As a kid my mum & dad would have the football on the radio on a Saturday afternoon. My parents are Teessiders and we have been brought up with the character building infliction of being a family of Boro fans.
There was nothing better than the era of Ali Brownlee & Bernie Slaven being in charge of our audio descriptions of what was happening on the game. Even if we could watch the game on telly Ali & Bernie would provide our audio. Even if we had been to the match we were engaged with what Ali & Bernie’s thoughts on the game.
My brother has run the Ali Brownlee 5km a couple of times, it used to take place on a Friday evening but this year it moved over to a Sunday morning. RunForAll have taken charge of the event over recent years.
A super well organised event, based at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough. This meant that toilets where plentiful, if the weather had been taking the script of the days before then there would be places to stay dry & warm in the concourse (although I was super grateful that the weather was in fact PERFECT).
So, whilst this hadn’t been a race I had had on the calendar I decided to embrace it with my new training attitude. Put myself in situations where I needed to turn the dial. Race myself fit to some degree (although I won’t be doing stacks and stacks of races).
The race stays at the stadium side of the A66 and it a flat course (other than an out & back over the flyover road right at the end of the race which provided a wee sting in the tail of the course). Running down off the fly over you then make your way down to the stadium and on to the pitch for your sprint finish.
It was a seasons best for me so the theory is showing some fruit and the change of attitude is giving me some evidence of progress – win/win.
Definitely a great race, with fab marshals, great facilities, a fast course on the whole & a superb atmosphere. Would recomend!
Now onto a training week before a week that adds a little something different :-)
