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Lucozade Sport Super Six: keep going lass
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Afternoon everyone ---- got back in about an hour ago after a very long, tedious train journey back from Newcastle....
I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!
I'll be back later with my report, but first, I have to issue a health and safety warning ..... when you do come back to read, make sure your are well fed, well rested and that you take a break every 20 minutes.................
.................I've got so much in my head to get out that it will be very very long!!
Oh and by the way ...... I love running!
Hi Tracy
Glad you and your family had a safe journey home, it was lovely spending time with you all yesterday. Wasn't it the best of days.
Got home at 6am this morning, very tired but happy as larry. Awful coach journey, missed being treated like a VIP.
Look forward to your report and the Speilburg epic finale, took me ages to write mine. I'll send you some clips.
Tracy, we're relying on you to fill in all the details we missed out!
Congratulations KGL!
I've been lurking on this thread from the off and can't wait for the race report!
..... I have spent the evening re-living yesterday by writing it down.
Now I knew ithis was going to be a long report that I would have to severely edit. However, now it's done, I can't bring myself to cut it down so please excuse my self indulgence as I relive every moment that I can remember.
For those of you with far better things to do, I’ve given each section a heading so you can skip the bits you don't want to read.....
CC2 - you wanted the detail? Well you've got it..... in fact, it has become a mini series!!
Well - here goes......
GNR Eve…. Expo and Lucozade
I arrived in Newcastle, by train, in the rain. We found our way to the hotel and had a relaxing 40 minute wait in reception whilst our room was “readied”. Whilst we were waiting Jason sauntered in, cool as a cucumber as is his norm, shortly followed by Catherine who I have come to learn is more hyper active than I am, followed by Guy who made his entrance with the biggest smile on his face – again another trademark we have all come to know and love!
Having successfully checked in, we arranged to meet in reception 15 minutes later to check out the Expo. Quickly unpacked, attached my green ribbon to my handbag, the hallmark of a GNR forumite and off we went in search of the pasta party, having had no word from Sue or Bryan who were clearly playing hard to get.
Not much to say about the Expo – somewhat uninspiring other than the fact that we met the now familiar lucozade team on the stand and were presented with yet another goody bag, which contained a framed group photograph of our training day with Liz Yelling together with other rather scary items such as, a packet of nurofen, pack of plasters, a box of Imodium …… Does something happen in a half marathon that I don’t know about?? … and of course the obligatory bottle of lucozade sport – as if we haven’t had enough of the stuff!
At the stand, Guy selected his pace band – and opted for a 1:50, being a little more conservative, I picked up a 2:20 band.
We wondered around for a little while, watched someone demonstrating exercises to help improve your golf swing and then I spotted the essential bargain – a nike technical shirt with a nice subtle “great run”logo for a tenner. Came back feeling really pleased with myself to the comment from one of the men, that shall remain nameless for their own protection – “it’s just like being at home, standing around, holding bags and waiting…….”
Dinner
Made our way back to the hotel and awaited the arrival of Sue and Bryan before we ventured out to eat. Bryan and his wife breezed in looking tanned and relaxed straight off the plane from Spain, followed shortly by Sue and her friend Ann who having the farthest to travel, were tired after a long and tiring coach journey.
At dinner, Jason and Catherine showed their dedication to their sport by opting for pasta, Sue Bryan and I chose steak and chips for the muscle building protein element of course and Guy went for the steak pie ……..and a pint of ale, egged on by Jason with his guiness..... which he followed with treacle pudding and custard hmmmmm?
Back to the hotel for a bath and early night……………
GNR DAY
Dressed in my kit and ready to go, leaving Melvyn and Katie fast asleep in bed, I wandered down for breakfast at 7.00 am, shortly followed by Jason and Catherine. The three of us ordered porridge …. They’re proper athletes – do what they do!!
Sue, Guy and Bryan followed and ordered their respective pre run meals – of particularly impressive note was Bryan’s full Scottish Breakfast followed by a Pain Au Chocolat!! Constitution of an Ox that man must have. I could barely eat anything but knew I needed to make sure I was well fuelled and forced it down with Coffee and Apple Juice.
Back to my room for final preparations which involved packing and unpacked my bag for the umpteenth time to make sure I had everything I “needed” and at 8.30 am sharp, the courtesy bus arrived to collect us. 15 minutes later we were set down at the VIP drop off point and wandered over to join Chris Akabusi at the baggage truck.
We made our way to the start line and Sue and Jason did the celebrity spotting. I’m useless at recognizing people but I am led to believe that within our very close vicinity stood, Amanda Burton, Nell McAndrew, a sports commentator with a round face and narrow eyes who’s name escapes me, a female newsreader who I didn’t recognise at all and then I lost interest…..
I was more interested in watching the big screen showing the real celebrities – 50,000 people who were converging behind us, each with their own journeys that had brought them to this special event……
Catherine and I jogged up to the halfway point to meet some of the GNR thread forumites that we had been talking to on line for the last few weeks. As I spotted the tell tale green balloons under the bridge, I ran ahead. “Come on Catherine, keep up!” I called as she got stuck behind people – that would be the only opportunity I would get to say that to her today!
Having met and said hello to the forumites assembled there, I then wondered over to the white baggage bus hoping to bump into a couple of other people that have also given me a massive amount of support on my journey to today but it wasn’t to be …… needle and haystack are the words that come to mind…… at 9:30, I jogged back to my elite pen to do my Liz Yelling warm up exercises.
The Elites
We were starting on the left hand side of the carriageway with the Elite Males. On the right hand side, just across the barriers were the wheelchair athletes, blind runners and the elite women, plus members of the Lucozade Sport team who were recognizable from their blue woolly hats.
As I gazed across the carriageway admiring the very flat stomachs and fat free forms of the elite women as they prepared for the start, I made random eye contact with one of them who appeared to be saying to someone “There’s Tracy……” She jumped up and down a couple of times and then called “Good luck!”
Unfortunately, by the time I realized, it was me she was talking about/to, I had lost her eye and felt bad for not acknowledging her. I have no idea who she was but to the lady in the black vest and with the blond ponytail, if you’re reading this – thank you. I hope you had a good race.
As the wheelchairs and blind runners assembled, I felt quite humbled. We have all dealt with our own challenges, be they injury, confidence, fatigue or illness in our preparation for this and I for one have felt sorry for myself more than once but I cannot begin to imagine the drive, dedication and commitment it must take to get yourself to the starting line without the gift of sight…….
The gun went for their start and off they went to massive applause and cheering, followed 5 minutes later by the elite ladies………….
Race- The Start
With just a minute to go, I was surprised at how calm I felt, but I knew I was ready and after all my hard work, I was determined to enjoy this and not feel under pressure to perform. I’ve done the work, willingly shared my experiences but now this was ‘my’ time……..
As the horn sounded, Jason and Catherine had already gone and Sue and Guy stayed within my view for about 10 seconds. Everyone in front surged forward and within about 10 seconds I had crossed the start line.
I remembered that Steve had said to run straight down the middle and to make the most of the first downhill mile but I kept it steady, knowing that with the streams of people already passing me, I was probably going faster than it felt.
“Come on Tracy”, called Bryan as he looked over his shoulder, but a glance at my watch confirmed 8:15 pace …. so I slowed down and he disappeared into the crowd. Sorry Bryan, you’ll have to find another pacer! The first mile flew by and I clocked it at just inside 9 minutes..................
Miles 2-4
As we passed under the underpass, people were still streaming past me in their droves, but I was comfortable and soaking in the atmosphere.
The echo of hundreds of pairs of synchronized feet hitting the tarmac, regularly accompanied by a single female voice “oggy, oggy, oggy” and the inevitable response from the owners of those feet “oy, oy,oy”.
If I’d had to stop at that point the last 12 weeks would still have been worth it, just to have been part of that…..
Then came the Tyne Bridge …..
Expected an incline but it didn’t happen and I heard a local voice behind me proudly announce “I love this bit……”
LOL Jason!
I'm trying to decide where the cliff hanger East Enders music should start! Make it a proper mini series...... What do you think? Shall I go on a little longer?
Miles 2 and 3 remained downhill and the cheering and clapping coming from the sides of the roads, from people hanging over the bridges, in fact everywhere you looked was overwhelming.
At 3 ½ miles, the first water station. Glancing behind me, I indicated left, threw my half full bottle onto the grass, and executed a smooth handover of a new bottle of water without slowing, then made my way back to the centre of the carriageway.
As I went into mile 4, both the runners and the crowd had started to thin out a little and I became aware that it wasn’t downhill any more. My pace had stayed in the high 9’s at each glance of my watch but was now starting to drop. I was carrying 3 gels in my hand and having practiced it my training runs, after 40 minutes, I took a gel with plenty of water and waited for it to take effect …. it did.
Passed the lucozade station, negotiating the hundreds of little orange pouch lids littering the floor and noticing the change in the sound as our feet stuck to the floor with the stickiness of the dropped lucozade.
“Time for some music”, I thought. Deposited my water bottle down the front of my vest, securely wedged (I’ll leave how to your imagination) and connected my ears.
First track – Queen, live - “We Will Rock You” – perfect pace setter for me to get refocused. Over the course of the next few miles, I would hear all of my video tracks, reminding me of the great time I’ve had getting to this moment.
Miles 5-8
Miles 5 and 6 passed uneventfully although these seemed to be the longer ones – probably because I was waiting to pass the half way point and get an idea of the time I might do, and also because by then I knew that my watch calibration was well out. This meant that after it had beeped the 5 and 6 mile markers, I still had a way to go to really reach those points.
The soles of both feet were numb so I tried to run by flexing my ankles and raising my knees a little more to ease it. I’ve experienced this before and it will pass.
At half way, my watch showed just over an hour and 3 minutes. I had written Steve’s 5, 8 and 10 mile guide split times on my arm the night before and I was several minutes behind but I didn’t mind.
So far, I had run by listening to my body as Liz Yelling had told us and unlike the first 3 miles, my pace had naturally rather than forcefully slowed, but I still felt comfortable and in control.
During this time, one runner on the other side of the road to me fell. This resulted in at least a dozen runners stopping to rush to her aid. I saw another runner pull up with a calf problem, limping along on the side of the road and desperately trying to continue …. Jenny – I hope you made it.
We parted for an ambulance and a police car during this segment and I saw two people being stretchered away but with smiles on their faces. I only saw one person lying on the floor being tended to but I am not sure it was a runner!
The only real awareness I had of the hills was that when I was in a dip, I could see ahead of me that hundreds, maybe thousands, of other runners were forming a multi-coloured ‘fold’ in the road. But the inclines themselves, I didn’t notice.
I don’t remember exactly where they were, but I took advantage of the firemen aiming a fine spray of water at us from the fire engine hose and also one of the showers set up in the layby – the only other time that I ventured to the side other than to take water.
I was tempted to move over to take the offer of what appeared to be Vaseline at various points but remembered Catherine’s comment about substances not necessarily being what they seemed, although with hindsight I was probably safe with St John’s ambulance!
I missed the second water station – how could I miss it? It was about 50 metres long!! But my water lasted me until the next one so that was fine.All along the route, there were a variety of bands, the most memorable and rousing for me were the Scottish Pipers which brought to mindScottish Mike, (who had passed me before the end of the first mile with a call and a wave!) and Roslyn from the GNR thread. Also Roddy Mac from Real Buzz – I don’t even know whether he is Scottish (!!) but the pipers made me think of him….
Then there was the Nike “Power Mile”. Speakers lining the road for what seemed like forever blasting out, in my case The Prodigy – “Firestarter”. Another track that I had used in the early days to dispel the boredom of the treadmill before I had the confidence to venture outdoors. It has long since been discarded from my I Pod but it was nice to hear it again to remind me of how far I have come.
I remember feeling slightly squeamish at 3 points, all fairly close together. The first was the smell of someone’s cigarette smoke the side of the road, the second was the smell of Pizza as we ran around an island and the third was the smell of burgers as we passed the funfair!
Small price to pay though for the hoards of people yelling their support and clapping madly.