On the 6th February, I ran the Alsager 5. This is actually the first time I have run this one despite only living 3 miles from Alsager. For one reason or another it has never fallen right for my training schedule but this year I decided to go for it.

I haven’t run a road race since the Tatton 10k in June 2021. I have just come off the back of a mini cross country season… two races, if you can call that a season but hey, it is the best XC season I have had lol, it’s a low bar all around.

I didn’t have any specific goal for this race, just go out and have a hard tempo session really. Alsager 5 is a 5 mile race which is a distance I haven’t raced over before so it was a tricky one to work out the pacing. Do you just go out at 5k pace and hope to hang on over the extra 1.9 miles or play it safe and set out at 10k pace and look to build the pace as you go.

As you can see from the weather forecast below, today wasn’t the best conditions for a fast race.

Given that wind I decided to play it safe and set out around 10k pace, or more so around what I think I could run 10k at now. My PB pace would be around 6:00/mi but I feel I am closer to 5:50/mi now given how well my recent club speed sessions have been going with the City of Stoke AC Endurance group.

Splits: 5:54, 5:49, 5:51, 5:54, 6:01

There are a lot of very fast runners in the North West region of England so I knew I wouldn’t be anywhere near the front. I lined up at the start about 10 back from the front and even then felt like I was probably too close to the action.

When the race got going, the start was fast and frantic, it was a tight crowd and tough to get into your flow for the first quarter-mile I’d say. I was weaving around people despite only going around 7:00/mi pace, clearly, I had misjudged it and should have just pushed closer to the front.

I eventually found some space and got into my rhythm bringing the pace down. The first mile was slower than planned but only by 4 seconds and that isn’t a bad thing.

The next two miles I was pushing on through the field, I passed 5 fellow City of Stoke AC runners, again, making me think I should have just lined up closer to the front. My pace was on target and I felt comfortable. My heart rate was high as you would expect but under control. Mile 4 was slightly uphill into town and in places, the wind was in your face. This made the pace tough to control, I was running in surges between the wind gusts and this was spiking my heart rate. Still, only 4secs off my target pace. Pretty much going to plan.

Mile 5, the final mile. Time to dig deep and push for a strong finish! Then we turned a corner and ran straight into that 40mph headwind. With tired legs, lungs screaming and the mind wanting to slow me down, that headwind was the last thing we needed. I pushed as hard as I could. I was using people down the road as targets to chase/race. This was my slowest mile coming in at 6:00/mi pace but with an asterisk by it for that 40mph headwind.

What did make me happy was passing a runner from Newcastle Staffs AC in the final half a mile. Four weeks earlier at the Staffordshire County Cross Country Championship, he had passed me on the second lap and ran away from me, I had no answer. Fast forward a month and some solid training on the road to recovery and I am catching and passing him. Progress!

In the end, really happy with a 29:45 on a 5.1 mile course, average pace was 5:54/mi so a little off target but it was a difficult windy day and still early in the year. Very happy to be back racing on the roads again and running injury-free.

I will definitely be back in 2023 to see whether I can push under 29 minutes.