The 12 Dave’s Of Christmas #2 – Dave Moir

Our second installment of our Seasonal Feature, The 12 Dave’s Of Christmas continues today with our very own Club Treasurer .. Mr. Dave Moir

I didn’t start running until I was in my mid 30s back in 2003. I hadn’t done any exercise at all for about 20 years before that, so not too sure why I even gave it a go other than to get a bit fitter. I entered a couple of half marathons, then went along to a club, got bitten by the racing bug and started training as though I was going to get into the Olympics (probably a bit slower than those that did though). Incredibly, despite a large amount of poor training habits and too many long sessions I seem to have avoided any serious injury, but if I do have a niggle, then the amount of whinging I do, seems to be a little disproportionate to the actual ailment.

I’ve ran 11 marathons now, including the one in Ironman UK and broken a world record (with the help of 9 others, many of which are now running for Tyne-Bridge Harriers) and I’ll even have a go at the steeple chase, if no one else will do it.

My favourite race is probably the St John’s Chapel fell race as I’ve won it for the past 6 years, but I did enjoy the Windermere Marathon and the Conniston 14 (when it was actually 14).
Pet hates illegal wearing of headphones during a race – there’s a gentleman who competed in the Edinburgh Marathon who cut me up near the start who was wearing them and probably won’t be in a race ever again!!

Worst for me was London – I sprained an ankle in Jan/Feb time which meant I missed a lot of long runs. I failed to adjust my race plan to take this into consideration, and realised at the half way point that although I was on target, I was also completely done in. That was the worst 13.1 miles I have ever ran after that, and I’ve been put off London ever since. Despite this, and this is important kids, if you don’t fail at something, or do badly at a race, then you can’t learn and then improve next time. That race was a big painful learning curve for me, but I’ve learned a lot from it, and I’m running much better now than I was back then. Now if I could only learn how to not go off too fast in races, I’d be sorted!!

Aspirations for next year – PB’s all round for Steeplechase, 5K, 10K, 10M, Half Marathon and Full marathon. Try some new stuff on the track (not the High Hurdles or Pole Vault). Have 200 members in TBH and a structure in place for the kids section to develop.

Dave Moir
TBH

We’ll have another Dave in the Festive Spotlight tomorrow