Category: Juneathon

Despite still not feeling 100% after XFR Bear made me go out drinking on Tuesday ’til 4am, tonight is the Crisis Square Mile Run which was my first ever race.  Reading back this post from last year brings back just how excited and nervous I was, aah bless.  Today I just feel knackered.  Still, there’s always the post-race pint and pizza to look forward to.  Yay.

Joggerblogger has a lot to answer for. Not only did he invent the Juneathon, but he also forgot to add in a clause that allows immunity from doing any physical exercise in the event of having spent the day before in the pub and therefore having a wee bit of a hangover.

Still, rules is rules and I did have my new red Helly Hansen t-shirt to try out so I went out for a trot round the park. Ok, so it was a feeble effort but managing to do it without throwing up was a major effort in itself. Tomorrow’s exercise will be ice skating. Ice skating is exercise, right?

Sober City of London Race for Life update

Right then, where was I? Oh yes, getting to the official start line. As we walked down to what I hoped was the front of the start line, Sarah Greene was getting on the stage and I wondered if she came by helicopter and I pushed my way down through the crowds as far as I could and stood still while everyone else did a warm up to a disco version of Yes’s “Owner of a Lonely Heart”.

After a little while everyone on the other side of the barrier started walking, leaving everyone on my side of the barrier standing still and I thought where are they going? I heard someone say that that was the runner’s side and I thought bollocks, I’m with the walkers, I need to get over there and so I pushed my way through the crowd and went under a pink ribbon acting as a barrier and joined the runners walking down to the start line.

Off we went and after half a mile the route bizarrely made you stop and go back the way we’d just came only separated by a single line of traffic cones. After 2.5 miles I was thinking I’m not going to make my target of 30 minutes and at 29 minutes and 20 seconds I saw the finish line and thought can I make it to the finish line in 40 seconds and speeded up and got there in 29:35. Yay. My happiness was shortlived though when my Garmin told me I’d only gone 2.88 miles but as you can see from the route map, my Garmin didn’t have a clue where I’d been and shows me as going through buildings.

After I’d finished and tried not to faint, I collected my medal and goody bag and then we wandered down to the Embankment and got a boat bus to Greenwich. On the way I saw this bird which I originally thought was a statue. I could have sworn the optician said I didn’t need glasses.

Here are some pics I took from the boat.

Here’s our lovely London mud-based beach.

And here’s what’s left of the Cutty Sark.

And then we got to the pub, yay. Then we left the pub to find some food and outside the pub they have this sign which they will have to remove in a few weeks.

And another pic of the river.

And a pic of the crappy Dome.

At about 5 o’clock Gary went off to play football with about five pints inside him although he had said he wasn’t going to drink because he was playing football later and I said I thought you weren’t going to drink today because you were playing football and he said in the 70s all the best footballers played pissed and I said even Kevin Keegan and he said yes, even Kevin Keegan so I went home and carried on drinking and then at about 9:30 Gary came round to continue drinking armed with The Mighty Boosh Series 2 DVD and I said I can’t put the telly on, I might accidentally watch Big Brother and then I decided that he had to hear Stereo Total’s version of the Stones’ Mother’s Little Helper and then because we were pissed we thought it would be a good idea to take turns wearing my pink straw hat and take pictures of each other.

And here’s where Gary loses any credibility he may have once had and totally scuppering his chances of pulling any German redheads who may be reading this.

But can someone please remind me that drinking for 12 hours when you have work the next day is not a good idea? Ouch.

Stats:
Miles: 0.50
Total time: 4:48
Average pace: 9.36
Total calories: 40
Juneathon days completed: 4/30
Hangovers: 1
Friends who probably won’t talk to me again after publishing a picture of them wearing a pink straw hat and using a pink fluffy phone: 1
Music:
Maximo Park

Ber-limey, and I thought no one would notice if I sort of accidentally forgot to blog after the race due to me being pissed and that.

I met up with Gary as arranged by the cashpoints at Liverpool Street station, although he was a bit late and I said oi you’re late and he said yeah, Central Line was diabolical and so off we went walking down the way I do my morning walking mini commute and there was a sign saying 4k and I said ooh the race must be coming down here, maybe I could just hide in a pub or something and jump out at the end and say yay, I win. But, as hiding in a pub near the finish would be cheating and unsport(wo)manly, we continued on our way to the official start.

And on our way to the official start it was like 28 Days/Weeks Later. But without the zombies.

There were twenty million billion people or thereabouts walking down the way I thought was the opposite way to where I thought the start line was so we followed the twenty million billion people and joined the crowd. Here’s a crowd:

I am tooooooooooooooooooooooooo pissed to write this blog. Excuse me while I go and order pizza 🙂

Right, I’m back but I didn’t order pizza, I made a cheese toasty instead, yay my iron will is still going strong.

Ok, here’s a “proper” race report.

Nutshell version:

Was good.

Did it in 29.35 yay.

Bastard Garmin said it was only 2.88 miles. Boo.

Sorry, too pissed for a race update, you’ll have to wait 🙂

It was good though and I did under 30 minutes, yay for me!

Once again, I’m asking myself why am I up at 7am on a Sunday morning?   Especially as I woke up to a text from Bernard in the early hours telling me he was pissed on mead in a four storey club in Berlin which sounds like the sort of thing I should be doing instead of not being pissed and not being in a four storey club in Berlin or even semi pissed in a one storey club in London but having an early night in order to get up earlier than I get up when I have to go to work, to go and run round the City of London with 5,000 other women.  So why do I do it?  Oh yeah, because I enjoy it, yah!  And I bet my head feels better than Bernards today too.  In fact, I haven’t had a drink all week and am looking forward to my post-run drink, yay.

Right then, off to check my list to make sure I haven’t forgotten any racing essentials like my camera and make-up.   Will update later and see what you other Juneathoners have been up to.