Today marked my first proper race since giving birth in January, well that’s how I was supposed to approach it…like a real race.
It was in fact a cancer research race for life 5k event supported by ITVs Lorraine Show under the banner of #mumsontherun.
For my readers not in the UK this is like the biggest morning light entertainment show on TV with the most adorable Scottish presenter.
I even got a free place via the show – RESULT!!!
So why did it not live up to my expectations? Well basically cos I messed up with my preparations.
So where did it go wrong?
1. I did a track training session last night, 2 sets of 4 x 600m at speed and one at recovery pace – I completed it all without stopping for a change, so was very sore this morning.
2. I didn’t sleep well last night, up at 2am and 5am with Rose, and then up at 8am to get organised for my race.
3. The journey from Stratford to Dulwich Village was eventful, our first journey on the underground in fact. It took much longer than expected and ended in me carrying the pushchair up 2 flights of stairs at North Dulwich. I was already exhausted
4. I had the postcode, but could I find the damn place…and to top it all of it started to rain, and guess what..I forgot to bring the rain cover – what a bad mum am I?
5. Finally arrived at Dulwich Sports Ground after following a suspicious group of ladies dressed in pink, and by now it was absolutely tipping down. Why had I signed up for this again??
6. The warm up had already started and I started to lighten up and just got into the spirit of things, with chants of “oi cancer we’re coming to get you” I used a plastic rain mac to cover the pushchair, donned my pink running top, set up my garmin and joined in with the squats and stretches being expertly led by ITVs fitness expert Jane Wake.
After a short pep talk from the one and only Lorraine Kelly, and a 1 minute silence for everyone we have lost to cancer we got into an orderly line dependant on whether we were running, jogging or walking the route and we were off.
7. Now, have I mentioned before how much i hate laps? I also don’t particularly like running on grass, but running on wet grass with a pushchair is like running on sand…bloody hard work.
8. My legs hurt, my top kept riding up, my hair was wet…my legs hurt (oh I’ve said that already) so i walked most of it but I finished it, got my medal and wandered around a bit feeling a little deflated.
That was until I found myself in the middle of a media scrum (ok that migh be a bit of an exaggeration) but there was a camera crew and lots of middle aged ladies trying to get a photo with Lorraine – well if you can’t beat em and all that.
I had a secret weapon with me…a certain young lady that had actually slept throughout the race, waking just in time for the pictures so it seemed.
And it worked.
Lorraine made a beeline for Rosie, I got a couple of pictures and had a little chat with the lady herself.
So there we have it for every cloud there is a silver lining…all I need now is for ITV to agree to help promote my fat girls guide to running. So come on guys don’t hesitate to get in touch 🙂
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