A Real Halloween Horror Show!

I apologise in advance, but the majority of this blog is going to be a rant. Before I go off on one, a quick overview of what I did this week. Monday I did hill repeats, these were bloody tough and Tuesday I woke with a bit of a tight piriformis (which has been the bane of my running).  I stretched afterwards, but obvioulsy not enough.  A mate at work (JC, no not Jesus Christ) is doing the London Marathon next year and he saw the benefits of following a training plan (courtsey of Project 26.2) so has asked me to help him with his training, so we did just over 3 miles on Wednesday lunchtime.  He had to stop a couple of times, but did well.  Saturday, I ran the Orpington Parkrun.  The PWR men's captain 'Typhoon Turner' (he talks as fast as he runs, in fact maybe quicker ;-) has organised a Parkrun improvers league, so 19 PWR's were present on a bitterly cold morning, and 5 PWR's were in the top 10!

Jackanory Time

So, are you sitting comfortably then i'll begin.

With the Valencia Marathon only 3 weeks away, I had registered to take part in the London Kilomathon which is 26.2km, advertised as the 'perfect distance'! 

Having paid just shy of £30 to take part, the first warning signs were when I downloaded the instructions this week.  The start of ther race was at the Lee Valley Athletics stadium and the finish was apparantly at the Lee Valley White Water Rafting centre (where the Olympic canoeing was staged).  Therefore, there were buses to take finishers back to the start, BUT you had to pay and buy the tickets in advance.  £3 for runners and £6 for spectators.  So I had no choice but to pay for a ticket, which when I received it was a Powerpoint slide, that I could have just photcopied!

Also the instructions stated that at a certain point in the race those running 26.2k had to collect an orange wristband?

So Sunday morning I arrived at Lee Valley Athletics Stadium and I honestly couldn't tell if I was at the right place, no stewards, no signs, the only give away was seeing some other runners.

The highlight of the day was actually seeing an indoor track and warming up on it.  There was no real need, but it was just a bit of a novelty factor.  At age 37, I am still a big kid.  I don't know how people run on these tracks though with the camber, they must have one leg longer than the other!

Very blue!

After handing my bag in, the runners assembled on the track in the colour coded pens.  Now coded is the key word here, as both 13.1k and 26.2k runners were all mixed and the pens were not based on expected finishing time, so there were faster runners stuck behind slower runners.  Some of the faster runners were so desperate to make their way through they went off the track slightly and missed running over the chip mats!

The novelty factor continued as we did less than half a lap of the track and then was funnelled into a narrow path, therefore slowing everybody down to a walk and then having to run through a narrow gate out of the arena.  All a little pointless really.

The first 3-4 miles were through a drab industrial estate and to add to the grey day and grey scenery, my Garmin was not playing ball and would not turn on.  It eventually came to life after about 1k.

The course did eventually follow the paths around the lakes and canals of the Lee Valley.  Whilst running I was thinking about what to put in my blog this week and whilst the scenery was OK, one word that came to mind and I think perfectly summoned up the atmosphere was 'SOULLESS'  Of the 100 odd marshalls I can only remember two giving any sort of encouragement.

Then there was the split where 13.1k runners were sent one way and 26.2k runners were sent the other way and you then had to collect an orange wrist band.  I still don't know why as it was never checked or needed at any point in the race.

The finish was advertised as the White Water Rafting Centre, this was basically a lie, a couple of hundred metres before the end you had to double back on yourself to get over a canal bridge and the incline was without exageration 25%+  OK this might have only been for 20 or 30 metres, but still, it is not something you need after 16 miles.  Then there was a run into a muddy field.  The inflatable gantry had the word START on it (probably a last minute decision to get one and that is all they could get) plus there was no clock!  The White Water Rafting Centre was somewhere nearby (allegedly)

So I was given my medal and a goody bag (no t-shirt as advertised and no space blanket which would have been a godsend considering the conditions). I then went to the baggage collection.  I think a picture paints a thousand words!

Help yourself to any bag

I then had to interupt a group of 6 or 7 marshalls who were just huddled together having a laugh and ask where I needed to get the bus from.  I was pointed in the direction across the field.  So after a 500m walk I cam across a white mini bus that probably seated 30 people maximum and a queue of around 100 people.

It transpired that one of the buses was 'lost' the other bus sitting there was full, but the driver was on a break and wouldn't be leaving for another 20 minutes and the return journey would take 30-40 minutes.  So he we were, 100 odd people standing in a muddy field on a freezing cold morning after a 16 mile being told that it will probably be over an hour before we could get a bus.  As you can imagine, everybody was fine with this, but alas I had left my picnic rug at home and my pile of logs, so toasting marshmallows on a camp fire was out of the question.

We were told that there was a train station out to the right somewhere.  So I along with dozens of others start wandering to the right.  after about 3/4 of a mile we found Waltham Cross train station. Despite having a hoody on, I was now beginning to shiver a bit.  Upon arrival we were told that the next train was an hour away!

So now the next task of ringing cabs began.  I was told a 30 minute wait for a cab because surprise surprise they seemed to be very busy all of a sudden.  I eventually got a cab (sharing with others) and during the 5 mile drive back we saw some less fortunate or maybe hardcore people walking back to the start.

You don't have to be Poirot to work out that I will not be doing this event ever again, and I have some more typing to do in a little letter that will be going to the organisers, although that word should not and cannot be used for the company that put on this event.  I think Cowboys is more apt and this was daylight robbery!

26.2k may be the perfect distance, but this event was the perfect disaster!

Incidentally I did the run in 2:14:24, and will be needing to have a bit of physio in the coming weeks as the old piriformis tightened up again and was giving me a quite a bit of discomfort during the latter part of the race.

And now to top it off, I can't upload the info from my Garmin :-(

I am now going to console myself with a glass of red!

Until next time
TJH