevails for the final two miles along the seafront)
• ten miles is a great in-between distance; long enough to require training reasonably seriously but short enough to enjoy without being able to walk properly for days afterwards
• taking place in October, the temperature is usually in the mid-teens, ideal for running

All of these factors combined in 2005 to help me complete the race in 1:37:33, a time which I haven't got close to since and which, looking back, I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe I was able to achieve in the first place. However, it's in the record books, available for anyone to find on the Great Run website. Although I'd started the year hoping I might just be able to better this, reality has since prevailed and so I set myself the aim on the day of further steady preparation for Florence, and to come in below 2 hours, ideally even challenging the 1:50 mark.

I stayed overnight in a travelodge in Hampshire and drove to Liss, where I boarded the train in order to avoid the monstrous traffic jams that have plagued my departure from Portsmouth after previous GSRs. Overall this proved a successful strategy, although the walk from the station to the start took considerably longer, half an hour plus, than it looked on the map and felt even more of a slog to my tired legs on the way back.

The start area was buzzing by the time I arrived. I think most of the 24,000 starters were already there. Any event of this size brings with it an invasion of portable chemical toilets, the quality of which (if quality is indeed the right word) has definitely improved since I started taking part in this kind of event. It did amuse me, however, that every single one of the hundreds of portaloos available on Sunday was proudly displaying a misplaced apostrophe.

Pedantic, me? What do you mean? Now, where did I put my copy of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"?

A funny thing happened a few minutes before the start. I was surprised to be approached by a fellow runner who looked vaguely familier asking whether I was Martin Crisp. "Umm, Yes" I replied a little warily before he introduced himself as someone I had worked with at Midland Bank in Bromley nearly 30 years ago. I'd already been working for the Bank for three years when he joined around 1982. He was on a special scheme, in which he worked at the Bank for a year and was then sponsored through University before presumably having to work for Midland Bank for at least a specified length of time after graduation. A very cushy arrangement, and he was a nice enough lad, although perhaps bordering on the arrogant side of precocious at the time. The over-confidence of youth and all that. We caught up briefly before the race began. My self-deprecating final comment was that in terms of my running career "my best days are probably behind me" to which, rather uncharitably I feel, he replied "let's be honest, your best days were behind you when you were at Bromley" before sprinting off ahead of me as if to prove a point. As I said, on the arrogant side of precocious, and clearly having failed to move on in the meantime. What he thinks of me is of little or no interest to me, but I must admit I was rather taken back by his rudeness, more so by its stark contrast to the friendliness and civility I had experienced in Japan in the preceding days. How I would have loved to catch up and pass him in the later stages of the race, but sadly I dont think I did. Even in such a large field I think I would have noticed.

I started the race smoothly and steadily, as always enjoying the historic dockyards section of the route nothwithstanding the short stretch of cobblestones that demand extra careful foot placement.

Nelson's Flagship, HMS Victory

My time at the half way was 54:10, a little under 11 minutes per mile, and on course for sub 1:50 if I could maintain even a marginally slower pace. The second half of the race is less scenic but still fairly well supported and, although I could feel myself slowing slightly, I was still feeling fine and really enjoying myself but once again the final two miles into a very strong wind finally took its toll. I kept running, and eventually sprinted strongly along the final two hundred metres, but all along the seemingly endless seafront I felt like I was running with a length of strong elastic attached to my back. A real struggle.

Fighting the wind along the seafront at Southsea

My finishing time was 1:54:10, which was in line with what I'd hoped for and I was pleased with it. Some way off my PB, but also considerably better than my slowest finish at this race. In fact it was my third fastest time in six attempts, and my best since 2006 so all things considered a good day's work.  Once again the Great South Run had proved to be a fun and fulfilling experience - I was nowhere near the back of the field, and in the closing metres overtook a lot of runners much younger than me and, always pleasing, even a few 'proper' runners wearing official running club vests. There's just one more chance left  to achieve a PB this year. It's all or nothing now for the Florence Marathon, and if I can just build a little more on where I am now, there's a small chance I may still do it.

(Photographs of Spinnaker Tower and HMS Victory were taken on a visit to Portsmouth with Hannah in July 2009)