So I have been trying to pull together a chronological list of races I have participated in over the years and I have just realised the single most funniest 10K experience I have had has never been written about. My two besties will kill me for exposing them..but girls it has to be done, after all Sharing is Caring!!
So this was like 5 or 6 years ago or something, I’d been running for a while and had egged on my two mates Nat and Tash to sign up to a 10K in Stratford which was being hosted to raise the profile of our area in the run up to the London 2012 games this was back when we were as thick as thieves, we were a hardcore drinking trio but were also up for doing non drinking related things too. So we had all decided to run this race together, Tash was in the Territorial Army at the time and a regular at BMF so was ultra fit, although I’m not sure how many running races she had done before, Nat was a whole different ball game and didn’t even own a proper pair of running shoes and was a heavy smoker but she was game I’ll give her that.
So the night before I said to them both “Now don’t have anything (ie Alcohol) to drink, have an early night and get some rest”
Well…8am the following morning I could smell the vodka on them before they had even entered my building. They had been out…Leytonstone O’Neils if my memory served me right. I couldn’t believe it…I don’t know why I was so cross, maybe its cos I felt a little left out or maybe its cos I thought neither of them were going to be able to complete the run.
Anyway we made our way to the start line and got into the spirit of things. We didn’t really discuss if we were going to run together or not, just did some silly stretches and laughed at the men in short shorts and before we knew it we were off. We run from the Theatre Royal around the one way system the wrong way (obviously the roads were closed), we were kinda running at the same pace and it felt quite comfortable.
Then it started “I want to stop” said Nat, “No” said Tash, “No seriously Tash, I wanna stop” moaned Nat, and so it went on. Natalie was making like a weird winning sound, and Tash was barking orders at her like a Sargent Major…”you can do it Nat”, “No I can’t”. “Just stop thinking about it”, “Tash I wanna stop” if it wasn’t so annoying it would have been quite funny. I decided I couldn’t take it and sped up a little just to get away,
The route took us up onto the greenway, and kinda in the Olympic Park…which literely was just a muddy flat site at the time. I can’t really remember where else it went, maybe around West Ham Park, but I know at one point I ended up along Romford Road near to where I had grown up in Forest Gate…I can remember thinking it would be funny to see some of my old drinking pals on their way home from the night before.
Anyway, with less than a kilometer to go I heard a familiar noise…and as I looked over my shoulder I saw them. Nat was red as a postbox and Tash looked a little tense but they were both still running. I eased back to let them catch me and we run the final 500 meters together, finishing under a finishers arch in a slip road off the main carriageway outside Stratford Shopping Centre (The old one)
We’d done it. Natalie had run the whole way, but only cos Tash wouldn’t let her stop and I think we did it in about 1 hour 14 or something. We picked up our finishers medals which we wore proudly around our necks, were given a goodie bag and even queued in a marquee for a free finishers picture.
But that ladies and gentlemen is not where the story ends. We were like “Now what?” so we did what we did best, we went to the pub. We had a Weatherspoons breakfast and a pint of cider I think. It was almost midday by this point and the sun was out in all its glory. So it felt a bit boring to go home…so we walked up towards my flat and stopped outside the Builders Arms (my local which I had NEVER actually been in until then). We sat outside and had a couple more pints of something and by now we were quite merry and it was like 4 or 5pm. You’d think we would call it a night and go home…no not quite.
We went to mine for something to eat…forgetting I had nothing in I think we ended up having cheese on toast and finishing off whatever booze we could find whilst playing ridiculas tunes like “Can’t Touch This” and “I wanna sex you up” on full blast. Now it was like 10ish on a Saturday night and what do girls on a Saturday night want to do? Well “girls just wanna have fun” right?, so we made our way to a really dodgy nightclub near Leyton…get this we cycled…yes we cycled…half pissed, legs aching the mile or so to the club, chaining up our bike on a railing with the bouncers looking on in astonishment…still in our running kit….still with our finishers medals round our necks, we partied until about 2am before cycling home and crashing (as in crashing out, not as in getting knocked over by a bus…luckily.
Crazy.
How could I have neglected to tell this story thus far? Maybe it’s cos they swore me to secrecy, or maybe it’s because my life is so different now to those crazy days where I didn’t have to answer to anybody but my current bank balance and my struggling liver. I most definitely could not (and wouldn’t want to) get up to such shenanigans these days, and I doubt Nat or Tash could (or would) neither.
P.S – Juneathon update : My ankle is still sore so still no running, but I did do 100 squats yesterday before bed, and I walked over 3 miles today to take Rose to the doctors, tomorrow I am hoping to get to the gym to test the ankle.
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