30 years as a runner Part 1: The track & cross-country years 1986 - 2000

Having recently entered my 30^th year of competitive running I thought now would be a fitting time to look back and reflect on how far I’ve come and what an incredible journey it’s been.  I’ve learnt so much about myself and had the most wonderful experiences that I never even dreamt existed!  Okay, there have been some very low points too, but although they are extremely hard to deal with at the time I know they’re part of the bigger picture, and part of what has made my life as a runner so special.  Thirty years is a long time, so I’ve decided to split this blog into two parts:  Part 1: 'the track and cross-country years from 1986 to 2000' follows here and Part 2: 'marathons and ultras from 2000 to present' will be coming soon!

I say that my competitive athletics career started 30 years ago, but that was when I joined Leamington C&AC (where I’ve been a member ever since).  I suppose my competitive athletics career really started at primary school, where I competed in sports days and inter-school sports.

Primary school sports day:  60m sprint (left); an early form of strength training! (right) 



My head teacher at primary school thought that girls shouldn’t run ‘long distance’ so my main events in those days were the 60m sprint and long jump.  I used to represent the school in the Henley Area School Sports, always finishing 2^nd to a girl called Jo Wise, who later went on to become Commonwealth Games long jump champion in 1998!  Coincidentally, Jo and I later found ourselves in the same class when we both moved up to the same secondary school - Stratford Grammar School for Girls.  It was there that I was finally able to run 800m and 1500m in PE lessons, and I soon realised how much I enjoyed those events.  I lacked confidence in those days and was quite timid, so it took three years of gentle encouragement from my parents before I entered the school sports day!  However, once I did (finishing 1^st in the 800m and 2^nd in the 1500m) there was no looking back!  I set new school records for the 800m and 1500m and was picked to run in the South Warwickshire School Sports.  I had a lot of encouragement from my PE teacher, Miss Lawton, and she was very instrumental in my early athletics career.  But little did my parents know what their initial words of encouragement would lead to!



Running in the South Warwickshire schools sports

In 1986 I entered the 800m in the Warwickshire Schools Championships held at Warwick University - my first race on a proper all-weather track.  It was a really close race and I finished 3^rd, just a fraction of a second behind the winner and with the same time as the second-placed athlete.  I was really excited about my result and that was probably the first time that I really thought that maybe I had some talent as a runner.  After that I really got the running ‘bug’ and pestered my parents to let me join the local athletics club – Leamington C&AC.  They eventually relented and in September 1986 my mum took me to the track in Leamington for the first time.  We met one of the coaches – Les Barnett – who sat down with the two of us and talked through various things about training and joining the club.  Les is still coaching me 30 years later.  I clearly remember that one of the things he said on that first evening (bearing in mind he’d never even seen me run!) was that who knows, perhaps I would make it to the Olympics one day.  My mum just laughed with a ‘don’t-be-silly’ kind of look; however, a small seed was planted in my mind … …



Midland Women's League Cross-country

My first race for the club was a Midland Women’s League cross-country at Newbold Comyn in Leamington and I soon realised the world of club athletics was on a different level to schools athletics!  In the few schools track races I’d done I’d consistently finished in the top three, but suddenly here I was finishing half-way down the field or more.  Okay, so it was the first time I’d ever run cross-country, but even so – what was that Les had said about the Olympics?!  I didn’t realise at the time that it would take many years of hard work, dedication and perseverance through good and bad, to eventually make the international stage.  

 

I did, however, manage to make the Warwickshire team for the Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championships in my first cross-country season.  I was thrilled to be selected – I didn’t know such opportunities existed and I felt hugely proud and honoured to be representing my county and running against people from the whole country!  The championships were held in Kettering and I finished 149^th out of 240 in the Intermediate Girls age group.  The thing I remember most about this race, though, is losing my shoe in the mud!  I’d never faced that kind of predicament before and didn’t know anything about taping them on beforehand.  I wasn’t sure what to do – stop and put it back on, or carry on regardless?!  In the end I carried on and ran half the race with my sock flapping off the end of my foot!  Luckily my dad rescued the shoe for me after the race, as he’s done several times since, most notably at Stafford Common where he had to poke around with a big stick to find it in the quagmire! 
 

One shoe on and one shoe off!

In my first senior National Cross-country Championships in 1989, at Senneleys Park in Birmingham, I finished 202^nd out of around 600 finishers.  In the same year’s Midland Cross-country Championships I was 71^st out of 130 and in the Inter-Counties Cross-country, 197^th out of about 230.



English Schools, Chesterfield 1988

Luckily I wasn’t too disheartened by my early performances and my enthusiasm for training and racing remained undeterred.  I continued competing in schools events, as well as club races, right through my school years, including sixth-form.  In fact, it was while I was in the sixth-form that I set up the school cross-country club, with the blessing of Miss Lawton, as up until then there had been no provision for running cross-country.  We used to train once a week at lunchtime and even managed to win team silver in the Warwickshire Schools Cross-Country Championships in 1988.  Altogether I won ten Warwickshire Schools medals on track and cross-country, six of them gold.  I represented Warwickshire Schools in the English Schools Cross-Country Championships in 1988 (Chesterfield) and 1989 (Hertford), but was never quite good enough to achieve the English Schools qualifying standard for the track & field championships.

Running for Warwickshire Schools

After I left school I went to Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Beckett University) to study Landscape Architecture.  At the Freshers’ Fair I made a beeline for the Poly. Athletics Club and signed up straight away.  I started training with the rest of the club under the guidance of world renowned coach Wilf Paish, with track sessions at Beckett Park, hill reps. up the infamous Carnegie Hill, long runs on the Meanwood Valley Trail, weekly circuits and even tyre-pulling strength sessions.  It was Wilf who introduced me to strength training in the gym and twice-a-day running and consequently I saw huge gains in my fitness levels.  Although Wilf set the training sessions at Leeds I never regarded him as my coach – that has always been Les’ role.  To me a coach is much more than someone who just sets training schedules.  I was still in regular contact with Les and kept him up to date with my training and racing.  However, training alongside ‘proper’ athletes at Leeds did make me realise what it would take to reach my full potential, and I was more than prepared to put in the necessary work to achieve that. 

BPSA Champs. 1991

I made some huge improvements during my time in Leeds, winning eleven British Polytechnics Championship medals (8 gold) on the track and cross-country and silver in the British Students Champs. 3000m in 1991.  I was also proud to represent both the British Polytechnics Sports Association (BPSA) and British Students Sports Federation (BSSF) on various occasions.  In 1992 I was non-travelling reserve for the World Student Cross-Country Championships in France, but sadly didn’t get to go.  Although we were all committed athletes it didn’t stop us also enjoying a social life after training, and there was plenty of joking around in the back of the mini-bus en route to fixtures the length and breadth of Britain!

 

 

 

Representing BPSA against BUSF, BCSF, WCC & RRA, Civil Service &
Combined Services, Camberley

In 1991 I won my first Warwickshire titles, first in the 800m and 1500m in the track championships, and then in the cross-country championships that winter.  In the track champs. I lowered my PBs to 2:13:2 (800m) and 4:28:6 (1500m) – both of which still stand as my PBs to this day!  Over the years I’ve won a total of fifteen Warwickshire medals on the track (6 gold) and twenty-four on the country (13 gold).  I’ve also represented Warwickshire five times on the track (including in the 400m hurdles – they must have been desperate!) and twelve times on the country.



Representing Warwickshire: 1991 Inter-counties XC, Gateshead (left) and
1989 Jackson Trophy, Leicester (right)



1998 Inter-counties XC, Cardiff

My racing took me all over the country and I’m indebted to my parents who gave up their weekends to ferry both my sister and myself everywhere from St. Helens to Rickmansworth, Carmarthen to Gateshead, and pretty much everywhere in between!  I’m forever thankful to Mum and Dad, who not only persuaded me to enter that very first school sports day, but who have also supported and encouraged me ever since.  They’ve never pushed me, or criticised me when I’ve had a bad race, but have always been there for me.  I hope that my achievements have, in some small way, repaid them and made them proud.

In front of Paula Radcliffe for
at least part of the race!

Apart from student championships, my first national-level competition was in the 1991 UK Championships 3000m in Cardiff.  The race was packed with some of the big names of the time – Liz McColgan, Jill Hunter, Karen Hutcheson, Andrea Whitcombe and a young Paula Radcliffe to name but a few.  This was the first time I’d experienced the atmosphere of a big event and all its procedures, like reporting to a call-room before the race.  It was a bit nerve wracking to say the least, but I loved being part of such a prestigious event.  I was rather overawed and couldn’t quite believe I was participating in the same meeting as the likes of Linford Christie, John Regis, Kriss Akabusi, Peter Elliott and Sally Gunnell.  I’d built up a pretty good autograph collection by the end of the day!



1991 UK Championships 3000m, Cardiff

At the end of 1992 I received a surprise letter from the British Athletic Federation inviting me to a GB Under-23 squad training day as I was, apparently, ranked in the top 10 in the GB Under-23 rankings.  I had no idea there was a GB Under-23 ranking list, let alone that I was on it!  The day was really valuable and I made lots of useful contacts, but moreover it gave me a real confidence-boost.  To know that I was ranked so high in the country, albeit in my age-group, helped me to believe in myself, and slowly my self-esteem started to grow.  I guess that the following year, 1993, was really my ‘break-through’ year.  I’d been steadily improving in my winter cross-country races as well as on the track over the last few years, but it was the 1993 National Cross-Country Championships in Luton where I broke into the top 20 at national level for the first time, finishing 18^th out of around 600 runners.  I’d come a long way from my 202^nd place four years before and it just shows that hard work, patience and commitment does produce results. Consequently, I was selected for my first England representative - England v. Combined Services v. Civil Service in Plymouth. 

 

Home Countries International, Carmarthen

I was so excited about getting my first England vest; the only problem was that there was no team manager and so we didn’t actually get any England kit!  I remember just running in an old t-shirt I’d travelled down in – it was such an anti-climax!  The race was won by a certain Kelly Holmes running in the Combined Services team.  No-one had heard of her at the time, but it wouldn’t be long before pretty much everyone had!  I finished 5^th in that race, but I had actually beaten Kelly in the Nationals a few weeks before - when I’d finished 18^th she was 31^st!  A couple of weeks later I had my second England call-up.  It had taken me seven years to get one, now I had two within the same month!  This one was a home countries international (England v. Scotland v. Wales v. Ireland) in Carmarthen and this time we did get kit!  This was a much more impressive affair, with a team parade before the race.  This time I finished 4^th and England won the team race.

 

Team parade before the race - at least we had kit this time!

I was on a real high after my two England appearances, but as is so often the way in sport I was quickly brought back down to earth with a very big bump.  I’d been suffering with pain in my left shin for some time, but naivety and inexperience meant I’d carried on regardless.  However, it got to the point where I could no longer run on it.  I was sent for various scans and it transpired that it was a full-blown stress fracture in my tibia.  I was distraught – this was my first injury and I just couldn’t comprehend that I wouldn’t be able to do the one thing I loved.  I spent many a night lying in bed in tears!  I somehow managed to get through with many hours of pool-running in the deep end of the local swimming pool, but it definitely served as a crucial lesson in the importance of listening to your body.  I ran no races at all for 8 months!



Midland Championships 1991

In 1994 I completed a post-graduate diploma at Leeds (the Poly. was by now Leeds Metropolitan University) and then got a job in Birmingham so returned back home and back to training with Les again.  The next few years were very erratic.  In 1994 I won my first Midland Counties AA title - the 3000m - and in so-doing set a new PB of 9:25:5 which still stands as my best time.  Over the years I won a total of nine medals (4 gold) in Midland Counties AA track championships and represented the Midlands four times on the track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Representing the Midlands, Bristol 1991

In 1998 I won my first (and so far only) AAA of England medal - Bronze in the 3000m in the AAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham (9:39:18).  Although I mainly concentrated on cross-country during the winter I did do a handful of indoor races over the years, first at RAF Cosford (that shows my age as that track no longer exists!) and later at the NIA in Birmingham.  In 1992 I was selected to run for the Midlands in an indoor match against a Scottish Select team at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.  I finished 2^nd and was randomly selected for a drug test after the race.  This was my first experience of the rather undignified, but necessary, procedure of having someone watch you pee!  One of my fellow students at Leeds was also selected to compete in this match and coincidentally she was also required to give a urine sample for testing.  We travelled back to Leeds together on the train afterwards and both of us spent most of the journey disappearing to the toilet for a wee due to the amount we'd had to drink!  It's a tricky business giving a sample as you have to be sure of giving a certain amount to fill two sample bottles (A and B samples).  If you can't manage enough in one go you have to start all over again as you can't add to a sample a bit later on after you've had some more to drink!

 

My second Achilles tendon operation!

In between these high points, though, I was also plagued by injuries.  I had no races at all in 1995 due to an operation on my left Achilles tendon and no races for a 12 month period in 1998 / 1999 due to an operation on my right Achilles tendon! 

At times I began to despair that I would ever get back to where I’d been in 1993.  I wondered if my England vests were going to be the pinnacle of my career and whether I would ever achieve my ultimate dream of running for Great Britain.  But somehow I still managed to find an inner determination and resolve.  I wasn’t prepared to just give up and so kept myself as fit as I could through cross-training in the gym and in the pool.  That tenacity paid off and, eventually, by 2000 I was back to my best.

By now the women’s 3000m had been replaced by the 5000m to be in line with the men’s event.  I remember running in the AAA Championships / Olympic Trials that year in Birmingham.  Running down the home straight on one lap the cheering from the crowd was almost deafening.  I then realised they weren’t cheering for me, but that Paula Radcliffe was just about to lap me!  I wasn’t the only one she lapped though and I actually had my best ever 5000m, finishing 14^th and setting my PB of 16:32:73.  It was also in 2000 that I had my first experience of competing abroad.  I was selected to run for Midland Counties AA in a match in Ghent, Belgium.  We all travelled as a team, by coach and ferry, and I roomed with a hammer thrower and another middle-distance runner, both from Staffordshire.  I won my race (3000m) and as well as a medal picked up a small amount of prize money too.  Having started to do one or two road races the concept of prize money wasn’t new to me, but some of the field event athletes found it quite a novelty as prize money in track & field meetings wasn’t typical!

Inter-counties 5000m 2000 (5th place)

As I’ve just alluded to, by the end of the 1990’s I’d started to do a few 5m and 10K road races, but it was in 2000 that I really started to move more towards the roads.  I realised that I just wasn’t fast enough to make it at international level on the track and that my future probably lay in the longer distances on the road.  Somehow I just seemed to flow better on the roads and didn’t get the mental block that I had when running round and round in circles!  And so it was that I ran my first half-marathon; but that’s another story, to be continued in Part 2 of this blog, coming soon!

The first fifteen years had been an incredible journey, from my first tentative steps on the grass track at school, to racing against the likes of Paula Radcliffe and Liz McColgan, and my first race abroad.  Joining Leamington C&AC was one of the best things I've ever done; I've always been proud to represent the club and still am today.  Being a member of the club gave me countless opportunities to race:  various Leagues; Club, County, Area & National Championships; open meetings; representative matches, the list was endless!  To me that is the whole point of it all - I love to race.  My philosophy has always been that "I train to race and race to win".  That doesn't mean that I am a bad loser, or that I don't enjoy training - far from it!  It means that my training has a purpose and that I always try to give my absolute best in both training and racing.



LC&AC Club Championships 1500m 1989 (left); 
Midland Women's League, Sutton Coldfield 1987 (right)

In those first fifteen years running had given me much more than just a way of keeping fit; it had helped to shape me as a person.  I became more confident in all other areas of my life too and learnt many things about myself.  However, although I didn’t know it at the time, the next fifteen years were to hold even more exciting opportunities!

Part 2 coming soon!