Sheffield’s Great North Run: The training begins… eventually
Six years ago, as I staggered across the finish line of a three-mile fun run, I made a promise to myself that I would never put myself through the agony of running again.
So, understandably, I signed up for the 2010 Great Yorkshire Run; a challenging 10k run snaking through the hills of Sheffield.
I went for my first training session exactly one week before the event, which wasn’t ideal preparation, but I did manage to cram three more runs into what the official training guide said should be my “rest week”.
Sheffield’s Great North Run: Ready, set, go…. eventually
As I strode sleepily towards the start line at 9am on the big day, I collected a free bottle of luminous liquid and drank it down in the vague hope that it would wake me up.
Suddenly I was full of energy and ready to go but, because of my nice pink race number, I would be starting behind 10,000 other runners.
I eventually reached the start – half an hour after the first racers had begun – took a deep breath and set off, putting my extensive week-long training programme into action.
I was feeling fine at first but then made the mistake of looking across the road and seeing that some of the elite athletes were already finishing the race with, quite frankly, ridiculously quick times.
Trying to ignore their smug faces, I pushed on and watched the various little musical groups banging bongos and strumming guitars as the course went on to distract myself from the fact that I was exercising.
Sheffield’s Great North Run: Fame and fortune beckon… well
The course followed the main road to the half-way point at Sheffield Wednesday’s famous ground, Hillsborough. As I plodded up, I saw that they had set up a huge TV screen and were filming the runners as they went past. I seized the opportunity to wave at myself like a moron before crossing to the other side of the dual carriageway and heading back towards the city centre.
The next highlight was a very welcome water point with people handing out hundreds of open water bottles.
One thing I hadn’t trained for was drinking while running and this was a lot more difficult than I had imagined. As my face was now covered in water I decided to refresh myself a little more by using the run-through shower, which was basically a tent spraying out a mist of water.
Sheffield Great North Run: An uphill struggle
I spent the next mile freezing cold, with my soaking clothes clinging to me but I had more important things to worry about as I passed a sign indicating there were just two kilometres to go. This would have been a good thing but unfortunately, I knew it also meant I would have to run uphill from here on.
The slope kept getting unrelentingly steeper and steeper until sweat was dripping off me by the bucket load. As I neared the end, people were giving up and starting to walk all around me but I forced myself to carry on, eventually crossing the line just behind Dick, of Dick and Dom fame, with a time of 54.04.
I thought I might make the same promise that I had six years ago again at the end but – with hindsight – I can now say that in a cruel, sadistic sort of way, I’d actually quite enjoyed putting myself through it and will maybe even enter next year’s event.
Well done Alistair from all at TopThingsToDo… oh, and we were only joking when we said you should actually run the race!
