Tuesday 8 September 2009

Middlesbrough 10k















I did the Middlesbrough 10k Run on Sunday. 

It’s not really my sort of thing these days but a mate of mine was collecting for a good cause so I volunteered to jog around with a bucket. It’s years since I’ve ran further than fifty yards or so. In fact I wasn’t really sure that I could run more that fifty yards, but as it was only ten kilometres I reckoned that I could probably walk it and still be home for Sunday lunch.

Anyway, after being close to deafened by the starting gun I managed almost two kilometres at a jog, pausing only to collect coins from spectators before admitting defeat, handing over my bucket to the Boy Wonder and slowing to a walk. Fortunately a pretty girl took pity on me and we walked the rest of the route together, chatting away whilst people applauded us, in essence, for being crap. It was like being cheered on for popping out for a newspaper. Maybe they knew I was having a barren spell with the ladies and I was being clapped just for getting one to talk to me.

Twenty years ago I used to do half marathons. I was never particularly quick but in big races I could generally finish half way up the field. I entered a run in Barnsley on one occasion though and instead of competing against grannies and pantomine horses I was up against the club running elite of South Yorkshire. Or at least I was for the first couple of miles, they were long gone after that. I did the final eleven miles with an ambulance driving twenty yards behind me like the Grim Reaper. This time we had policemen on motorbikes tailing us, keen to reopen the roads.

One hour and thirty eight minutes after setting off we were done. Paddy had a couple of hundred quid in his buckets and I had blisters from the running shoes I bought ages ago and then consigned to the cupboard. So, as this is a review site, it was a very good event, loads of bands playing in people’s front gardens and some very kind spectators who really should have gone home long before I reached them. I got a tee shirt, a medal and a kitkat. Now that my trainers are broken in, I’m looking to break an hour and a half next time.

7 comments:

  1. I thought you were picking easier on the eye photographs!!

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  2. Presumably the pretty girl was the one taking the photograph?

    Did this burst of exercise cause any chaffing?

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  3. Did they take the photograph after the run or before?

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  4. No chaffing this time despite the shuffling.

    It was a before photo, the rest of the elite athletes in the photo were down the pub by the time I'd finished.

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  5. So the was the last sad rest of the running group in the photo?

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  6. Didnt quite understand that, so maybe.

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  7. If it were an ebay advert I'd think Middlesbrough 10k ....a bit over the top but I may take a buy it now option

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