Well, it was an awesome weekend consisting of Erdinger, Premiership football, chicken gyoza, Singapore noodles, salt beef sandwich, Shakespeare and of course my first ever run, namely the Clapham Common, Innovation Sport 10K.
You can read Marathon T's post to see just how ropey our preparation for the big day was, and my sleep before the big race was ruined by texts coming in all night from drunken friends, plus police cars ripping past the hotel window.
(Marathon T taking a call from BOC to see if he was available for Beijing)
Anyway, I woke to a ropey breakfast of a flapjack, a self contained cereal bowl thing and rank smoothie, packed my bag, pulled on my shorts, shirt and knee support and met Marathon T in the reception at 08:30 ready for the walk to Clapham common for registration.
There were a few hills on the way and I was blowing heavily with fear gripping me as I got closer to race time. As we entered the park you could see the route marked out by red and white plastic tape with a bandstand in the centre where registration took place. As I was walking towards the band stand I was uttering numerous expletives looking at just how big the park was, and knowing I had three laps of it to complete. And when I saw the cross country section consisting of some grassy humps I nearly "papped my trolleys".
We signed in, I was assigned the legendary number 304 and given a timing chip to wear around my ankle.
Nerves were starting to get the better of me and I need to piss like a racehorse even though I was really dehydrated so made my way to the portaloos where I lifted the whole thing up not just the seat and was greeted by some turd otters, barely keeping my crap breakfast down I hurried out and set about some stretching.
Myself and Marathon T did some light jogging (which nearly killed me) and joined the other 850+ runners for the official warm up, though this just consisted of what looked like a child telling us to jog one way round the bandstand, then run the other!! Oh, with some star jumps added in for good measure (Genius).
It was race time, so in a scene similar to the start of the Grand National we were asked to mill at the start, with that a strangulated horn went off and the race was on. I got into my 10 km/ph pace and noticed my heart rate race through 170 bpm. I was cut up on a muddy corner due to the bunching, then nearly taken out at the first water station after 700m (What was wrong with these people, surely you couldn't be thirsty already). Anyway, lap one was failry uneventful though I had the fear looking at just how far each lap was, but I set a steady pace, negotiated the cross country part and crossed the start line for the first time in 19:37. Now it got tough as I knew just how far it was!! I also needed to start spitting, something I had been practising along the front in Jersey and had become quite proficient at it. The first few spits were awesome, forceful, good grouping, arcing out the side. However, when I got to the cross country section for the second time I needed to spit again, as I was blowing hard, I spat, however, this time it fell short and landed on my wrist and watch!! The next 100m was spent trying to clean myself up before I rounded the bandstand for the second time and headed out on lap 3 taking 39:47.
I was a little delirious now with shivers rippling through my skull and the sensation of my brain bouncing up and down. I needed some motivation so engaged the "follow a fit womans arse" technique, this stopped me thinking about my painful knee and helped me overtake a few people, some of them looking far fitter and healthier than me. As I came to the bandstand for the final time I saw Marathon T smiling and clapping me on, telling me I could break the hour if I pushed on.
I hung on, gritted my teeth and did a 7m sprint finish with an unofficial time of 59:55.
An awesome experience, topped with a t-shirt and medal.
Great experience shared with Marathon T and a day I will never forget.
Feck, it’s gonna hurt in the half though
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