SportsShoes Blog

Sportsshoes.com are pleased to announce that we are supporting an exciting new running event taking place in Bradford in October. The Bradford City Run’ is designed for both runners and ‘first-striders’ alike to give you your own personal challenge within a festival atmosphere. Elite racers will relish the challenge (along with the prize fund) whilst fun-runners can use the event to build up to bigger challenges ahead. The unique nature of the course – using two distinct 5mile loops north and south from the city centre – means that entrants can opt to do just one this year and then go further next time. Choose from doing the 10mile race, 5mile run or a 4 person relay (over 10miles). For the younger ones there is a 2mile junior fun run. It will be held over closed roads from the city centre and out to two of the showcase parks, Lister Park and Bowling Park, on Sunday 18th October 2009. A full entertainment programme will run alongside in Centenary Square. For more information and to enter visit bradfordcityrun.com.

The race will be starting outside the Sportsshoes Unlimited shop in Bradford and will be attended by some of our staff, who will also be participating in the race! It should be a great day out for all ages and you will have the chance to test your running skills against some of the best runners in the city as well as some of our very own highly trained staff!

We hope to see loads of you there …

And good luck from the whole team here at Sportsshoes.com.

This weekend it was the Ben Nevis Fell Race.

A quick whizz up and down the highest mountain in Britain.

Although not high in global terms at 4406 feet it’s quite a lump and as the weather is ‘unpredictable’ at best it’s not a race to be taken lightly.

This was my 5th Ben race so I’m getting used to it now and know what to expect but those folk tackling it for the first time - including my two mates Andy Jebb and Steve Firth - couldn’t have chosen a worse year.

Whilst the rest of the country had reasonably fine weather last weekend there was a huge rain cloud pinned firmly over Fort William and it had great fun in spewing its contents all over us from the minute we arrived to the minute we left.

The inclement weather did nothing to deter the hardy fell running community and 470 runners marched behind the pipe band to the start line on Claggan Park where, at 1pm on Saturday, a hooter sent us on our way to do battle with Ben.

The start is very fast as it’s a run along a relatively flat tarmac road to the foot of the hill but once through the gate at the road end it’s all up hill for the next 4 miles!!

After a bad start I got into position on the road using other runners as markers to set my pace and once on the track just settled into my own rhythm making sure I didn’t overcook it on the climb. To me the Ben is a real race of two halves - it sounds obvious but to get a good time you need to have a good climb and a good descent - over doing the climb can kill your descent and a poor climb time is almost impossible to catch back up on the way back down.

As we neared the summit my team mate Rob Jebb came out of the mist looking strong and fast and it was some time before his nearest rival appeared so it was looking good for a Bingley win.

The weather got progressively worse and by the top it was very cold and windy - I thanked the marshals (who are true heros in these conditions), gave them my numbered tag and turned to make my descent.

I had a couple of other team mates just ahead to keep me focussed and I had to stop myself from going too quick at the top where it would be very easy to fall ending any chance of a good time.

The conditions on the grassy slope that leads down to the Red Burn were the worst I’d seen and my pal Ian Goodyear who this year ran his 21st Ben race also said he’d never seen the mountain quite as wet as it was on Saturday.

My descent was steady rather than spectacular but I felt good all the way down and as I neared the road for the last mile of tarmac I caught my mate and fellow Bingley Harrier Paul Mitchell. I felt a little guilty as I passed him as this is the third race this year where I’ve pipped him in the closing stages.

I toughed it out on the road (a bit I never like) and trotted round the swampy field to cross the line in 1 hour 54 mins. This was 2 minutes slower than last year but I don’t think it was too bad considering the conditions.

Overall I was pleased with my result finishing 48th out of 464 finishers and with Rob going on to win the race for Bingley in a great time of 1 hour 32 minutes and another 3 Bingley runners in the top 50 it wasn’t a bad day for the lads from Yorkshire…..

At the presentation evening two Harriers, Ian Goodyear and Mick Ford, collected their awards for completing 21 races (Mick has now done 21 consecutively which I think is a stunning achievement), Rob took top honours and my room mate James won the trophy given every year to the person finishing  in 100th position - he wasn’t too pleased about this as it’s his worst ever result but we reckon he’d done a cheeky bit of maths on the way round to ensure he came home with some silverware.

I must also give an honourable mention to my buddy Steve Firth who completed the Ben for the first time. Steve’s not been running all that long and only got an entry quite late in the year. This was a big step up from anything he’d done before but he did a fantastic time and I’m sure he’ll be back again next year to set a new PB - well done matey!! 

Post race celebrations went on well in to the wee hours and there was some fantastic war of the roses style Yorkshire v Lancashire beer fueled banter between the lads from Clayton-Le-Moors Harriers and the Bingley boys.

A greasy breakfast and a long drive home recounting tales from the weekend finished off another memorable Ben weekend.

Next up it’s the 3 Peaks Cyclo Cross - better go and dig my bike out again….

Raced a lot since my last post! After Germany the next big race was Holland Hills, a UCI race which was really tough….basically, anyone who thinks Holland is flat would definitely change their mind after looking at the course! After only 4km disaster struck as there was a crash, which brought down my team mate Katie, who crashed into my back wheel.  Thinking I was ok I carried on, then realised that my wheel had been damaged in the crash so I had to wait for a replacement. This took longer than expected as the car was back at the crash sorting out a spare for Katie, so in the end we both had to chase back on to the main group for a good 45min! I spent pretty much the rest of the race in the main group then after leading out my teammate Sharon into one of the climbs I finally cracked and was dropped, finishing in the second group in 50th place.

After Holland Hills, we had a hard week of training, with 3 races and hard training days in between to try and simulate the sort of fatigue we would be feeling in a couple of weeks time when we did Trophee d’Or, a stage race in France.  In one of the races in Hoeleden I got another 2nd place to GB rider Joanna Rowsell, which I was fairly pleased about but disappointed I didn’t win. 

After a tough week it was time to ease off a bit then make the very long journey to France for Plouay World Cup. On the way, during one of the service station stops I managed to get in touch with school to get my A level results! I got an A in Psychology and 2 B’s in Human Biology and English Lit, so was really happy…..and celebrated with….a Magnum ice cream!!

Once we got to our hotel for the race we met up with Olympic and World Champion Nicole Cooke who was also riding for GB that weekend, and went to look around the course. It was basically a 19km circuit which consisted of climbs and descents with very little flat in between, which was to be completed 6 times - so I knew it was going to be hard once it got to race day!

Saturday came and it was as expected - hard! It rained early on in the race which was pretty scary once it came to descending the hills! I finished the race after getting dropped in a group of about 20 riders - but we were too far down on the winners time to be given a placing.

From Plouay it was another long drive to Bourges where we had a couple of easy days then into Trophee d’Or.

had a really good summers training and am rearing to go for the new season!

season kicked off in london this week for the world open qualifying with the prize being a place in the main draw alongsid the best players in the world in the richest tournament to date.

i played adil maqbool from pakistan, ranked65. winning the 1st in tiebreakwhich proved crucial as an energy drop in the second levelled the match 1 all. took the 3rd 11-9 and the 4th 11-8 to claim me place in the main draw.

next up is wolverhampton!