Well, I Did It!

Wow! What a great day. Yesterday I ran in the Half Marathon race I have been training for all this time - The Royal Parks Half-Marathon. It wasn't the painful ordeal I imagined it might be all those months ago when I entered it on a whim. It was actually great fun, really enjoyable and the odd ache aside not too painful.

I am so glad I had run the distance before - in training on Hampstead Heath - because come the big day I wasn't phased at all and knew I'd do it no matter what. The fact that I'd been sponsored so much money - thank you everyone - meant there was no way I'd quit. Damn it I would have slithered home on my hands and knees if necessary.
The setting was brilliant and the route was incredible. With the roads closed to traffic it was a brilliant new perspective of touristy London - Buckingham Palace, House of Parliament, Westminster Bridge, London Eye and of course Hyde Park (which the last 7 miles looped around). Typically because it was a touristy route there were lots of bemused tourists who had no idea what was going on and occasionally lurched into the road but that was one of very few grumbles most people had about the whole race. It was really well organised and the only real issue was lack of loos at the start which manifested itself in loads of people darting off behind a tree more or less straight after the start - including some desperate fella doing a "Paula" in full sight of everyone.

I didn't listen to music for the first time ever while running but although there were a couple of occasions when I could have done with the lift only Eye Of The Tiger can provide I mainly didn't need it. What really gave me a boost was seeing Holly and Annie with their homemade signs during the course - nearly brought a tear to my eye it was so lovely.
I didn't go mad pace wise and kept it easy and in the end I finished exactly - more or less - as I thought I would in 2 hours 12 minutes - just an hour behind the winner Kenyan superstar John Muriithi who was dressed as a rabbit. I'm chuffed with that and especially with the fact that out of the 12,500 who ran I finished in the top half (5268th).
It was all worth it for the feeling you get crossing the line.
And man did that pastry taste good afterwards.

Blogging's harder than running

I've not been very good at keeping up with the blogging but I've stuck to the running schedule. It's been great actually. Roughly I've been running about 21 miles a week. Sometimes, when I've been out at 6 in the morning I've wondered what the hell I'm doing but mainly it's been great.
The big thing about running for me is discovering a new side to north London. Running on Hampstead Heath is just wonderful, especially on a nice sunny Sunday morning. At times you feel like you could be right out in the countryside and then you get a view of the skyline. I just love it and I've still only explored a bit of it.
Whatever happens on Sunday I'm going to carry on running. I've already thought about events I might enter next to keep me motivated but mainly I just like it.
Well, Sunday and the big half marathon is getting very very close now. I feel pretty sure I'm going to make it round now but I've got lots of niggly stupid nervy worries that I realise are totally pathetic - like , I work up at 5 this morning in a panic that I'd missed the start - and it's four days away.
oh jeez...

A month to go

Getting closer now and I'm getting excited. Still a little worried about injuries and aches and pains but I'm feeling a lot more confident.

Nike Human Race 10K

On Sunday I took part in the Nike 10K Human Race. It started inside Wembley Stadium then followed a less than glamorous route through car parks and the back end of Ikea before ending on Wembley Way. It was great fun running with so many people (20,000+) in torrential rain and also very weird. Everyone had to wear identical red tops and had to endure two live bands inside the stadium before the races started - no one was into the music at all and it all felt strangely hollow (the last time I was there was to see the Foo Fighters and there were over 90,000) so the best bit was when half the crowd just disappeared midway through Moby's set to start their race (they set people free in four seperate waves, I was in wave three so had to watch all of Moby). Earlier a nu-rave band called Pendulum attempted to whip everyone into a pogo-ing frenzy but the audience were having none of it aside from the occasional keen person jogging on the spot in time. The keyboardist had a hilarious square beard though so that was nice.

I was Billy no-mates but that was OK because everyone else was too and I was glad I hadn't been responsible for making anyone endure the saddest corporate gig of all time. 

The race itself was brilliant. Dashing about with loads of people is really uplifting and because we'd been released herd like (all the T-shirts had seperate numbers for an extra dimension of branding) from the stadium it felt like we were escaping captivity. I was surprised how much energy I had and how easy I found it and convinced myself I'd done some heroic record breaking time - as I crossed the line one of the clocks said 45:08 and for a second I thought that was my time but the reality was a more pedestrian 58 minutes - I'm blaming the puddles and the fact that my ipod went weird in the first mile and I had to run to a soundtrack of Neil Young.

Holiday running

Kept on running on holiday in Northumberland. It was great running along the beach at Beadnell Bay - but yet again this was one of those times when I realised how much free-to-all green space there is in North London because the first time I went out for a run I kept following footpaths hoping to run along the shoreline instead of a road and the footpaths kept leading to dead ends because they went on to land owned by Seahouses golf course or the caravan park. It was the same a week later when we stopped over in Yorkshire - loads of countryside everywhere and most of it private or golf courses, so you have to run alongside busy roads.

Bored now

Off on holiday tonight to icy cold Northumberland - in a tent. The challenge is - how do I keep on jogging and resist eating pies to cheer myself up.
Been working at Take a Break this week so a couple of runs round Regents Park at lunchtime. It's lovely. Those geese get in the way though.

Too Far Gone

I was only meant to run 8 miles today but enthusiasm - and the fact that I got lost on Hampstead Heath - got the better of me and I ended up doing 11 and a half. Running from Kenwood House with the view of the London skyline ahead is one of the most beautiful feelings ever - not that I could remember it once I had to do the return journey uphill.
Thanks to all my sponsors so far. It really is very much appreciated. It's a bit embarrassing this sponsorship lark. I think we've all become a bit charity weary in recent times, the main culprit being those over friendly people on the street trying to sign you up to direct debit payments - so it's amazing to me that I'm not being totally ignored.
In the list of things I'm worried about connected to this race raising enough sponsorship money has slipped to third behind
1) Getting injured beforehand
and
2) Needing to go to the loo in the middle of the race
After todays efforts Being able to finish has slipped to number four, with Turning up too late a distant fifth and Blowing it all by gorging on pie coming in at number six.

First sponsor

Thank you lovely Mr Ian Wadey Wade for being my first sponsor.
Me and Ian worked together at the hilarious internet boom disaster company music3w. Oh what fun we had. Not that I can remember it right now - although I do remember quite a lot of money being spent on glass bricks.

And they're off

What's got me going with the running is two things.

1) It's nice being outside. Sounds obvious but running about in the open air is brilliant and it's really made me appreciate the outdoor space we've got around us.

2) Nike +. For my birthday Kath bought me this Nike/Apple gadget that goes inside your running shoe and connects through the wonders of technology to your ipod. You've probably heard about it. Lots of nice things happen, like the voice of Lance Armstrong tells you "congratulations that was your fastest ever mile" and back home you connect it up and it keeps a log of all your runs. And look you can stick a little thing on a blog too.

I've started so I'll finish

OK. So I've been here before. About eight months ago I started a blog called "From Sofa To 10K". The idea being that doing a blog would inspire me to leave the many comforts of a life based almost exclusively around sinking into our DFS living room sofa to one more based around preparing for the daunting task of a 10k run.
The fact that I completed not one entry of this blog might suggest that I failed in this transformation from sofa man to natural born runner. But you'd be wrong. I un-wedged my ample frame from the cushions and started going to the gym a bit more often (a bit more often in my case meant once a month - on one occasion I went three times in one week, oh yeah). I did the occasional sort of bit of running too. Then to gee myself along I entered the Hornsey YMCA 10K Run. I'd been here before too - for approximately five years in a row on the lovely summer's day when it's held I have boldly predicted that next year I'd be there. I meant it - at the time. Then the lovely sofa called me back.
But in 2008 I actually did it.
Since then I've given up the gym - for now - but carried on running. And now I find myself in the ridiculous position of being a still unfit 43 year old lard-arse who has entered a half marathon - The Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday 12 October 2008. There's no getting out of it as I've signed up to run for a charity — The Bone Cancer Research Trust.
It's only ten weeks away!
So join me as I attempt to get ready for the big event and blog about stuff that might have something to do with running. Share with me my highs, my inevitable lows and my dream of a giant man-sized Steak & Kidney Pie waiting for me at the finishing line.
Sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/johnnydee