Templer Ten

Firsts for Paula Radcliffe, Lewis Hamilton and Lesley Who????

Sunday 2nd November saw the Westgates at the Templer Ten, a 9.7 mile race that starts and finishes at the Passage House Hotel at Kingsteignton. Following last week’s mistake at the Stagger I made sure to wear my warm, woolly hat ’cos the Passage House is situated on a very cold, windy estuary location. The Templer has barely a slope in sight so none of the gut-busting rigors of last week. This really is a gentle sort of course, about 4 miles of road and the rest along the River Teign flood meadows, some woods and a circuit of the picturesque Stover Park and lake. I felt relaxed, set off at a gentle pace, overtook runners up to 3 miles then settled into a relaxed pace. I was on my own through the woods – always a risk of an old git like me missing the tape and going off-route. However all went well and although I was unable to catch any other runners, only one person caught and passed me in Stover Park; so for the last 4.5 miles I was running on my own with just few snatched glimpses of the two runners ahead. Conditions were a bit wet underfoot but by picking the right line it was fairly easy to keep your footing; Lesley even ran in normal road shoes.

I would like to report that there was a huge entry with national class runners across all age groups. Truth is that Teignbridge are quite generous with their prizes and age-categories. However you still had to be there to win and of course I’m immensely proud of she who said you’d never see her running, as she picked up First FV 50; a trophy and a bottle of white and 2:20 off her previous best at this race. My 69:10 was a personal worst after six attempts, but by some miracle earned 2nd MV50 and a bottle of red.

And from herself: I guess all these national class runners were in New York for the marathon. I had my own personal target and time to beat in this race. After achieving increasingly faster times in the previous four Templer Tens, I was hoping to shave a few further seconds off my time for a fifth consecutive PB. My cunning plan to achieve this was to start nearer the front, saving several seconds on what is usually a fairly congested start. This plan had another advantage as it meant I was mixing with some more serious runners, who didn’t consider the first mile to be a warm-up and time for a chat. The first mile therefore went quite quickly in 8:12 mins – yes I was wearing a watch and occasionally managed to glimpse the time on it. I was fairly confident that my road shoes would be OK having tried them on a similar training run, and there were no problems in the fields and on the easy path around the lake. On the last bit of road back towards the finish the punishing pace!! was really starting to take its toll and I ended up counting paces. (It’s good enough for Paula). I was glad to see the 9 mile marker as this was where the last short section of off-road began. Through a field, over bridges, round some bends, under a tunnel and along some very uneven track. I could hear traffic so knew it wasn’t far, there were footsteps behind me, but he didn’t know I wasn’t racing him but my own personal time. Round the last bend and I glimpsed “22” on the clock. Had I achieved my goal? Got to the line and was astonished that my time was actually 1:20:29. (The glimpse was the seconds not the minutes).

I was really pleased to pick up the prize, although if all the usual faces had been there I wouldn’t have stood a chance. For any insomniacs my times for the five races from 2004 on were: 1:30:50, 1:25:53, 1:23:14, 1:22:49, 1:20:29. Now I just have to think of an even more cunning plan for next year……………