Afternoon Ladies & Gents
Well I'm now convinced that Wallsend Harriers have some kind of deal on with the sun gods, as their race weather conditions are always gorgeous! But I'm getting a little ahead of myself, sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin
I'll actually begin last night...
It was one of my diving buddies, well two two of them technically, hen night - so we were out in Newcastle from 6:30 - met in the busiest pub in the whole world (the Goose), then off to a really nice tapas restaurant called El Coto, before meeting up with the male contingent for more drinkies.
Given that I was racing today I declined on the alcohol, but still didn't manage to get home till 11:30 (late for me), then ended up sitting watching 'Behind Enemy Lines'. So where I'm normally in bed by 9:30, it was way way beyond that.
This all led to me waking at my normal time of 5am, with hair like Medusa on a bad snake day, and what felt like a stinking hangover, not the best race prep ever, but what the hell, it was a canny night.
I forced down some microwaved cottage pie for my brekkie, then headed over the water and up the A19 to the aptly named Rising Sun Country Park. It was cool when I got there, and me not quite being fully awake thought the race started at 10 (and not 10:30) so I arrived before most of the marshals as the gates were being opened at 8:45.......one doesn't like to be late for these things.
Mick turned up not long after, we picked up our numbers, and went for a warm up. The plan was to use the race with the warm up & down as my long Sunday run, so we did 38:59 as our warm up, dropped kit off at the van, then straight up to the start and only a 5 minute break before the race started. The clouds cleared and the sun came up almost immediately after the starter blew his whistle. We were off, with a cloud of dust being kicked up from the paths.
We'd done maybe just over a mile when a guy from North Shields Poly Club fell in beside me, he said I was running at just the right pace for him, which was actually perfect for both of us - we kept it nice and even for the whole course - no sprinting off like mad folks, right through the two laps and round to the finish. So a big big thank you to Andrew Webb! Got round in 38:29 according to the results, not as good as previous years, but I wasn't aiming for flat out fast anyways.
Collected our t shirts (a nice techie More Miles shirt), met back up with Mick, Jenny from Heaton, Andrew W, and another guy whose name I didn't catch, and bimbled off for our warm down. fifteen & a half mins back round to the car park. All told around 11 miles - a canny little Sunday bimble! It was a canny last long run for Mick before London too
A quick hark back to the saga of last night....
Because I was at the hen night last night, I missed our club presentation night, which is normally a canny evening but I had to make a choice between the two. Anyways, I had a natter with Micheal Bunn today, and he said I'd won the 'Veteran Athlete of the Year' award - sweet! Will post more when I know more.
Last but not least, a quick hello to Carl - who I said I'd give shout out to - Heya you!
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