After the last successful ‘private’ visit of our favourite form coach Shane Benzie to Gibraltar in January, we spoke of getting him back to do a bigger, group session. Having jumped through a few hoops locally, we secured a room at the Lathbury Sports Complex - with a big TV for analysis, and use of the track - for the weekend of 20 and 21 June.
It was full-on summer, humid in the mornings and hot in the afternoons, and the session started at 10am on Saturday 20 June with no air con (broken) and no TV (no remote/couldn’t turn it on). Once we’d figured out where the hidden button to navigate the TV was, and nabbed a fan from centre manager’s office, we were ready to go.
Ken getting some one-on-one coaching out on the track on the Sunday.
We had 12 athletes, mainly from Carpe Diem Running Club but also some of the crew from Crazy Morning Runners, plus triathlete Charlie, Hyroxer Kyrone and our mate Tim who we ran Boston with - a friendly, perceptive bunch, all keen to learn. Shane introduced himself, got everyone to share a bit about themselves, then it was straight out to the track for the ‘before’ of the day’s ‘before and after’ filming of running form.
Interspersed with stories, impromptu advice on everything from training shoes to triathlon transitions, and anecdotes, Shane went through everyone’s videos, helping the athletes to spot where they could improve. Then we repeated, and repeated - I think we had seven sessions out on the track in total across the seven hours together, as foot landing/takeoff technique, leg movement, arms, posture, head position and more were experienced, watched on video, understood and improved upon.
Our hastily produced flyer for the event - we’ve never arranged anything like this before but I was pleased and proud of Gibraltar for getting behind our first try at something like this.
It was a storming success - to a person, everyone left with a completely different view of how to run, lots to think about and put in to practise, and were all appreciative of our efforts to get Shane here. Before and after the ‘main’ day he squeezed in a few private sessions with local runners we’d previously pointed his way, and I dropped him at the airport on the Sunday with firm plans for a return early in the new year for even longer - possibly a beginner day, an intermediate day and a day of private sessions.
It’s great to facilitate bringing this calibre of coach to the Rock, and whatever happens next, I strongly feel that this is the start of something. Personally I loved enabling this along with Faye, because I know what a difference his coaching made to my own running, playing a big part in moving my marathon PB from 3:31 to 2:59. I am sure we’re going to see some equally impressive changes in the running of some of the athletes who attended this weekend.
Thanks to Nicola at Carpe Diem Running Club, and also to Maurice and Jonathan at GAAA for helping us to make this happen.