Photography by Tom Phillips

Moving Mountains

Previously….

 

Now that this web site is on a proper server, I thought I’d add an occasional blog to it. Occasional, because I don’t really do the sort of routine that a diary requires.

 

My blog entries will principally relate to my running, training and so on. I’ve only found one other Masters athlete running a regular blog at present, and that’s John Shepherd whose web site is very varied and entertaining. He’s also used some of my photos.

 

So, where am I? Sore is the best way to put it. I raced the M50 sprints at the recent BMAF Championships in Birmingham. I guess I’m reasonably content with my placings (6th at 100m and 7th at 200m), but I really did want to get below 25 seconds in the 200. The first six managed that, and it remains my goal for this season. My heats and finals times were consistent, and not far off my bests, so the view I’m taking is that preparation for the Worlds in Riccione in a few weeks is on target.

 

My left Achilles tendon was a casualty in Birmingham, though. It’s been sore for several weeks, despite me religiously working at the eccentric overload training and shelling out for regular treatment. Right now, I’m in a “Catch 22” situation – it’s not stopping me from training, but training isn’t actually making it better. I’ve backed off the track work for a week or so, though the gym is particularly hot and sweaty at this time of year.

 

I also have a big bruise on my thigh from a collision with a turnstile barrier at the Mile End track last weekend. I was there to photograph my Club’s Southern League Div 3 team in action. I’ve never raced at Mile End myself. I hadn’t realised how close the track was to Canary Wharf and Docklands. It was a bit like being in Central Park, New York, surrounded by skyscrapers! The Club came third by a single point, by the way, and failed to win promotion to Div 2. Good photos, though.

 

Aside from racing in the World Masters in September, my plan is to cover us much of the GB Team as possible as a trackside photographer. I’ve just written up a schedule for where I need to be for my own events, and to cover the best of the other action. It’s a bit daunting, as the championships are spread over three stadiums and two weeks. The programme for several days lasts more than 12 hours. And to think that this is what Alison and I are doing as a main “holiday” this year.

 

Meanwhile, I’m focussing on the SCVAC Masters League Final on 19 August. We won this for several years in a row, but have just missed out for the last two years. It’ll be my final chance to see how things are progressing before Riccione. I just hope my Achilles gets through it.

E-mail: tomp2@tiscali.co.uk

A bit of a blog

October 2007

 

Well, we won the Southern Counties Masters League. What a nasty day. It rained on and off all day. Pity that the worst “on” came as I stood ready to race in the 100m. Still, I ran my fastest hand-timed 200m an hour later, so clearly no harm done.

 

I’d planned then to put all my energies into preparing for the World Masters Championships in Riccione. Typically, however, I couldn’t resist the temptation to slip in one more race, on a nice warm day at the end of August. It was only Club Championships, and I came a good second (not bad for an oldie, eh?) but I ended the day with what seemed like hamstring problems. Turns out to be some form of problem deep in the gluteal muscle. Someone called it “sprinter’s bum”. It accompanied me to Riccione, too.

 

The World Masters completed my first “set” of major championships. I’ve now run Worlds indoors and out, and Europeans indoors and out. This was the biggie, with allegedly over 9,000 entrants all told. So, why did the organisers get away with not providing any adequate warm up facilities at any of the three stadiums used? Why was the on-site catering only available from 12-2.30, and why were the tracks locked for more than two hours every lunchtime, when athletes could have made good use of them? This was, after all, a World Championships. I can’t fault the local media team, though. I was one of a small number of freelancers working alongside the official meeting photographers and was very respectfully treated throughout. Top marks.

 

Pity I can’t say the same about my 100m heat. The seeding was a lottery, but that doesn’t excuse me running a tense, poorly focused race. I was all over the place, and gutted to find that a time of just 0.01 faster than me had progressed to the semi-finals. The time the Team medics spent working on my gluteal problem did my head some good too, though, and I was in a very focused frame of mind a couple of days later, for the 200m heats. I won mine, from Lane 7. My first outright win in an international race. New Blackheath & Bromley club record by 0.03 of a second, but shy of the elusive 25 second barrier. I was really relaxed in the race – so much so that everyone told me about it.

 

It only got me Lane 7 in a very strong semi-final, and although I was less than a tenth slower than the heat, I went out at that point, in 6th place. It all did my relay team chances no harm, though, and on the final day of the championships I found myself lead off man for the M50 4x100m relay.

 

Nervous? Not really. Up for it? You bet! I don’t normally run first leg, for the Club etc, but was happy only to have one changeover to bother about. We got the outside lane, so I needed to run a blinder, in more ways than one. And it was good. I say so myself, but others told me too. Probably the fastest I’ve run a bend, and we were leading at the changeover. 46.33 heart-stopping seconds after the gun, Steve Peters crossed the line a fraction ahead of the German athlete, with the USA in third place. I’d won a World Championships gold medal!

 

Tom

New year blog 2008

 

Well, I never promised this would be a regular thing, did I?

 

The last couple of months of 2007 were a bit of a blur. Being a Masters Worlds Gold medallist (even just from a relay) was great motivation and inspiration, but you’ve still got to get the work in. I found myself hampered by a couple of persistent colds and a cough, and then an annoying calf strain. Possibly all signs of trying too hard. Just when it all seemed back on track, I damaged several back muscles while doing plyometric work at the gym, just before Christmas. All seems to have mended quickly enough, and I may even get some races in during January.

 

At the end of November, I had the privilege of attending my Club’s Masters Dinner, in celebration of a fraught but ultimately hugely successful 2007 for our teams. As Team Captain, I got to speak as well. I decided I’d reprise something I’d written for a Masters athletics magazine a little while earlier, on the topic of why Masters athletics and Masters athletes have such a low profile compared to many other sports. You can read the article here.

 

My focus is now on the World Masters Indoors, in Clermont Ferrand, just before Easter. Along the way, there’s the Southern Counties and British national championships. Always interesting at this time of year to see who’s gone up a Masters age group. My turn comes in March 2009, literally just as the European Masters Indoors in Ancona, Italy get under way.

On top of the World! Late March 2008

 

For me, major track championships are something I really look forward to, but always I know that they are going to be damned hard work. The recent World Masters Indoors in France are a case in point. I should have spent the empty day I had between travelling there and starting to compete by just chilling out and lazing about. Somehow, there was always someone to meet, and things to see, and when my alarm rang on Monday, my feet hurt already!

 

Clermont Ferrand will be remembered by athletes as the championships when call room procedures virtually broke down, and athletes were united in wondering how on earth some basic requirements, like proper warm up space came to be overlooked by the organisers. Nevertheless, it was a fantastically friendly championships. As a photographer, I was privileged to see most of the action “up close”, and as an athlete, I have few grumbles, save those already mentioned.

 

I guess it helps when things go well, though. I’d probably over-raced in the weeks leading up to France. Six consecutive weekends was pushing it a bit. However, I’d had two weeks off racing, and tapered my training, and got my head together, so the competitive animal in me was raring to go. My 60 metres campaign was initially so-so. I got eliminated in the semi-finals, which was much as I’d expected. My times were nothing special, so it was a bit of a gift suddenly to discover (with just an hour’s notice) that there would be an “A” final and a “B” final, and that I was on the “B” list. I was already warming up for the first round of the 200 metres when this became known. Winning that “B” final was a surprise, though it was definitely my best 60m race of this indoor season. I won by just .01 of a second, but knew the race was mine from about half-way. My season’s fastest time, too!

 

It was also ideal preparation for the 200 metres. I’d not expected to make the 200 m final. You can be in the top eight and make a 60m final, because there are (usually) eight sprint lanes. But for 200m, there’s just the six lanes of the circuit, and qualifying is therefore that much harder. I was very pleased to make the semi-finals, especially as the quarter finals were at 10.30 at night, and it had been a long day. At breakfast, it dawned on me that while I could make a good guess at who would fill five of the six lanes in the final, there was definitely a place up for grabs. I decided I wanted it badly enough! I got it, and ran in my first individual World Championships final.

 

Three days later, the 4x200m relay was a race I will never forget. I probably ran my best 200m ever, and we won gold in the second fastest time ever by a Great Britain M50 squad. Months before, I’d mentally settled for silver, behind what I knew would be a powerful German team.  To me, that didn’t even seem like defeat at the time, but from the moment a win for us looked possible, I really wanted that gold medal!

 

Tom