I ran London

Just about :-)

As I mentioned in my previous post I was neither mentally or physically prepared for this race. My alarm didnt go off on sunday morning so when I woke at 9am [race at 10.30am] I lay in bed wondering would I use that as an excuse not to get my ass in gear. But as I lay there thinking about how unfit I have become, how I keep talking about the few pounds i have gained over the months due to lack of running and how i knew it was going to be a super day in Hyde Park--I decided I was going to Run London.

I decided to get the bus all the way to Marble Arch. It was early morning so I made it just after 10am. There were red shirts everywhere. I knew pretty much the direction I was suppose to go in but first I had to get across the sea of red shirts - the 9.30am race was in full swing. I was keeping an eye out for my work mate but it was impossible to spot anyone with the colours of the day being Red top and black shorts or tracksuits.

I made it to the warm up area and all set to go just before 10.30am. I was in no rush. If i didnt make the 10.30am one I knew there was an 11.30 race.



As I was late enough into the warm up area I was quite near the front as we turned out towards the starting line which was only a few metres away. Seb Coe and Paula Radcliffe were on the starting guns. Paula ran the 9.30 race in Hyde Park [more]. I was about 3km into my race when I saw Paula running by me again with a few people. It was part of a competition that was on Runners World ahile back, I think you had to be about 45 minute pace.

I decided I would set out slow and see how I do, just as well as I had no energy what so ever in my legs. I was in good company though Paula says "I didn't feel good. I felt stiff from the start." Granted she ran a 32 minute. I had a wee stitch on my right hand side from 1km...nothing to much [same side as i had the pull stomach muscle] but I was watching it. Doubts started to creep into my mind around the 4km mark and I was thinking of pulling out. It was hot out there. I started to think about my reasons for pulling out at this stage:

1. stitch
2. hot and needed water
3. unfit, a long way to go yet..could i be bothered

When I thought about it, reasons for keeping going

1. I was just being lazy
2. completing another 10k-no matter how slow
3. I needed the confidence to get back into running again

So I kept going. I stopped after the 5km mark to take in some water. I was up to 32 minutes and knew that my 1 hour target was never within my reach today. I said to myself 'sod it' and off I went for another while. I'm afraid it was a stop and start for the next few kms and even a nice little incline into the finish line.

Thankfully this years Nike 10k was waaaaaaaaay better organised than last years, there were less people in the race and although i wasnt passing many people out [actually the other way around :-) ack well] but after the first km or so you didnt have much problem finding your own pace.

I was pretty shattered after crossed the finish line but recovered pretty quickly. I looked at my stop watch 1:6:26.

On the Nike 10k website you can check out my finish here for the next week or so. I am the one towards the bottom left corner with th green tracksuit bottom stopping my watch :-)

This time is nothing new for me though, I have clocked 1:4, 1:6 & 1:7 in the past. I was far from disappointed.



Actually as I looked around Hyde Park, with the sun shining over the Serpentine and the leaves dancing in the Autumn breeze I was pretty chuffed. Why? you might ask...that time is nothing to right home about. Well thats exactly it. If I can do that time without training for 3 weeks and half heartly before that-then there is still hope for me. OK so I did'nt break the 1 hour today, but going into the race I didnt expect to. It made me more determined to get my act in gear, get fit and aim to reach my target.

Once again I have run London.