This is me in the twilight on South Shields beach at the end of April's Monthly Mile event. I used this short, very short race to keep my schedule on course after a weekend away at Kelso Antiques Fair.
Having registered for the event on Monday evening, 7pm Tuesday found me lining up with the Intermediate Group to run a fast mile. Research of previous results informed me that the Advanced Group were very fast, from under 5 minutes to a max of 6.30. March's results indicated that a time of just over 6 minutes should win the Intermediate Group, so that was my choice ( 7minutes for the Beginners' Group).
Lining up with the other 14 runners I felt reasonably confident, then away we went!
"What pace is this?" said I as we flew away from the start. A glance at my Forerunner said 5.18 min. pace.
"They'll come back to me " I thought as they kept on going at that pace.
5.30 / 5.40/ 6.00/ 5.40/ 4.42/ 5.10/ 6.12 my pace was all over the place and the finish was in sight. Through the line, a tap on the watch said 6.25 mins. Where did that time come from as my pace never went over 6.12? That must remain a mystery for the official time was 6.27 min.
I was officially 9th out of 15 in the Intermediate Group which was won in 5.42. Overall, I was 20th out of 79 runners. There was no age grading.
Did I learn anything from a mile race, a distance which is only a third of the distance of my regular Park Runs ( and a sixth of what used to be regular 10Ks)? Yes, firstly, I don't have the speed in my legs now, if I ever did. Secondly, after only six minutes of effort I hardly had time to raise a sweat. Worthwhile? Yes, I would say so as I am on schedule and ready for my next challenge - The Blyth 10K on Sunday.
Turning to the headline above, maybe 'A filler rather than a killer' means different things to different people, but to me it is about the tracks on a rock album, as a head banging follower of Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Wolfmother, Blink 182 etc, it means something to pad out the album, something they do not do. I would like to think that this race was more than a filler for my schedule. Being as competitive as I am it has set me a challenge, get fitter, get faster, come back and get down to 6 minutes for that mile.
'A welcome destination for a million runners', everyone knows that reference don't they? If not I will tell you that last year's Great North Run saw the millionth runner complete the half marathon from Newcastle upon Tyne to South Shields, finishing just short of where the photo was taken.
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