A ‘Great Run’ in the park

After gradually building up my distance and stamina over 4 months, I decided I needed to put my running to the test, so I entered the Great Run previously the Bupa run in Phoenix Park. On Sunday, April 6th, me and 10,000 other runners braved the elements to run the 10K course. Bertie honoured us with his presence to get us under way. It was to be one of his last public engagements before he stood down from being Taoiseach. I’ve never seen Bertie in the flesh before so as I glanced up at him as I crossed the start line, I have to confess to being a bit star struck. A little older and shorter than I thought he’d be, but impressive all the same.

On with the race in hand – no time to be awstruck. I needed to seek out a pacer to keep me on track throughout the race. I found my man as we rounded the first bend short and shout. At about 55 his legs looked like they had a fair few miles in them and he’d knew how to keep a steady pace. Onward bound with ‘Pacer Pete’ in sight I counted down the Km markers 2Km, 3Km, 6Km,7Km. Still feeling good, despite a hail shower at the 8Km mark. 9Ks down and ‘Pacer Pete’ fades out of sight. Alone, I’m left to pace the last 1Km by myself, 600m, 400m, 200m the line is in sight. Lets see if there is anything left in the tank. I picked up the pace to sprint across the finish line.

Bad idea, I had misjudged the distance and my ability to sprint to the end. I started to wretch at 50m to the line. With hundreds of spectators cheering the runners home I didn’t want to stop so close to the line. So I picked up the pace again and hurled myself across the finishing line into the arms of the Order of Malta who duly handed me a sick bag. But before I had a chance to use it, Tiger as if on cue talks to me through my head phone.

Congratulations on your longest workout

Cheers Tiger

As the ordeal of crossing the finishing line dissipated into a distant memory I happily followed the other finishers to the goody bag station – where we were handed our medals, a bottle of Lucozade sport and a packet of Tayto ‘LIGHT’. The Great Run is a Great Run and the fun doesn’t stop when you cross the finish line. All the participants were chipped and their start and finishing time recorded. Eager to see how close I got to Sonia I logged onto the Great Run website on the following Monday morning to find out where I came. To my amazement I came 2288th. Out of 10 thousand I think that is fairly impressive but how did I compare to Sonia. The Great Run organisers had teamed up with Nike+ to allow you to compare your run to other competitors. Just pop in the name or number of the competitor and hey presto you are racing across the screen with Sonia. So I’m not quite Sonia pace yet ….