Two key moments hit me today. One was at 6am as I looked bleary eyed out of the skylight into the dark, watching the thunder and rain lash against the window & thinking to myself ‘I’m not going to do this’. The second was just before the race, filling up on sardines in tomato sauce (my pre-race fuel of choice)and a little bump of nervousness in the stomach as I thought to myself ‘am I really going to do this’.
So this was it – race day. Not a big deal really in one respect, but certainly a big deal for the reason for the run. Raising money for cancer awareness in the UK you’ve probably heard of ‘Movember’ but this was new. A run. Face fuzz optional. A run throughout the UK and very well organised I have to say (we’ll come onto that in a moment). SO I was going to do this run as a way of bench marking myself to see what I could do after the 4-6 days a week running I typically do in an average week and of course, bring a little awareness to a cause so so important.
The rain subsiding at the gun fire, we all set off for the respective 5 and 10k runs around the beautiful but somewhat damp Wollaton Park in Nottingham. I have to say one of the things people tend not to practice is gradients and this was almost a cross country race with a bit of fell running mixed in, and it caught a lot of people out, quite treacherous in some places. However, you still got all the pro’s at the front finishing in less than 40 minutes (I’m not quite sure how you run 10k in 40 mins even if your surname was ‘Bolt’) but anyway, I finished in a respectable 1st effort of just over an hour (race time here).
One of the things I was impressed with was it very well organised. A good atmosphere & effort to get people all gee’d up for the start – fancy dress and nice to see both old, young & a few dogs too. A few more run-related stalls and better PA wouldn’t of gone amiss but it was well marshalled, water available and all-in-all was a very well run event.