NYSD Track + Field Report

NYSD Track + Field Report:

As it was the final athletics meeting of the season I tried to recruit my dear old friend Dave Fender for the event. It turned out to be a big mistake.

Dave currently resides in the ‘Home for Bewildered ParkRunners With Unusual Injuries’ on Yarm Lane – receiving the expert care he so desperately needs. When I visited and mentioned the athletics he started shaking his fist at me and ranting, “You youngsters with your Suzi Quatro LP’s and your blockchain connected devices.” Fortunately matron was on hand to calm him down by playing his favourite ‘Glenn Miller and his Orchestra’ medley.

So Dave wasn’t at the Middlesbrough track on Tuesday – but club legend Sam Johnston was. He was joined by Rachel Carr, Lucy Owens, Katie Abel, Tom Ramsey, debutant Antony Hamling and myself.

The hammer was wisely missed by the team, making the 800 metres the first event – with Antony, Lucy and me competing. Antony, supported by his family, began a very impressive evening with a quick 2 mins 54.68 secs. That’s a speedy sub 6 minute per mile pace. (Although he almost didn’t make it to the start line as one of his daughters had managed to get her hands completely covered in chocolate!) (His daughter is 17) The first pacing duty of the night saw me trying to help Lucy get under the 3 minute mark. On schedule until the last 150 metres, Lucy came agonizingly close with an excellent 3 mins 3.55 secs. Next year Lucy…

Next up was the 100 metres. A polite word with one of the officials and permission was granted for all seven of us to run together in the final heat. (I understand there’s some pics and video of the 7 Striders vests hurtling down the track floating around somewhere on the interweb) Katie (17.36 secs), Lucy (17.57 secs), Rachel (20.02 secs), Tom (14.38 secs), Antony (14.58 secs), Sam (15.02 secs) and me (13.32 secs) put our club speed sessions to use on the big stage.

Shot followed – with the men’s and ladies competitions occurring next to each other. It’s all about trying new events and this was a first for Antony, Tom and Sam. Some of the more experienced throwers gave some technical advice and Sam (4.72 metres), Antony (7.15 metres) and Tom (6.82 metres) gave it their all. Antony and Tom pushing hard for 3rd spot in a high calibre field.

Lucy (4.31 metres) and Katie were in action close by. With ‘chocolate fingers’ safely sat in the stand with mum, Antony’s eldest daughter came down to watch. She was then persuaded to help officiate in the woman’s senior event – and did a great job measuring all the throws. Katie had always come up just short of the 5 metre mark in previous competitions. A new diet of 3 Shredded Wheat sprinkled with creatine powder did the trick – as she gave one last effort and finally edged over the 5 metre mark by 5 cm. Well done Katie.

Final event of the evening was the 5000 metres. Sam, Tom, Rachel and me entered in heat 2. Tom and Sam ran excellent races, but I think some of it must have been in a parallel universe – or the twilight zone – or they ran a lap too many, or something – because the distance ran on their watches was way over 5k. I’m reliably informed that Tom clocked 19 mins 45 secs at the 5k mark and Sam 20 mins 30 secs – with Strava confirming. The official times might be slightly different but, hey, what do they know. That’s a 5k pb for Sam as he returns to the form we saw from him last summer. Good running mate. Another sub 20 for Tom – and 2nd place in the race – saw him continue the form shown at the Ali Brownlee 5k.

It was back to pacing duties for me. Fresh from a 3k track pb, Rachel wanted to have a go at lowering her 5k best. Pacing every lap to perfection, and maintaining that excellent running technique, everything looked good going into the last 400 metres. She dug deep, finished strongly and recorded a new 5k best of 23 mins 28.9 secs. Nice one Rachel.

So that concludes the track and field for another year. Thanks to all who took part – there’s been some great performances and I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks also to the club for paying for our entry.

With the benefit of hindsight all the noise, colour and excitement would have been too much for Dave – and his random outbursts would have frightened Antony’s children. But matron informs me that he’s making good progress and is on course to join the Striders team for the 2019 athletics events – which is a nice thought to end on.

Paul J