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It always happens to me in a 5K when all the young ones just go for it, no tactics at all, and all I can do is just plod around and come last but everyone cheers me on near the end.
What keeps me going is in a 10K, definetly a 10 miler and half marathon races when it is me who passes them in the last few miles. I have to smile to myself and it makes all the nightmares of a 5k a distant memory.
I have personally finished...
Second from last in a 5k, with one girl (international) and one bloke behind me. Time was 16:04
4th from last in a Herts Schools XC race in a field of about 50. Before the race the chap was saying that the top 6 runners would get a letter inviting them to run at the English schools and that 7th and 8th would likely be selected and only if a very good athlete applied for the place would they not get to race. I didn't run the next year. The year after that I was given one of the pre-selection places based on my form over the season.
Last twice in the Oxbridge seconds varsity match (injured badly)
As a sub 16 5k runner I have finished last a number of times- it happens to all of us.
Think about it- there's a chap at the olympic 10k final finishing last in about 29 minutes for 10k. The better you get the more chance you have of finishing last. There was a video up a while back of Nick McCormick (13:2x 5k, sub 4 miler, 3:32 1500m) getting lapped in last place in a 5k in 14:xx- it happens to the very best of us. It's the rare or unambitious runner it has never happened to!
I've been running for 3 years now and have been pretty much last in every race I've ever done
The only exceptions are big races like Reading half marathon and this year where I've improved a bit and so wasn't last in 2 whole races!!
At first it used to bother me but now I'm so well known that most of the marshals know me by name and I get cheered loads. In fact they tend to be very surprised if I've managed to overtake someone which gives me a good laugh. If it's a race I haven't done before then I'll put a note in with my entry saying how long I think it'll take me and asking the organisers just to return my cheque if I'm too slow - no-one has yet!
We have a local race series over the summer with 5 races all around 4 miles - the first year I did it I was last in every race and got a bottle of wine as a spot prize in every race
Thought that was very good value considering that I'd only paid about £15 to enter the series!! But they must have cottoned on to me cos although I've been last in nearly every one of those races since and haven't had a single other prize...
The only thing I do have a problem with is faster runners leaving the race after they've finished. It's amazing how stroppy they can be when the marshals stop them leaving the car park for a minute or so to allow me to pass or how fast they drive down these little country lanes which they know form part of the route - grrrr! So please, if you happen to be one of those people spare a thought for those of us who might still be struggling back to the finish
Hiya MoaT,
Good to hear from you. That bottle of wine for being last sounds like a nice little number ! I wondered why you kept coming back
. If you're doing Eynsham on Sunday then I might just be behind you as I've done naff-all training for the last . . . .3 weeks.
Re runners leaving the race - some do seem to zoom up, race fast and zoom off don't they? If, on the very rare occasion, I finish before the prize giving then I like to stay. Makes it a bit more of a social event then.
You're very determined MoaT. You succeed because you are there and you take part. You're a winner in every race.
I'm always in the last 10 (unless it's an enormous race like GNR)
I have to admit that I generally look at the likely size of the field and if it's less than a couple of hundred I might not enter
I came last in the first 10k I ran, and I don't mean just behind the rest of the field, I mean last in everyone else was back, changed and in the clubhouse waiting for the prize giving by the time I finished.
But what the hell I paid my money the same as every one else, didn't get in anyone's way and was able to say yea i can run 10k, slowly but I can do it.
I've been last the last two years in the Neolithic Marathon. It's a bit annoying that this year they have me down as DNF on the event website (and now on on the timer's website too... originally they had a time for me there, which is good as my mum went and phoned me right as I finished and I had the stopwatch on my phone so couldn't stop it...). I guess since I did come in an hour after the official cut off they are entitled! First year especially they made a big fuss of me. This year I did warn them it might happen again... it's OK as they have a walking event too, with people finishing from that. But I am determined that if I do it again I'm going to be a little closer to the cut off!
I have had mixed experiences of being a backmarker. FLM there were many people behind me, but I did have the sweeps vehicles a little too close for comfort much of the way (even got into a tangle with the blue line cleaner at one point). Sussex Beacon I had to dodge tourists, had marshalls taking up the course around me and had to ask the way from passers by towards the end. Though I did get a big welcome at the finish.
On the other hand, while I've not been last at them, London Pride 10K always makes a big fuss of the last few in (and waits for them before prize giving). I've also done Nationwide Swindon Half three times now: they have walkers do it, so as long as you are under 4 hours you are OK! (I have been last to get a free massage 3 years running though!)
I do tend to check the past results. While yes, it can be great being last, it can also be a pain seeing the course taken down ahead of you, path blocked by re-opened roads and finished runners, your size of t-shirt run out even though you ticked the right box on the form (presumably someone who didn't know there size took yours...) etc. Not to mention it isn't nice to expect marshalls to wait an hour at the end of a marathon, unless you've asked if it's OK!
I finished dead last in the 2007 Beacon Batch fell race. 5 miles and 1,000ft of climb to the summit of the Mendips. I was totaly unprepared for a start line already on a 40degree slope!
I took more than twice as long as the winner to finish in 1hour and 4min.
Philippa, delighted to have you in the Expert Elite Last Finishers' Team!
In one of my "last again" races, which was a there-and-back race along a beach, as I approached the half-way point I met the man who had been marking it, on his way back as he hadn't realised there was still one runner to come. He had to turn round and run back to the half-way point; then jogged easily along beside me all the way back, carrying the half-way marker and my drink, making conversation and (towards the end) trying to encourage me to a final spurt (I couldn't manage the spurt).
Hi folks, great to see all your comments
I shouldn't be last in the 10 mile race I'm doing this weekend ('cos it's a lot bigger than the XC) but I was last by a long way doing intervals on the track last night with the club. But I managed a good speed for me on the intervals which is what matters, haha.
Cross country next week - probably hillier than the last one I did, so even more scope for coming last spectacularly
.
Raring to go, what are you doing this weekend? I am expecting to come last this weekend.
I once came last at the Bampton 10k a few yeras ago and overheard some people saying that my friend and I should not have entered as we were so slow. That put me off for quite a while but I went back and did it again last year and wasn't last but I just needed to get it out of my system. Did get to share a bowl of fruit with my friend though.
Doing a 10k race on Sunday so another chance to be last, but this is a so called "fun run" so I can have fun and come last
The worst thing about being last in a race has to be when they follow you round in an ambulance. A bit off putting.
Finished last in a road race a few years back in 1998. It was the fist year I had started running again after abotu 13 years away. I have been back running for 9 months and racing for 7 months and in those races and realised there was quite a mix of ability and whilst not a whippet I generally finished in the top 2/3rds.
However was visiting the North-East and saw an evening 5 mile race advertised in Newton Aycliffe (30th December) and went along. As soon as I got there I started to get nervous. It was clear it was a small field and then I heard someone saying it was basically part of a league series that was pretty much frequented by good local club runners. Now really nervous. We got out onto the course. 2 laps around an industrial estate (complete with smoking chimneys - nice
)
Ran well, first sub 8 minute mile pace race and a 5 mile PB of almost a minute but yes I was last. RAN A PB AND CAME LAST
Quite amusing afterwards because somebody asked how it went and I said I struggled with the pace of the field and they said well as least you weren't the guy in the orange top at the back. Long pause but I decided it had to be done and replied "well actually that was me!"
Since then joined a club who twisted my arm back into some track racing e.g. 5,000M, 1500M etc. Have come last a few times in those and in the 5,000M regularly lapped but still running faster than 5k o nthe roads and quite enjoying it.
I decided to enter the 3,000M Steeplechase last year for a point after a guy from another club and I dared each other to run it. No I can't hurdle and wasn't even trying it (S/C hurdles don't move if you hit them !!!). So we vaulted climbed the barriers but the two of us were together and after the final water-jump (well Water bath would be more accurate) decided we would cross the line together hand-in-hand. Good laugh but the finishing method was all around the club in minutes (yep mobiles going to the A team at another match and various coaches) and still getting ribbed for it
Great post Paul.
Jubillee cup - Barnet Copthall, July 06 I think. This is basically a cup for British leage teams, so being a weedy southern league runner, I was getting a bit worried, having been entered in the 800m!!
I was in lane 8 - they read out all the names, apart from me (going well then!) and then noticed none other than David Bedford standing by the railings next to me!! *this is getting silly*
But it must as spurred me on, as I was last by 30 metres, but did 2.02 - a PB!!. So RLTW - It can be done, I think alot of people have been last at some point, I suppose we just have to vary the races we do
I would just enter without checking entries and get stuck in..far too much worrying goes on around here
I did a series of 4 club runs a couple of years back - set a PB in every one but still came last in 3 out of 4 of them!
I'm going to attempt them again this year but this time I'm doing some proper speed training
Simon - 36, I'm 45 and I bet they still haev me running an 800M on Saturday as well as a 5,000M and possibly something else - mind you it is only SML Div 3
The point about low numbers is true but had a shock recently. Like you Simon I don't check race entry numbers and entered the Cockermouth 5.5 as I was on a weeks holiday up in the Lakes. Only after I entered did I happen to look at last year's information and saw 36 entered !!! Oh dear this could be embarassing.
Similar number this year but finished about 2/3rds of the way through so quite happy and got in a good race at the end with a few others plus the memento was an Easter egg
Also there was the race, just once, when I beat the first lady home.... had to outsprint her at the end to do it mind
....don't worry - Gareth's desperate for a race
Have fun in the SML!