Lincolnshire Runner Blog
PBs/Best performances
800m – 1:54
1500m – 3:48
1 Mile – 4.13 (altitude = 4.05 SL)
3000m – 8:10
5000m – 14:26
5k – 13:56
10k – 29:51
Beer mile – 6:15 (altitude)
10th BUCS XC Championships 2017
2nd BUCS Indoors 3000m 2019
Lincolnshire XC Champion 2018, 2019
3rd Northern XC Championships 2020
12th National XC Championships 2019
3rd National XC Championships 2020
I’d like to start this blog in the same way other athletes on the page have done – by looking back to where it all began. My first memories of running are of school cross-country and Lincolnshire League races, and slightly later; of larger events like the English Schools XC and the National XC. In the small local races, I did okay, usually featuring in the top 5 or so, but in the national level races I did slightly less than okay. In fact, looking back at the results I’m quite surprised I didn’t quit. I see your 152nd place at your first English Schools XC, Joe Wilkinson, and I raise you 298th. Things didn’t improve quickly either. The next year I only managed a measly improvement of 17 places to 281st. Wounded pride was probably my main motivation for returning.
I joined Newark AC in year 9 and continued to train under Stuart Colledge, once or twice a week, alongside other sports until I was about 17. At this point I was bored of cricket and too weedy to take the hits on the rugby field, so I decided to focus solely on running, slowly building my mileage to about 40 miles a week by the time I left school.
I went on to Leeds University where I joined the cross-country club and quickly realized that the drinking there was taken as seriously as the running – this could probably summarize the next two years quite well. I moved into a house of runners, lived like a slob and started training every day. My first year, I surprised myself with some breakthrough performances with 13th at the U20 Inter Counties XC and 14:46 for 5000m. I was also 2nd at Lincoln 10k on my debut at the distance clocking 32:32.
My Art and Design degree offered the opportunity to do a year studying abroad and I chose to go to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in the southwest United States. The serious set up and standard of the facilities there was a big contrast to the casual approach in Leeds, but that year I really learned how to push myself under what, at times, was a fairly brutal training regime set by the Head Coach, Joe Franklin. The tone was set the first time I trained with the team – Franklin told me to come and join the team for a 10 miles tempo, and if I could stick with the group I could keep coming to training. One of the more experienced guys on the team warned me on the way there “this will probably be really hard”. He was right. But I killed myself to hang with the group for just outside 53 minutes for the 10 miles and earnt the privilege to train with them for the rest of the year. (Un)fortunately for me the rest of the year entailed sessions of similar difficulty and setting off at suicidal paces I never thought I’d be able to hold. That year however, had a big impact on the type of runner I am today and gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to hurt.
Two years later I returned to New Mexico, but this time on an athletic scholarship and able to compete properly for the University. Despite my time there previously it was still a shock to the system in terms of standard. My first cross country race of the season I remember going through the first mile in 4:44…not bad, except I was in 70th place.
Once back from America I settled in Leeds for the longer term and started to train with advice from my old man, Bill Taylor. This has inevitably meant that for the last two years I have pushed upwards with steady mileage coupled with dropping in on key group sessions other similarly committed runners. In Autumn 2018 I transferred from Newark AC to join the great group of lads that make up the Leeds City team. A highlight of my training environment now, are Sunday long runs when we have up to 18 boys out and hungry for miles.
But I think what has affected my results most is a change in attitude to racing. For so many years I featured in races just to make up the numbers and frankly I got fed up of it! I no longer had an interest in running to come in the top 100 or 50 so I knuckled down. The new consistent and more targeted approach has yielded my best results yet; two sub 14 5k clockings in two seasons and 12th and 3rd at the National XC in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
I’ve enjoyed lockdown in that I was able to get some decent miles in, including some epic long runs in the Yorkshire Dales, whilst not having to worry about fitting in twice a day training in between back to back shifts at work. However, in the last month I have now started a new full-time job as a Landscape Architect, with more regular hours. It’s just under 10 miles each way on the days I’m in the office, so I should get fit!
I now look forward to the chance to start racing again, whether that be track, road or cross country!