The Great North Run 2008

Wow.

All I can say is that I'm in awe of people who have been doing the GNR for years now, how come I never knew how much fun it was?

I just have random thoughts to jot down that capture some of the amazing stuff that the GNR entails, it's really hard to put it into a coherent blog entry since i just want to spew all the stuff i saw and experienced onto the page, but here are some amazing points:

• the crowds of people cheering on the participants

• the 52,000 participants who go all out to raise money for their chosen charities(there were more charity t-shirts than not)

• the bands playing along the route every mile or so to motivate everyone along the way(the music REALLY helps to keep you going, as i'm sure you all know)

• the random on-lookers passing out handy-wipes & orange slices to people passing them by

• the St. Johns Ambulance crew members wearing blue plastic gloves smothered in vaseline for runners to swipe and get some much needed chaffage relief(who knew?!?!)

• the 80-something dude playing spoons(apparently he tried out for X-Factor?!) who beat us even AFTER he stopped a few hundred times along the way for his fans

• the 3 people dressed up as telly-tubbies carrying donation buckets

• a plethora of tutu & fairy wing wearing men & women

• the crazy-long queues for nasty non-toilet paper having port-a-loos

• the sneaky(or not so sneaky) people shimmying off the main route to have a wee in the bushes to keep down their race time

• the two guys carrying a (bigger than you expect)replica of the Tyne Bridge between them and running the whole 13.1 miles

• people running in full military gear, including boots and carrying their packs on their backs(can i just say: Ugh!!!!!)

• the kids looking on in amazement as a shark runs past them "hey, cool! it's a shark" was heard many many times

• the wave of momentum when you hear your name(written on your chest for all to see) called out by random on-lookers cheering you on and telling you that you've done great so far(i loved that!)

• Enjoying the overall experience with a special shark by your side helping to motivate you along the way by drip-feeding you jelly babies

I did manage to jog a little bit of it and i was pleased with that, especially since i didn't expect to be able to jog much at all due to injury which made it impossible for me to train properly, etc(see previous entries), but the majority of it was walked and we still finished in 3 hours and 21 minutes! I was very careful and listened to my body when it yelled at me to stop, altho it's still yelling a bit now when i attempt the stairs, altho much less loudly, ha! :)



So all in all, what an amazing feeling to have completed the race and collected my t-shirt and medal at the finish line.

I am pretty proud of myself and so far the tally is close to £850 with a few more donations to collect yet, so wow, i am constantly amazed with everyones generousity - THANK YOU for helping me to raise so much money for such a worthy cause close to our hearts!!!!!

Race Day Approaches....

As race day approaches (it's only a few short, cold weeks away) i'm starting to have weird dreams about forgetting to show up on race day, and forgetting to line-up to start the race, and all sorts of disturbing dream ideas making me feel like i'm somehow not prepared.

It could be some lingering "let down" feelings since i can't run the race this year due to injury, but as everyone keeps saying to me......it's the participating that counts. Well, yeah in general it is the participating that counts, however it really sucks that i finally decided to attempt a big goal and due to weakness of body i can't do as well as i had hoped i could, and it had seemed like i would be able to do it had i been able to continue on my training path..... so that's me feeling sorry for myself, BUT on the flipside...... through the experience of having an injury i've realized that i was training wrong and that i needed to add in more cross-training, which i did. Through this need for other exercise i found that i really enjoy yoga, so that is definitely a positive thing to come from this negative stuff. So i'm very happy to have found another sport/exercise that i enjoy which is half the battle because if you don't enjoy exercise you just won't do it!

So, the next few weeks will be full of gym sessions which include mainly stationery cycling, some swimming, some yoga, I might attempt the new pilates class that is starting in 2 weeks to see what it's like, and some fierce power walking! Ok, not the super-wiggly kind that someone told me exists in the olympics(would have liked to see that!), but fierce by my standards.

I have been told by the physio that i can slowly(very very beginners stage) start jogging again, but that if my hip starts aching it may mean that i am not meant to be a runner. Grrrr! That's a let down. So i'm worried that if i try to start jogging again now(which would mean i'd only be up to running about 10 mins by race day) it will be too tempting to overdue things on race day, so i'm focussing on the walking aspect and will go with the walkers flow on race day. I will re-start my running in October, but having this huge race looming in front of me is rather scary when you are worried that even walking too briskly can make your injury flare up! Stupid hip!

So this years GNR will be the year that I participate, but not the year that I run it.

A bit deflated & let down about it, but my plan was always to be a long-term runner, not ONLY for race day.