13 Miles, unlucky for us!

Plenty of entries in the Purple Book i'm more than happy to get over in done with, some are epic and I always look forward to them and this turned out to be a bit of both. The fact I was doing this for charity, especially one that was close to my family meant it didn't matter what I felt about it. The challenge was simple, get from A - B which so happened to be 13.1 miles aka a half marathon. I'd already done 24 miles on the long walk home, 18 of which in one sitting so in theory this should have been more than doable.
Problem with the 13 miler is that there would be witnesses, lots of them. The idea of 'walking' the whole thing swiftly went out the window after crossing the start line after nearly a mile and a half's walk to get there when everyone (and I mean everyone) was jogging over it. I started to feel like a fraud, the mile a day training i'd been doing was a drop in the ocean to what was being expected from everyone and as a bloke of my age and build, walking the 13 just wasn't going to cut it. Me and the old man jogged over the line and it soon became clear our plan of crossing the line together would go out the window. While he continued walking, I jogged off on my merry way.



I made it up until 2 1/2 mails then started walking at the first hill we came to. I'd be doing this several times, word of advice if you're doing a walk jog combo is walk up and jog down the hills, trust me! The rest of the walk / jog swap's were pretty much a blur now but I now I jogged among the faithful lining the streets. Highlights for support had to be Prospect park, Reading Uni, Town Centre and of course at the Mad Stad. Even better though were the various bands and acts on route. First was the young cheerleading team near the start on one side and the teen rock band on the other, closely followed by the steel drums before the first turn. Other highlights were the drumming band under the bridge near the oracle, the old rock band at half distance and the best one, an asian drumming group around 12 miles. It's amazing how things like that, and the odd ottle of water tipped over your head, help to get you round. I know what they mean about the '12th man' now, the support you get means everything.


Worst part of the whole thing was when I hit my wall at 10 miles. I'd been warned the bit between 10 and 11 miles would be hard as it was a long road going slightly up hill with no one lining the route. This was also when I was passed by the 2 hours 25 minutes pacemaker which made it even worse. I hadn't stopped the whole distance but came damn close at this point. It was only the thought of breaking the 2 hours 30 mark and the whole reason which I was doing it at all, the sponsorship, that kept me moving. After seeing a girl with some paramedics throwing up around 12 1/4 miles, the finish could not have come sooner. Getting close to the stadium I get to 400 metres to go and I can hardly move. Suddenly, a woman who had finished the race, screamed enthusiastically that the finish was just around the corner. From out of no where I suddenly get a burst of energy and i'm off. As soon as I entered the stadium something kicked in and I was able to sprint to the finish. 2 hours, 27 minutes and 24 seconds which I was more than chuffed with, along with a fantastic looking medal (not that i'm biased or owt). The old man came in at a more than reasonable 2 47 and after the team photo we were on our merry way. We were still passing some of the people still running on the way back which pleased dad no end!

Apart from the fantastic support the memories are as random as the even itself. Bottles of half drunk lucozade all over the place, running with Kingsley the Lion to get that extra support from the crowd, the various comments I overheard when I was walking at times faster than people were jogging (pretty sure one woman called me a bastard for doing so!), the poor girl at 12 1/4 miles and finally the fact that despite him jogging for less than 60 seconds all day, there are more pictures of dad jogging than me!

A HUGE thanks to everyone who sponsored us and everyone who stood out and cheered everyone on. Special mention for Andy, Helen and the Lines for giving me an extra yell on the way around :)

Rossifer x

Updates

3 months into the new year, a few things crossed off the book, a few elcome additions and plenty more still to come. Pancake racing in Reading town centre on a damp day. Despite the MCs best efforts you could tell most of the crowd just weren't up for it and had found something only mildly more exciting than going into the Oracle. 4 people per team, 'walking' not running and 'flipping' not tossing the pancake. Time methinks that this once great country stops worrying about suing and upsetting itself and everyone else and gets back on track. Fingers crossed I can convince some guys and gals from Prosect to get a team together next year to give it a go :)
















Next onto York, home to the Yorvik Viking festival. The Yorvik centre was full booked, one year I may actually wake up and become organised but I can't see it happening anytime soon ;) What we did get to see though were the viking markets and the foreign markets selling food from a varitey of different countries. No chance of the Polish ever getting michelin stars methinks! Mine was OK but it was like something i'd knock up near the end of the month with wharever I could find. I couldn't walk away from a viking fait without buying something savage so luckily I found a funky sacrificial looking dagger. I felt a bit weird having the guy selling it to me in all the authentic looking viking gear using his phone as a credit card service. I think Erik the Red would be sickened up in Valhalla if he found out.






















Finally, all's ready for mine and dads semi epic race next Sunday. The Motor Neurone shirts are through and sponsorship is still coming. I thought 250 notes would be a good target but i've now raised this to 500 as several people have been fantastic in sponsoring and getting us to at least 220 pounds before any of the external or promised dosh comes in. Huge thanks to everyone who has and will end up sponsoring us, it's all going to the chairty who are helping out Al the Legend. Can't wait to do the run to see him there as that what's it all about. I may have no chance of running the whole thing or even half of it but i'll be crossing the line with the old git running with me no matter what i takes. I say 'semi' epic as it doesn't come close to what Al did a few months back. No idea what yet but i'm going to find something truly epic to try and match what he accomplished, away from anything else big when lots of people are after sponsors. In keeping with the spirit of the Purple Book i'm hoping whatever I come up with will be delightfully random and worthy of both an entry into the good book and the funds i'm hoping to raise for MNDA.

If you're going to be there at the race on Sunday look out for me, 10066, the tall skinny guy with his old man right at the back, cunningly power walking our way past the joggers ;) Wish us luck.

Rossifer x


www.justgiving.com/Rossifer


P.s. Yep that's Wales playing Ireland on the telly at Croke Park. Not your best game lads, pull your fingers out next week!