Sorry for not updating Marathon Blog for so long… I’ve had rather an uneventful last couple of weeks. But all that changed yesterday… Hyde Park Relays!
It was the 58th annual Hyde Park Relays organised by my friend Gihan. It is a 6×5.164km relay race around the Serpentine. It is a massive event with teams entering from all over the UK and Europe, around 100 in total.
A few weeks ago we decided to cobble a team together… we ended up with myself, three rowers and two rugby players. Our aim was to do well in the Internal Competition (i.e. the Imperial-only teams of which there were 35).
We got off to a cracking start; our first leg runner stuck right up in front with the external cross country teams. We lost a bit of ground after that and by the time I was up (last leg), some of the external teams had already finished. I had a good leg although I found it difficult to push myself above my comfortable marathon pace. As I got past the half way mark I started overtaking people and I kept getting faster as the end approached… I really should have pushed harder at the beginning. It all ended in a sprint finish with me overtaking the Imperial Cross Country 2nd team which was nice!
We didn’t know where we had come in the Internal Competition as we finished in the midst of a lot of external Cross Country teams. At the after party, the results were announced and we had come 2nd! Not bad for a team thrown together at the last minute. I got the 6th fastest Internal lap time, 19 minutes. (although that was a long way off the external best time of just under 15 minutes!)
It was a great event and I just wish I were around next year so that we could win it!
Thanks for keeping this up. I plan to attempt a marathon in 2007 and am slowly building up my long runs. (the longest I’ve ever done without walking too much is 20km, but with lots of hills!)
I live in a very hilly area and it’s hard for me to keep pushing week after week.
It’s good to see your hard work, progress and determination.
Keep it up!