I admire Chris's attitude to his running. Always a run or a race to enjoy, he runs for the moment and is not intimidated by the abilities and threats of his competitors or the effects of a run today on his own performance for a race tomorrow. He could have got a PB at Hollins Green the other week, for example. It would have been a very handsome PB, a fast 5k, he recorded a respectable time, but was just 7 seconds shy. That is 7 seconds over a PB which he recorded at ParkRun that very same morning!
Chris accuses me of being a fussy runner, choosy about where and when I run. I fear he may be right. The notion of 'destroying' your chances of a 'good' result for an 'important' club race by doing a ParkRun or similar on the same day is one I can't quite rationalise. I highlight these words for clarification of the importance of this issue...or not! I am one of those who likes to 'keep his powder dry' and rest a full day before a race. Saving myself. Not Chris, his fuse never goes out.
'But what if you get beaten', I ask all anxiously, 'or get a rubbish time?' 'Rich' he replies, laughing at me, 'there's always tomorrow'...or this afternoon! I blame the Club. It makes us all competitive and clearly we handle this in different ways. Whatever you think of Chris's casual and somewhat focusesless approach, to run two fast 5k's in a day, with a handful of seconds between them, one of them being a massive PB, it kind of works for him, whether he admits it or not. I'm not doing Buxton tonight, obviously!
