Smoke on the Water !!

Dan dan dan dan dan da dan !!! - come on get those air guitars out for a bit of Deep Purple - you know you wanna ?!!

Ok so there wasn't any smoke on the water but there was rain on the water, ducks & a heron on the water & even a few runners around the water !!!

I have never been so nervous on a race day as I was on Good Friday & the easy part was running just short of 27 miles !

Inspired by Rory Coleman's Leahurst event & Noel Jones' local Bedford Clanger I set about organising my own small local marathon, The intentiion was to make it self navigation with 15 - 20 friends from the 100 marathon club & Fetcheveryone website.

Things took off on a grander scale when I emailed my club Coach Yvette at MK Lakeside to see if any of my club colleagues fancied doing the event but most of the marathon contingent had already made plans for London,Shakespeare,Brighton or Boston (& good luck to them all) but Yvette mentioned the idea of marshalling it & was something I had never considered & to be honest wouldn't have asked as I don't like putting people out.

With more interest in the event than I expected I decided to extend the numbers to 25but then found I really struggled to say no & didn't want to dissapoint anyone - numbers did at one point hit 34 but by the time my head marshall Richard counted down "3-2-1 go !" 31 of us set of around the beautiful Caldecotte Lake guided by club mate David Cooper on his trusty 2 wheeled steed, ultimatly heading for the Grand Union canal.

Yvette had managed to aquire race numbers from our friends at Leighton Buzzard fun runners - many thanks to them & also aquired the local Park & Run timing device - many thanks to local Sports Physio / Park & Run organiser Gareth Sneldon for the loan of that.

The 3 Amigos - David's Pell & Ross headed off with Paul Allen & were still there for the "podium places" at the end.

I got to chat with Colin Evans (looking very Marco Pantani !)before he left me in his wake as we headed on to the Canal & subsequently ran with Alan Burrows before he too left me in his wake & the same can be said for Stephen Young & Rob Bishop - with the adrenaline pumping I had come out of the blocks a bit quick & in the early going was doing 7.45 min miling far too quick with my injuries, I did later on catch Stephen on the canal & had a good chat for 6 or 7 miles before My good friend Michael Grehan caught us & I ended up running the final 5 with him & I really needed his support, the pain in my knees made the final 4 miles agony.

I was very pleased with a 3.50.27 finish, although with the heavens opening 15 mins before the end I really didn't fancy the 800 metre loop at the end & hated that & I'm the one who designed it that way - I won't do that again.

Coming round the corner with 100 metres to go I put my arm around Michael & thanked him for his company & support before bringing the Airplane out of the hangar to finish in the traditional manner.

Apart from that demoralising final loop everyone seemed to enjoy the event & a pub finish is never gonna be unpopular with my mates :)

Without doubt the champagne moment was the eggsellent (it is Easter !!!) Marshalling from the wonderful guys & girls from Milton Keynes lakeside runners & I raise my glass to them all.

As Dave Ross would say "It was a good day at "the office" !!!

Keep on Flying :)

Foxy xx