Harrison nets silver in 50k training run

Harrison was selected by England for the event after taking gold last year in Dublin.

However, after also being picked by Great Britain to run in the World & European 100k Championship three weeks later, the 40-year-old was left with a choice to make.

After much debate with coach Les Barnett, it was decided Harrison would tackle both, running the 50k at a controlled pace rather than flat out to enable her legs to recover in time for the 100k.

A pacing schedule was agreed which, despite being 15 minutes slower than her 2010 time, was faster than any of the winning times in previous 50k world finals.

Comprising ten 5k laps, Harrison was ahead of schedule after the first circuit, but back in fourth place in the women’s race, with England’s Emma Gooderham holding a 15-second advantage.

By 10k, she had moved into second, still just inside her schedule, but Gooderham was slowly pulling away and on course for a huge personal best.

England teammate Jo Zakrzewski briefly threatened Harrison’s second place, but the Warwick District Sports Personality of the Year was able to pull away with 15k to go to clinch the silver medal.

Gooderham was a clear winner in 3hr 17min 30sec, smashing her persoanl best by 15 minutes.

Harrison came home in 3:25:05 - five minutes inside her schedule - while also running her fastest marathon of the year in 2:52:56.

Zakrzewski held on for third place in 3:26:37, holding off Japan’s Yuka Ezkki and USA’s Shanna Istni to make it a clean sweep of the medals for the English women.

“I’m delighted with my performance as I ran better time-wise than was planned,” said Harrison.

“But it was extremely frustrating not to be able to get involved in a true race with Emma, who ran the race of her life.

“However, I’ve hopefully now given myself chance to recover and get a few more miles of training in before the World & European 100k Championships next month.”