On Sunday morning I tied an electronic chip on my running shoes, pinned my race number on my running top and headed to Regent's Park to take part in the Bupa Great Capital Run.
Runners were divided into England, Australia and Rest of the world teams, and all runners who completed the race in under forty minutes contributed to their team's average time. I'm sure I registered as England but ended up being in the Rest of the World team. Just as well, as we were second and Australia won. Until last week I was not even too sure I could take part, as carrying two extra stone makes running a pain: it's like wading through treacle, and my joints feel like they are jammed with grit. But I trained moderately, took it easy and only did one full 5k run last week, just to reassure myself that I could still do it. I had a fantastic time, the atmosphere was great, there was even a group warmup that brought me back to my aerobics and step-filled 90s (audio file attached, no idea where Posterous is going to place it, but you should be able to play it here). I ended up being at the front for the start (and saw the dozen or so elite athletes start off in front of me). Which of course meant that for most of the race I was constantly overtaken by hundreds of people, but I kept going. I did a very good personal time of 26:20, better than the first 5k I did when I took up running two years ago, but a little slower than the last 5k I ran in 2008. There are a few pictures on the run site, but rights are reserved (the photos are for sale), so if you want to check my stats and see me pant you can enter my race number (1223) at http://raceresults.greatrun.org/?race=128. My next race is going to be a real challenge for me, as it's a longer distance (10 miles). So training starts today for the Bupa Great South Run in Portsmouth on 25 October.
