By David Killick

Okay, so maybe a bit dramatic of a title but not far from it. There was only one reason I entered the MK Festival of Run 10km and that was a PB target that has eluded me for years, the 45 minute mark. A little context for those who don’t know me: For the last couple of years my running has suffered and my times in triathlons have become slower and slower (my last 10km was 50 minutes) and although I can take age into account I had honestly lost my running mojo.  That is until I joined LBAC.

I have over the course of the winter steadily improved through some Monday night speed sessions and my own exploring of LB since I have moved here. It was suggested that I am in good form at the moment and I should do the MK 10km to keep it going, so 2 weeks ago I signed up. Now the signs have been good with another pb in the Stag on Wednesday, I had studied the course and with only Campbell Park to scare me and waking up on Sunday morning to glorious spring sunshine in Leighton Buzzard with a nice 11oC on the gauge it felt like today was the day. 

Now that was where the good signs stopped and I fell into some schoolboy errors.  MK has its own micro climate and the Snowzone sits on top of a hill so the windchill was -10oC so with no base layer or my comfort blanket ear muffs I was in panic zone, secondly when you arrange to run with someone, don’t lose them in the crowd (sorry Andrew Hallworth who suffered worse than me on this!), then lining up at the start you can tell that some of those around you don’t care about PBs or potentially there may be some serious runners in the race.  Lastly when you have a Garmin the most important thing you can do is to remember to turn it on.

So here goes, I am in the form of my life, gun goes, and those around me don’t exactly move fast.  Now at this point it must have been the bit I forgot to start my watch as I started to push my way through a few slower runners. So for about 100 metres I felt like I was back in my rugby days as I dodged and darted through gaps in the crowd and potentially the odd barge may have been used. Eventually I found open space and my tactic was blast the first 5km and see how I feel.  As I settled down I decided to check my pace and I looked at my watch and all I could see was 00:00.  Now this is where the furious bit started as I was a little bit annoyed. This must have stirred something inside as I started the watch and went for it. My Garmin was now pinging up km times and I was seriously scared as I was well above my target pace, but this felt good so just kept going. It’s a bit of a blur for a while but then at 7km the dreaded Campbell Park came along. 

Now I am not a soft guy but my last experience here had me nearly in tears during the cross country, and all I could see was the path climbing higher and higher but I kept pounding away knowing I had some time in the bag to play with. Finally I reach the monument at the top of the park, I was nearly a broken man but seeing the 600m sign to go gave me an extra spur and the legs just held together. I crossed the line and had no clue of my real time only a rough guess but then the announcer said “that’s the 45 minute time just now”.  I think I was in a state of shock knowing I had beaten it but had no clue by what.  So an agonising 6 hours later the time came through…43:16. I am still in a state of shock as I don’t know where it came from and I was going to be happy with 45.

What I can say is the time is probably no fluke. Doing the Club speed sessions on a Monday night have really helped my speed and stamina, enjoying running as part of club has driven me to be competitive and the support of the whole club has been welcoming new members into the fold and encouraging them to get better.

Enough about my own glory; there were plenty of other club guys out in MK.  My own Amy Killick made her 5km and debut at 11 years old and came home in 31.43. In the 10km Sam Nicholas did his first one ever having recently turned 16 and broke 40 minutes at the first attempt, Andrew Hallworth hit a PB and Chris Large put in pretty good time – which may also have been a PB. The ½ Marathon was covered by Sam Dear just missing a PB but getting back to form after injury. Now onto the serious 20 mile stuff. Pete Mackrell after his XC efforts on Saturday came in ahead of Andy Inchley and Adam Haylock, but shout of the day must go to Kate Johnson who smashed her 20 mile time by 28minutes!!!!! (Please note Kate has also been known to attend the Monday night sessions).  Apologies if I have missed anyone else.

Also big thanks to the LBAC Marshalls I saw on the route who as ever did a great job.

And now a glass of wine as I think about my next target……………