Before I start, I have to get something off my chest – why on earth would someone choose to enter the search string “grotty old women” and double why on earth would google decide to direct them to my site?
No grotty old women to see here – walk away from the computer, freaky google searcher!
So back to today…. The GNR press gang otherwise known as OGB joined me for his first attempt at the running treasure that is BPTT. He’s an east end boy so took some persuading to venture so far west, the sort of persuading that omitted all discussion of the 9 mile cycle ride to the start and focussed instead on the smashing quality of the pubs in the Mortlake vicinity. He was won over but started moaning quite a bit when I woke him up bright and early and handed him my spare bike.
East end boy is a bit of a bike virgin. Twas an interesting ride, made more thrilling by the strange choice to leave his glasses at home. Having rendered himself virtually blind, OGB performed some hair raising junction maneovres that even the red arrows would be impressed by.
On the start line he does his usual trick of leaving me to fight my way through the sand storm he kicks up in his wake. I didn’t see him again til the end where I found him slumped against a tree in an exhausted and beetroot state. Good run then, 25:26.
I think I enjoyed my run, I had some company at the back of the pack so tried to stick in with a crowd. I was managing til the half way point when they either picked up the pace or I dropped off. In the final straight I tried out the technique of a Bushy Park pro – Suzan who kindly pointed out the evenly spaced trees were ideal fartlek markers. Two tree gaps semi-sprint followed by two tree gaps of my usual sluggish crawl. Nearly killed me by the midpoint but I finally fell over the line in 34:58.
OGB will get his own back tomorrow as I head across to the barren wasteland of East London to join him in a local race. We’ve signed up for the SheRunsHeRuns 10k held in a shopping precinct of the M25 – grief! I give him the beautiful landscape of Richmond and Bushy Parks, dotted with ducks, deer, parakeets and views of St Pauls Cathedral, he gives me a motorway, diesel fumes and a carpark!
And we have to be there at 7am.
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