Run Report: Magic Mile

For the last 3 years the lads at Marathon Talk (a free UK podcast by runners, for runners aimed specifically at those of us who are stupid enough to run marathons), have run a Magic Mile event to try to get runners around the world to train for and aim for their fastest mile.

This year the competition aspect on their website was men Vs women, with points for age graded results coupled with a participation bonus (how many of each 'signed-up' gender actually logged their completed mile) to get the total for each gender.


I love this idea (The Mile, not necessarily the gender competitiveness), and decided to encourage club members to sign up and participate.

We ran 2 Magic Mile events, on consecutive Wednesday evenings on the 28th of August and the 4th of September.

fter a gentle jog down to the Salt Line, each runner started from just inside the first gate and ran a full-on mile at their best effort to the finish line near the gate at the bottom near the bypass. This is not an easy run, as many found. On the first attempt I set of too fast and with around 400 metres left to go detonated spectacularly and reduced myself to a walk trying not to blow my lungs out.

The second evening was near perfect conditions as I made my way to the start with Giles, hoping to do better than my previous attempt. Paul Barnett arrived just before I set off, and as he was aiming for a 5:59 time, so we set off and I hung on for dear life as we hared off down the Salt Line. When we crossed the finish line I had clocked 5:58, behind Paul who had managed 5:54!
 

As the rest of the club members came down the path in a variety of states of breathlessness, quite a few set some really good personal results, and I have to say I think that even if its just once a year, it does us all good as runners to have a goal that means we have to go faster and step outside our comfort zone every once in a while.

So roll on next year, and I will try to improve on the organisation of the event and hope to involve even more club members and get an improved event in terms of timings and recording finish results.

Oh, and the men won!

For more information, visit the website.

Steve Treweeks