Running Backwards

All round work out - mental and physical!

On Saturday I went along to Heaton Park in Manchester to support my very good friend, Mark who was taking part in the UK Backwards Running Championships. Mark often gets involved in more unusual activities. He has been known to walk across hot coals in the past and is a regular winner in Cani X events so it was no surprise that backwards running pushed his buttons and he has been training for the last few weeks.

The event had attracted a good number of participants. Some were entered for the actual UK champs and some were taking part in the fun run. Both were to tackle a one mile route with a long hill in the middle of it. The course was triangular. The start was half way along the flat straight. The runners then turned up the hill on the second side of the triangle and down the hill on the third side. They finished along the flat again. It was a tough course for running backwards but also a fairly safe course. The paths were wide and well maintained with long straights so there was long sections to run without having to look behind.

The star of the show was Garret Doherty who is the reigning World Champion. It was hard not to notice him as cameramen and reporters were swarming around him, snapping his picture and pushing voice recorders into his face. This was before the race! Garret is clearly very passionate about his backwards running and is on a mission to raise its profile and encourage the masses into this sport. He hails from Ireland and had let it be known that he would pay anyone who could beat him one thousand euros!

Mark wasn’t the only runner that I knew at the event. One talented seventeen year old runner, Laura Riches was there to support the event. Laura has received funding for her running through one of the foundations that was involved in the event. Laura is also a talented rugby player so backwards running is not new to her, however, she was taking part in a track and field meeting for her athletics club in the afternoon so she decided to take it easy in the fun run. She got talking to Garret before the start and mentioned to him that she was learning to drive. This prompted Garret to talk about the benefits of backwards running and one of these is apparently exercise for the right side of the brain which will help Laura with her driving!

Before the race there was a thorough health and safety briefing, delivered in a somewhat patronising manner by a woman who was clearly a very irritating and swotty prefect when she was at school.. “when you come to a corner, please look behind you”…with the voice rising at the end of the sentence and her eyes rolling as if to say “I know there are some of you who are thick and won’t think of this for yourself”….and “if your legs start to wobble, for goodness sake move onto the grass and off the tarmac so you won’t hurt yourself too much when you fall over…”! Once we had endured this the race got underway. Garret was off to a flying start and it was clear that his one thousand euros were very safe. I went to the top of the climb and was delighted to see that Mark was in second and a good way clear of the rest of the field. It is very weird taking photos of a backwards race. I took photos of Garret and Mark as I would normally take photos in any other race but of course you get the back of their heads and not their faces. It wasn’t until Mark had gone past that I thought to turn around and get a picture of him from behind that was actually of the front of him, if you know what I mean. I really should have taken some pictures of the everyday park users and their reactions to it. Some were clearly amused, some were scratching their heads in disbelief and others looked as though they were having their patience tested and were not too obliging when asked to move out of the way for the runners.

I’m sorry to say that Garret increased his lead on Mark by the end of the race when he was absolutely flying into the finish but Mark also increased his lead over the rest of the field. Garret smashed the course record by 24 seconds. He ran the mile loop in 7:06. Mark came in in 8:51. The rest of the field were more than a minute behind Mark. I’ve not heard from him since but I expect he’s probably planning the next challenge…the World Champs perhaps…or maybe another running disclipline that has the onlookers shaking their heads or fists depending on their attitude!