MASTER CLASS

Congratulations to Lisa Thomas on winning the Athletics Weekly Masters Athlete of the Year Award, as voted by readers. Not only was Lisa taken completely by surprise by the nomination, but she also had no idea she had won until Club mates flagged it up.

The award underlines her achievements last summer, which were a triumph of persistence over injury and illness. During lockdown she was diagnosed with polymyalgia, an auto-immune condition which can cause stiffening of the muscles and joints, which she has learned to manage through changing her diet. She lost twelve weeks to an ankle injury, and then of course there were the difficulties imposed by Covid on everyone. ‘For all of us it was a challenge through the lockdowns to hold our form and be mentally patient’, she says.

In August, however, she finally managed to achieve her goal of setting a new world W55 2000m Steeplechase record. Her time of 7:51.91, achieved at Perivale, smashed the previous record of 7:58.43 by Margaret Orman of New Zealand, which had stood since 1979. She also finished the year top of her age group over the 300m hurdles and the Mile, and is currently the fourth fastest W55 athlete ever over 400m. ‘I was getting pretty close to breaking the steeplechase world record as a V50 but I just left it too late’, says Lisa. ‘I was 54 and a half and still a few seconds off, so I felt I really had to smash the V55 record’.

Remarkably she only took up running seriously in 2011, when she signed up her two children to Hercules. Back home as a teenager in her native Canada she competed for her county at cross country skiing, which she reckons, ‘offers a direct comparison with running, as it is all about fitness and stamina', but athletics was not on her radar. ‘Throughout university (where she studied for five years to become an architect) I was so career-driven I never once set foot inside the varsity stadium.

'I am naturally competitive, but when I moved to London I initially took up running as a social thing, and I found it was a great way to clear your mind. I did some fun runs and won a few vouchers and prizes, and I bought a running machine, and as my kids became less interested in athletics, I became more so’.

She joined the sprint group run by Geoff Walcott, himself a world masters champion, and Dermot Dunne. ‘I loved going to the track and leaving all my troubles and everything that might be going on in my personal life behind me. As Dermot always says, don’t bring anything with you, be totally focused…’

As the lockdown rules eased in August 2020 Dermot, with the help of Richard Weston and a few socially-distanced friends, set up a steeplechase course at Wimbledon Park for Lisa to enter the WMA (World Masters Athletics) 2000m virtual event and gauge her fitness. Running solo she managed to clock a highly encouraging 8:04.41. ‘If that had been official it would have been good enough to top the W55 world rankings at any time over the last 10 years and beyond and was only six seconds or so off the world record', remembers Dermot.

Above, top: taking the gold medal in the 400m at the Surrey Masters Championships in 2018; and on her way to winning the W50 gold medal for the 2000m Steeplechase at the European Masters Championships in Jesolo, Venice, in 2019.

As a follow up the Club added a 2000m steeplechase to the programme for the 3000m Night in May, ‘but by then I had sprained my ankle and couldn’t take part, so I felt I had let everyone down’, says Lisa.

It was 20 June, and the first SAL meeting of the season, before she was able to test the ankle over jumps again. Despite a full body drenching at the water jump on the second lap of the steeplechase she ran 8:18.3, good enough to break the W55 British record by almost 18 seconds, but, she recalls, ‘the world record still seemed a long way off.’

By August, and nearing the end of the season it was down to the wire, with seemingly only two opportunities left: the Club’s last SAL match on August 14 and the British Masters Championships in Derby a week later. ‘In our SAL matches I usually end up doing the 800m and 400 hurdles before the steeplechase’ says Lisa, ‘so that was going to be a challenge, and I didn’t want to rely on trying to run a record time at the British Masters either. It would have felt like too much pressure. Then a Serpentine friend suggested I join them second claim as their SAL match was on the Sunday after the Hercules match’.

Despite competing over the hurdles and 800m, as well as the steeplechase, for HW on the Saturday, she says, ‘my legs were still relatively fresh the next day, and I hinted to the officials that I was going for a British record in the chase, as there is a lot of paperwork that has to be in place. And it all worked out’. Not only did she set yet another British record, but she had claimed the world record, too.

‘Dermot is always the first person I call after I have raced, whether I run poorly or well’ she says, but celebrations with him and HW teammates had to wait. ‘Luckily I know quite a few of the Serpentine people, so we all went to the local pub to celebrate after the match – though they couldn’t find a bottle of Champagne! Then the following week we celebrated properly at the track (below), and Geoff (Walcott) came along specially, which really meant a lot to me’.

The following weekend, she won the British Masters Championships in Derby and with the pressure off, was on course to improve on her time even more, until, she says, ‘I tripped over my own feet and fell at the water jump, so I ended up with bloodied knees, which cost me a couple of seconds – but then it could have cost me my teeth!’

So what next for Lisa? ‘The British rankings are actually the main thing for me. I just want to be as good as I can’, she says. ‘As well as managing to finish first in the rankings for the Mile and 300m hurdles, I am also second in the 400m and 800m, and even though I am approaching 57, I still think I have more to give. 2022 will still be about the track, but beyond that I would like to see what I can do on the road at 5K, 10K, and 10 miles’.