Race date: Wednesday 13th April 2016

And so the second of my midlife crisis attempts at sprinting takes me back to the venue of my first runs just 4 week ago, Princess Mary Stadium, Cleckheaton, the home of Spenborough AC.

But the circumstances were wildly different this time. No U11’s long jump or U15’s 100m, it was V35+ only at the first of four Northern Masters Track and Field League meetings of the spring/summer.

Note: Northern Masters seem to be having an identity crisis at the moment, so you’ll see them called both Northern Vets and Northern Masters.  But they are the same thing.

Track events on offer were 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 3000m. On the field you could turn your hand to Shotput, hammer and Long Jump. Entry fee was a one-off £5 for upto four events.

Entry numbers were low across most events, but the competitors were good humoured and there to enjoy themselves. That’s not to say the competition wasn’t fierce, us old guys and girls still want to win you know?

The 100m was the second event up. There was one ladies races and then enough men to make two races; under 50’s and over 50’s.

My under 50’s race was made up of 6 runners. We approached the blocks and i’d been telling myself I needed to start better. So as the gun cracked I thought i’d done it, only to be foiled by the runner in lane one making a false start, grrrrr! Second time of asking the inevitable happened and I fell out of the blocks (factually, there aren’t any blocks, unless you take your own). But regardless it was a terrible start and I was left with the prospect of chasing down four guys in front of me for 80m having given them a two yard start. I managed to rein one of them in on the line but couldn’t get near the other two. Times show a dead heat for third place in 13.0 seconds.