Monday 1 September 2008

Nike 10km Run 31st Aug

Wow, I did it- my first 10km run!!
Last night my flatmates and myself all did the Nike Human Race ('London against the world') from Wembly stadium.
We have been running regularly for a while but really only trained seriously in the last week, (not ideal) but we'd got up to running 7-8kms OK so we were fairly sure we could acheieve the last 2km's on the day.

We file into the stadium with a fellow army of people all wearing the red event tshirts. Pendulum and Moby put on a concert while everything got setup and people got ready. Then wave 1 set off.. then wave 2.. then wave 3 (thats us!) head onto the stadium to warm up then we're off! We follow a curvy course around the carpark and the neighbouring streets and then back into the stadium grounds. There were stewards and supporters encouraging us all along the way which was neat.

We did, infact, all do really well :D my fit-as flatmates got there 51-52min mark, my roommate got 1:02 and I got 1:12. I jogged along comfortably the whole way then sprinted to the finish yelling with my arm up waving at the spectators who were all yelling at us 'go! every second counts! come on london!'.

We got another free tshirt at the end which everyone put on for warmth (yee-ah two free tshirts! awesome) and there was a white army of tshirts on the return tube journey instead of the army of red that was arriving just a couple of hours ago. It was quite funny.. and some strangers on the tube came up to us and said 'what is happening? why is the whole city wearing the same tshirt?' you had to laugh.

Apparantly about 40,000 people took part in this awesome event - and a real mix of people took part, from the olymics Paula Radcliffe (she zoomed past in a flash and people in her wake were left gasping 'was that paula radcliffe? yeah it was!) and there were some army boys in their army gear and packs. Only a few people walked but mostly everyone pushed themselves the whole way.
Overall it was an exciting, fun, well organised event and mass run for charity.

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