The BUPA London 10k

After a beautiful weekend, the forecast for Monday was not so good. Last year, by all accounts, the race took place in virtual monsoon conditions. Hmmm! Luke and I stayed with Eve and Greg in London so that we would get to Green Park in plenty of time and we would be fully rested after a lazy barbecue, courtesy of Eve and Greg.
The birds woke me at 4 am, Luke's air bed deflated mid slumber and Greg couldn't sleep either.
We arranged to meet Harry and Ros at Victoria station. While we waited, we were watching all the honed athletes making their way to Green Park when Harry and Ros appeared, looking rather sleepy. This was the pre-race photo. Actually, we all look a bit sleepy.
We made our way to Green Park and left Eve to go to her strategic photo opportunity location at Westminster and then Harry and Ros transformed themselves into tutued athletes, at which point we three donned ours'. "Hey, they look cool", we said. "I reckon all these other guys are probably suffering from acute tutu envy". "Yeah"!
We made our way to the Green 'B' pen, the eighth out of nine pens. I was meant to be in pen C but snuck in with the others. safety in numbers, eh? We eventually found ourselves standing next to a gorilla and accompanying banana, Fred Flintstone and Wilma and another guy wearing a tutu (all the rage this year m'dears) plus sundry other interesting outfits. It started to rain just before 10 am. Great! The first wave was off at 10am sharp. Lots of commentary, punchy music and stuff. We were off!
Blimey, what a job to get going, with everyone in the way. I tried to find some space and ended up running rather faster at the start than I had really intended, leaving the others behind somewhere. Greg soon passed me however and sped off into the distance.
Down to Westminster and along the embankment. I didn't really have time to look at the views. Then, along the Embankment where the wind was very strong and there was a lot of blossom and pollen blowing with the rain and I breathed some in, which had me coughing for the next 30 minutes. Then the wind subsided and the rain stopped. Hundreds of people cheering us on, all along the route. That was great. But my legs started feeling really tired at about 7k and I was beginning to wonder if I could keep running to the end. By this time, Luke, Harry and Ros had caught up, said "Hi, how's it going?" and loped off effortlessly.
My plan was for a sub 60 minute with a sprint (OK, running a bit faster) for the final 1k. This seemed to work OK when training. That didn't happen. The last 1k was hard and when I saw the 'Only 400 metres to go' sign, I was thinking, "How far is 400 metres? Can I run 400 metres?"
My time was 60:43. About 2 minutes behind Luke, Harry and Ros and about 4 mins behind Greg, all of whom were waiting for me at the finish line.
After our initial "We're not doing that again!" we all said that we might do it again next year. After all, the hardest part really was getting the sponsorship!
At the time of writing this (Tuesday), Luke has just suggested another run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJyw4WCi_bE Take a moment to watch to get the idea!
For full set of photos, go to http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/michaelandteresaseall/Bupa10_09

So, it's tutus all round then?

Six days left until the London BUPA 10k. I've started ramping up my training this week. Luke just did one 10k run as a kind of warm up, 10 days ahead of the race and that's it!. I have to keep at it because if I don't get out there almost every other day, everything seems to fall apart. Just shows what a 30 odd year age difference makes, hey?
Speaking to Greg at the weekend, he believes Luke has a tutu for him. Luke confirmed this yesterday and also told me that he's got one for me as well. This is probably just as well because I made a bit of a blunder with my race entry.
When I filled out the online entry form, it asked how long I was expecting to take to complete the race. This was back in January, before I had actually started running. Not having any idea, and not thinking that the answer would have any significance, I put 2 hours. Some weeks later when talking to John, I happened to mention this. He advised me to call them and get it changed. He said that the starting position was determined by this time and this would put me right at the back.
For various reasons, I didn't get through to them until last week, by which time it was too late. The stuff arrived on Friday confirming that I would be starting with the last wave. My number is in the 13,000s and there are 15,000 runners. So, I should be in good company with all the comedy chicken outfits and polar bear suits.
I also need to start ramping up my fund raising. so friends, beware. Sorry in advance folks, but it is for a good cause.
I will try to get enough photos on the day to do a MapVivo.com trip. If you haven't tried it, do have a look.

Sofa Legs

Ok, I've been really sloppy since my Easter Saturday race. And, it was apparently a quarter marathon, not a 10k. I understand a QM is slightly longer than 10k.
Although I went running on a couple of occasions the week after the race, we were away for about a week after that, and then another week went by with stuff getting in the way and suddenly, sofa legs!
With less determination than I would really like to have had, I went out about 10 days ago. The weather wasn't very nice, no sun, bit breezy. It didn't go well. After about 2k I was exhausted and had to walk. Felt rather depressed. The next one a couple of days later was only marginally better.
Monday this week, I had to do it and do it properly. I aimed for about 4k. It was very windy but the wind was behind me on the outward stretch. I reached the 2k mark and thought, "What the hell"! So, I ran to the 3k mark. I knew it would be tough running against the wind on the return and by god, it was. Sand blowing in my face, mouth, everywhere but I made it without stopping and felt suitably knackered.
Went again on Wednesday and did the same run without any wind. That was good. Planning to go this evening (Friday) but it is pouring with rain so might no make it.
Have to get a 10k in before the BUPA 10k on Monday 25th so the pressure is going to be on next week.