What a Day / What a weekend!

The week-end started well for me. I lived in Newcastle nearly 20 years ago and still have some good friends there. It was with some of those friends Phil / Anne and their four children I was staying for the week-end in Gosforth, really close to the start of the run.

I got into Newcastle on Friday evening, within ten minutes of arriving I was immediately taken out by my hosts to a fund raising party at the Gosforth Squash club. It was a great evening and an excellent chance to increase my fluid levels considerably – Not sure pints of Worthington’s are quite what the training manual recommends but fun though!

Saturday morning after a bit of a lie in and a slightly thick head I wondered down to the Quayside and to the exhibition with Anne and various children (none of them mine I hasten to add!!).

It was great and we all really enjoyed it. The Lucozade sport stand was informative as always and I had a good chat with a few of the team. I managed to avoid the video diary but did pick up a pace band and some Lucozade sport. I needed to replace lost fluids or at least that’s what my dull head was telling me – one or two too many Worthingtons I think – excellent preparation!

While I was there I also had my running gait analysed on the Nike stand. This was excellent. The girl on the stand was really helpful and showed me with the help of pretty impressive video technology just how bad my running step is. Just as useful she then showed me what a difference the correct shoes make – Wow – Impressive but also worrying as I would not be using them for the race. The children loved it and really enjoyed clambering all over the Nike stand, they left the event with an assortment of balloons so were happy.

After lunch with the adults feeling better we headed off for Sunderland in the car and finished up driving most of the route of the run the next day – This proved a little worrying as it seemed such a long way!

Saturday night and another party! This time a house party round the corner in Gosforth I volunteered to drive and only drank water, a sacrifice for the next day!

Sunday morning and I woke up early with an air of expectation. My friends Phil and Anne and their children were also up and ready to head off to the start with me. We all headed off across Jesmond moor to the start and saw the crowds all gathering.

I find the start line of the great North run and amazing place. It’s both inspiring and sad. People of all shapes and sizes and dressed in all sorts of costumes are there and most seem to be running in memory of someone or for a charity which is dear to their heart. There’s always a great spirit about the place with people clearly there to have fun and meet their personal challenge. I had arranged to meet a fellow member of the Lucozade team at the start but this was impossible due to the crowds of people and so I was on my own in the start pen.

I was in the green zone towards the back and I could not believe the sheer numbers of people all around me. It took us nearly 19 minutes to cross the start line but even that was 19 minutes of fun. As I crossed the start line my own little band of supporters cheered and shouted after me from the side bringing a smile to my face which would last nearly the whole race.

The race itself was great; the atmosphere throughout from both runners and supporters is fantastic. The bands on the course are excellent and really help you keep going. I did struggle to get past people due to the numbers through out the race and that probably slowed me down a bit.

This was probably a blessing in disguise because the last 1 /12 miles into Sunderland are all up hill and this was a killer! I ground my way up the hill towards the finish, past the beer stop by the side of the road set up by a couple of keen supporters (I did not partake though!), onwards past Elvis playing in a bus stop (That needed a double take to make sure I was not hallucinating), before reaching the summit at the traffic island and the short down hill to the finishing straight along the shore.

I had a mental image of this last bit of the course and was looking forward to rounding the last corner and seeing the finish in the distance. I had even planned my finish and wanted to accelerate down the hill and up the finishing straight over the line.

Despite being on my last legs I picked myself up and accelerated down the hill as planned, there was a bit of a log jam on the corner but I managed to get through it. I looked up expecting to see the finish line not too far in the distance ready for me to accelerate towards. Shock horror it was not there!!

My mental picture of this part of the course was not quite right, the finish line was still quite a way off and I could not see it never mind have my moment of glory and sprint over it!

The impact of this surprised me, my mind just said to me this is daft, it hurts, you’ve got further to go than you think, why don’t you just walk for a bit. I slowed down and walked for about 10 steps before giving myself a swift kick up the a**e and stumbling on. I soon saw the finish with the clock ticking on and on. To my horror I realised had missed the target time of under two hours by about 3 minutes but I had both enjoyed it and finished.

My eventual time was 2 Hours 2 mins and 58 seconds which is 8 minutes better than last year. I did not beat the 2 hours but I did have a great time and enjoyed the race massively.

My foot injury is still with me but was never going to stop me doing the run. I may have to look at it a bit more seriously soon but I am a bloke and blokes hate to admit there actually anything wrong with them!! I will see how it goes over the next few weeks.

After the race it was a long walk home on tired legs a meal with my hosts in the evening and then an early plane off to Milan for the week with work.

I have just returned from Milan where I did not get a minute to myself all week and certainly had no time to run. Right now I am deciding whether to run in the Great Cumbrian Run in Carlisle next Sunday. I suspect I will!!

What an amazing change, a few weeks ago I would not even have thought of nipping out for a run or entering another half marathon. Now I am even planning to do so and half thinking whether I can actually achieve a full marathon. I would love to but not sure if I can – we will see.
The Lucozade sports team helped me immensely and it is true to say that without them I would not have even been in this years Great North Run. I do believe that their help, suggestions, advice and the excellent product, both in training and in the race were invaluable for me. I would like to thank everyone at both Lucozade and Fast Track for the whole experience this year – Fantastic.