So on Saturday, I had a nice late (for me) awakening but with showery, windy weather the parachute club wasn’t calling, so it didn’t matter. Thus, after cleaning the car, buying a paper and harvesting some cucumbers, I set off for the weekend expedition to London.
And what a fun-filled weekend it’s turned out!
Basically, i’ve had all my ideas of the east of London turned on their head. I wanted to see if the area was indeed as green inparts as Jogblog shows it. And lo, it is! It’s hard to believe the area exists but, right down to the hills and the sex change pub, it’s all good.
Saturday ended not with a hypnotist, but with a mad taxi driver trying to get us all stabbed by picking a scrap with some angry young men in a bus lane, followed by trying to give myself a heart attack with the tastiest, creamiest concoction known to man described as a ravioli sauce but really an invite to health insurance. Bloody superb. And all in the name of perfect race preparation for that was (one of) the focuses of the weekend. Yep, several pints, all different just to try to upset the stomach and induce illness, cream to clog the fittest arteries, bed for 1.30ish am and awake at 6 ish. Preparation of champions. Are you listening, Mr British olympic training man?
So, with a fortifying cup of coffee and a 2.5ish mile walk to the start, we waited. I was still deciding on a strategy. After running a couple of races with Geoff and enjoying the experience despite being able to go faster, I was torn between pinning my ears back for a sub 35 minute run (it was a 5 miler), starting with my host then running away for a competitive split time, or trying to bring her pace to the magical consistent sub 10 minute miles for a sub 50 finish.
Then it started raining, got cold and became entertaining. All at once.
By entertaining, I mean one kid in the fun run falling in the sprint start to large grazes on knees and hip. And the kid who came 5th only doing so owing to his ridiculous blue top and shorts clashing so badly with his ginger hair, he must have been terrified of a beating if he’d been caught by the fashion police. Have a word, referee, before I do?
As for my race, check out Jogblog’s site for the full Garmin verified truth. I took the stick with and try to help out option, despite probably being really annoying in my enthusiasm to prevent time slippage! I was worried we’d dipped below pace for mile 3, it was a headwind for mile 4, but really it was ace. I was so happy, I even followed her over the line. All I can say is well done, now that’s in the bag, the sub 1 hour 10k is there to be achieved and she’ll get it this year. If she enters any!
And so it was back for a coffee (what happened to that?), home and reality in the form of food, exercise and ironing.
Work tomorrow will be a shame, but there you go. What a cracking life it is at the moment.
5mm rain (cumulative over the weekend). 280 cars.
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