A week before this event I was limping down staircases and any crouching was a
risk of prolonging a knee injury that was brought on by sawing branches high up
on a ladder. Running the 5K a week later was unlikely and the recovery seemed
to be slow as the days passed. I also had a training session with other runners
planned in London on 25/7 so wondered if I should stand watching them rather
than participating. On 25th I decided to take it slowly, the session was mostly
in wooded areas of Oxleas, S.E. London. On the day we had: James Millington & new contact Cherryl Sinclair. I managed to get through the session lasting an hour and 20 mins without a problem. With my bike present I decided to cycle round south-east London wearing the Vegetarian Cycling & AC jersey visiting other parks for other potential future training sessions including: Peckham Rye Common, Dulwich Park and Brockwell Park. Thereafter I cycled onto Euston Station for the train home.
On 28th I was ready to race again but wary of the injury. Decided to start near
the front given the presence of the bandstand in the middle of the lining up area and the narrow path from previous experience here. Got a clear start without any slow runners ahead however it was not long before runners were streaming past me. At the western end of the park there is the only hill but we had to climb it three
times (2.5 laps of the park). I settled down into a steady pace but still seemed
to be losing more places than gaining. The tarmac had been improved since I last
ran here in 2007 when I achieved a slow 21.37. With the last half a lap to go I
started lapping runners but had to climb that hill. In the finish straight, lost
a few more places to the young sprinters. There was no clock but we were wearing
a chip. Where we finished we could see the runners half a lap behind. A spread
of fruit was on offer at the finish including strawberries, watermelon, banana,
apple & orange. We all received a 25th anniversary commemorative mug of the Bedford Harriers club.
At the finish I met vegan contact Carrie Hopkins who finished her third event in 25:18 and her supporting partner David Hopkins who is unfortunately injured at present. Later the next day my time was confirmed as 20.20 & 80 / 379, better than
expected.
