“I don’t like it, but I guess things happen that way.” When Johnny Cash first came up with this lyric I highly doubt he was referring to finishing 2nd in the Edinburgh Half Marathon, but for me, it aptly sums up last week’s event.
The half marathon is a good old distance and it is worthy of a mention in this edition of my captain’s blog.
Recently there have been some outstanding performances from my team-mates over the 13.1 mile slog. At the beginning of May we had our resident, in-house Physio Kevin Jeffress (Stride Sports Clinic) finishing fourth in the Sunderland Half. Skip forward three weeks and it was time for myself and Jimmy Johnson to tackle the Edinburgh Half Marathon. I don’t want the Captain’s blog to be all about me – me – me so I will refrain from repeating verbatim my account of the event which can be found on my personal blog www.andrewpowell84.wordpress.com but suffice to say the aforementioned Johnny Cash line sums up the day well. I was delighted to record a PB of 70.47 in finishing second and having the opportunity to share the podium with two great lads. I was disappointed not to get the win but, I guess things happen that way sometimes! Next time there will be no repeat… I will fight to the very end in order to try and snatch the win.
Jimmy Johnson delivered when it mattered in Edinburgh, butchering his PB on the day, his time of 86:10 slicing more than 3 minutes off his previous best. It really was a fantastic performance and one that I was expecting after watching Jimmy develop as an athlete over the past year. Jimmy is a good friend of mine and I know how hard he has trained since joining the club. Gone are the days of inconsistent and erratic training and now he is reaping the rewards of his hard work. Jimmy is a great example of why anyone thinking about joining Harriers should take the plunge. He was one of two team-mates who deserved to be revered in chapter 3 of my blog, the other being Alice Smith who this weekend decided to go out and just, you know… win a half marathon! The Durham Coastal Run is no walk in the park. It is a very tough event to tackle but Alice arrived in a rich vein of form and conquered the event. Both Alice and Jimmy have much to look forward to should they continue their current trend and both can be seen as symbols of the new era that continues to develop within the club.
The key to longevity, they say, is change. If something can reinvent itself and adapt, then it has every chance of a long and fruitful life. Sunderland Harriers is an entity which has done exactly that. Along with Alice and Jimmy there has been an influx of new talent who have ushered the club into a new era. Someone said in passing recently, ‘Sunderland is a class club, the amount of support we show to our runners and more impressively to other clubs and runners is amazing.’ It is this atmosphere and willingness to support others along with the impeccable training regimes, which has made Sunderland Harriers the place to be. Jimmy and Alice are merely two names on a long list of ‘improvers’ on the club roster. The new era is certainly moving in the right direction. What is the word again? Oh, yes, I remember…Onwards!