"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Weston Prom Run - March 2023 - North Somerset

The Prom Run has become an old and familiar friend over the years. It always delivers a great chance to run flat-out on a perfectly flat course, though the weather determines your speed as much as your fitness does. The wind can be like a wall. On this occasion though, it was calm and still. I arrived moderately early, with time to meditate for a while in the warm car before pinning on my number and venturing out onto the chilly and damp seafront. There was a chance of light rain but it hadn’t really come to anything and the sky was serving up Turner-esque towers of cloud, with deep blue breaks in between, over the Bristol Channel. You could see the lights of Newport and Cardiff far in the distance and the outline of the Welsh hills.

I warmed up, overdressed in fleece as well as windproof, limiting the pre-race run to not more than a jog/walk at first and then (when the calves had proved they were in good, flexible shape) some accelerations and strides. That kept me occupied until we gathered in the lee of the Tropicana for the usual inaudible instructions and the perfectly audible countdown to the start. I went off with a group about a third of the way down the order and crossed the chip-mat within a couple of seconds, gliding through the first half-mile into a headwind from the south. After the first cone I had the wind at my back but wasn’t getting any faster – I could feel a little residual fatigue from recent long runs and I realised I’d have to set my sights on something modest like 33-dead rather than the 32-something I’d surprised myself with on my previous prom run.

After that the race got steadily harder as the time elapsed, as the pace stayed the same and the wind was in our faces one way and our back the other. I’ve started calling the northern end of this course The Great Curve (after the song) and it does seem to last longer than it should. Time is near enough frozen when you’re at full race effort, willing each landmark to pass and draw you closer to the finish. When the final stretch came, to the start line that was now the finish line, it was into the teeth of that southerly wind and hard work all the way, but I did manage to get under 33. 32:58, that made me 55th overall out of 201 and 7th out of 23 in age-group. Reasonable for me.

I didn’t have much oomph left in me after that, and I was keen to head home before I got cold, but I persuaded myself to walk/jog a mile or so to ease the race out of my legs. I wonder if I’ll make it back here for the April race, as the seasons start to turn at pace, bringing daylight to the prom and more pedestrians to dodge? I drove home slowly and took a wrong turn on the way out of town, not surprisingly given the level of effort expended in the race. I also had that quiet satisfaction that comes after giving it all up on the course and not holding anything back.

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