‘Time is my greatest enemy’
Eva Peron
It was an absolute pleasure to run the Ealing Half Marathon for the third time at the weekend. From the outset of my training plan for the race this year, I told myself that I’d be delighted if I could improve my time from my previous attempts. I put in a great deal of work in the early summer period, and then when I was on holiday, combining longer, slower runs with tempo runs at my target half marathon pace, some hill sessions and faster interval sessions to build pace.
Despite a severe drop in the amount of mileage I’ve been able to put in over the last few weeks – due to the fact that I’ve been so busy at the College – I went into race day feeling reasonably confident.
This time, I told myself, I’d run the first half to two thirds with my head, keeping my pace within myself so that I didn’t ‘burn all of my matches’ too early. Anyone who has run the Ealing half will know that scaling the heights of Greenford avenue partway between kilometre 12 and 13 is one of its biggest challenges. Though the last few metres of getting to the top of it brought me a temporary cramp in my hamstring which I needed to stretch out before I could continue, I knew that once it was out of the way, I could up the pace and push to see what I was capable of.
The last two attempts I had made were a study in going off too fast. Following the 1:40 pacer with reckless abandon before panicking as I saw the 1:45 pacer glide past me, and then hanging on for dear life in the last few miles.
Not this time.
I decided that this time I’d keep at a steady 5 minutes, or thereabouts, for the first 14 and then start to raise my game. Other than the Greenford Avenue aberration, the plan worked well. It was only when I got to 18km, and saw 1 hour 30 on my watch, that I knew it was possible to beat my course personal best of 1 hour 47 and 1 second.
I kept pushing for the last few kilometres and turned into Walpole park for the final half mile or so. Running through this park was something incredibly familiar to me, being as close to the College as it is. The familiar path seemed to encourage me to lift my speed, and I found a little more in the tank with which to drive forward.
I was able to overtake a few runners, then a few more and then I burst past another small group as I approached the finish line, completing the last 60 metres in 15 seconds.
I had timed my burst, and indeed my race, almost perfectly to meet my goal. I looked at my watch as I stopped it…
1:46:58.
But what perhaps felt best was that I didn’t feel utterly drained at the end. It felt comfortable. In fact, as I made it back to College, where I had parked my car, the first thing which greeted my ears was, ‘You look like you’ve just been out for a walk.’
It was Maria, who had helped out by looking after my daughter Molly and nephew Harrison whilst I ran the race.
My time wasn’t particularly impressive – I only just finished inside the top 25%.
It wasn’t my personal best for the distance either – I did that in Berlin a few years back.
But it felt incredibly good to do what I had set out to do – to beat a target.
‘What does this have to do with education?’ someone might say.
Well, quite a lot actually.
To my mind, the reason why I managed this was because I had put so much hard work from June to August, and trained my legs to cope with this distance. I had run further and for longer than ever I had before. And this is exactly the sort of approach – hard work with books, lessons and studies, rather than runs – that students should take.
Get it in early – get it done now.
Last week in assembly, I spoke to the students about judgement and scrutiny, and how this needed to be welcomed into their lives rather than shied away from.
They started this journey with an end destination in mind – reading their CAT4 data, and considering what they would need to do in order to reach or potentially exceed it.
I pointed out that they would have ten judgement days this year, leading to the ultimate judgement day of exams at the end of it, to see how close they were to this.
Judgement day number 1 is the release of September Months Marks on Wednesday, where students will receive details of how they have been performing so far, with attainment and effort grades to offer clear guidance in terms of progress.
I made clear that it is imperative to reach high standards quickly and keep them there. Much like my race approach, I found a good pace, and I stuck with it.
I finished the day today with a really productive meeting with one of our longest serving students, along with his parents, as he took stock one month into the final year of his GCSEs.
He was happy and content with his progress, and this is not something which he has always been able to say.
We spoke about strategies to get himself ready to perform well at the end of the year – and all of these were rooted in hard work, and starting early in order to set the tone for success.
He knew what his targets were, how he could get the best from himself, and that now is the time to get things moving. His mature, empowered approach, proactive and safe in the knowledge that he knows who to ask for support and how relentless he needs to be to get where he wants to be.
Setting realistic goals, and making steady gradual progress towards them through hard work – in running and in school – is well within the power of anyone.