‘What on earth am I doing here?’ 

Words to that effect were racing through my mind as I stood on the start line for a one mile event at the Lee Valley VeloPark last Saturday.

Three other Wymondham AC runners and I had decided it would be a bit of fun to make the trip to London and see exactly where our speed was ahead of 2025.

It seemed like a good idea when we booked it with Runthrough, then as we got nearer the time the realisation set in that we had booked to travel to London on the final weekend before Christmas for a race that would last between five and six minutes, all being well.

Throw in the fact we had the Wymondham AC Cake Run Christmas party the night before and it’s fair to say that as I stood on the start line, slightly dehydrated from the previous evening’s festivities, I was contemplating my life choices.

There had been talk about running Hackney Marshes parkrun beforehand but fortunately sanity prevailed for perhaps the only time on the day and we got a coffee instead.

It had been billed as a ‘One mile race + kids race’ but it was pretty clear as we shuffled to the start line that the emphasis was on the latter part.

We just about stopped short of doing the hokey cokey on the start line and myself and my WAC contingent found ourselves pretty far back. I felt like a giant stood next to kids, many of whom could have been no older than my six-year-old son.

I’ll be honest though, I hadn’t come all this way, slightly hungover, to be held up in the first few hundred metres by children... no chance.

I pushed aside feelings of embarrassment and decided to own the fact that here was essentially a 42-year-old man ready to run a children’s mile as fast as he could. Thank goodness I had the company of wife, Alison, Kate Gooding and Matt Webster.

Several people I had spoken to about race tactics had all told me the same thing – just run as hard as you can.

So as the race started, I absolutely hammered it to the front of the field, sidestepping several youngsters on the way to the front of the field. I heard Matt just behind me fortunately but as he passed me after about 200m the sad realisation set in that I had completely overcooked it.

The lactic acid took hold, and I went into survival mode. The blustery conditions also didn’t help but I just tried to keep passing as many people as I could – many of whom were running the other distances (you know, adult ones) available on the day.

I was finding out the hard way that you cannot sprint a mile though. I glanced at my watch on several occasions wondering just how much more of this torture I had to endure.

The rolling hills (and yes, they were hills) didn’t help but I managed to hold off the attention of another adult as the home straight came into view and found a little something extra to finish in 5:34.

It wasn’t exactly the time I was hoping for, I thought perhaps I could get into the 5:20s but after my rather hasty start I wasn’t too disappointed.

It was a big learning curve in running a mile – a distance that not many runners concentrate on running flat out. There’s definitely more to it than just running hard – you need to know a bit more about where your fitness is.

I’d love to do another one – but maybe alongside a few more adults next time.