On 12th May I took part in the Mow Cop Killer Mile. This was my second time running the Killer Mile with my course PB of 9:14 coming in the 2017 Killer Mile. That year I ran the race a few days prior to the Berlin Marathon, this time I ran it a few days after Ironman 70.3 Mallorca. Just a slight change going from a 70.3 mile race to a 1 mile race.

So the Mow Cop Killer Mile is a local race for me and it is a bit of a local legend. It certainly lives up to its name with 575ft of elevation gain over that 1 mile course. The gradient peaking at 25% for a couple of stretches. It is a tough one.

I have run this hill a number of times in training since the last race in 2017. Yet as all my other race times have improved massively, my PB up this hill has only progressed to 9:02 but progress is progress, right?

This is a good old-fashioned race where the course record has stood for over 22years. A course that has been untouched by the new developments in shoe technology. No carbon plate or high stack height is going to help you on this one.

I was in the club run this year now I am with City of Stoke AC. In 2017 I wasn’t with a run club so I did the fun run… nothing fun about it!

Having just raced the 70.3 in Mallorca I was not expecting anything special from today, to be honest, I went there with no plan other than go out hard and see what I can hang on for.

I ran a short 2 mile warm-up from home to the bottom of the hill, did some strides and lined up on the start line. I went out hard as “planned”, probably too hard but we never learn. After getting over the first of two 25% sections I was in 6th place but breathing heavily.

I backed off slightly on this middle section, this wasn’t as steep as the early part and certainly not as steep as what lay ahead. Don’t get me wrong, the 11% gradient was still tough and it sounds silly saying 11% was a chance to recover the breathing but that just sums up this mile.

As you get around 0.7 miles in you can see the road rise in front of you, it feels like you are heading towards a wall.

I had to stop and walk a little bit just before the 25% section. I knew I should have kept pushing to the steep part and walked that bit but my legs just stopped. I got going again and ran part way up the steep section before walking for 20secs again. This dropped me back into the pack to around 25th place.

Getting back running on the steep section was tough but a must. That mini-break had given me a second wind and I was pushing back up the field again. The final few hundred meters are fairly flat so I pushed hard finishing up in 14th place in a new course PB of 8:50. I feel quite pleased with that coming straight off a middle-distance triathlon with very little speed work recently.