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