Sunday morning July 15 we leave our house guests Sue & Helen sleeping and slip out the door at 08:15 to take the tube to Embankment Station and walk to St. James Palace to wait in line with 11,414 other people to participate in the Virgin Sport British 10K. This is the first 10K that we have run together in quite a few years. The weather alert level for the day is red, dangerous conditions, as the sky is cloudless and the temperature is mid seventies at the start. We walk about a mile from the tube station to our starting group which is pen F. We immediately start a slow shuffle to the starting line which is still 0.7 miles further. We do have music, shouted instructions and encouragement coming from two different stages along the way.
Walking to the start line, note runners who have already started are visible in the upper right.
By the time we start, the leader has already finished. We stayed together for about 3K before Jim started falling back eventually finishing just under 5 minutes behind Sandy who ran a good race for the hot sunny conditions coming in first in her age group. Jim decided to enjoy himself and take pictures, hence this short blog posting.
Running up Regent Street while Jim is still with Sandy.Running across Westminster Bridge, here Sandy is four minutes ahead as Jim is going in the opposite direction.Now the heat, humidity and fatigue have gone to Jim’s brain and he is taking selfies while running. On the Westminster Bridge.The forehead crease is from a removed visor.Passing Westminster Abbey.Only one kilometre to go.
If you have never run a road race, this next video will let you experience some of the elation of the finish line. Turn up your volume so you can hear the announcer talking about Jim’s run and count how many people he passes in the last dash to the finish.
We did it and Sandy came in 1st in her age group. How good is that?
