First of all, here are some bad photos from 2008. I had definitely run this race before at some point, but I don't know how many times. On this occasion we had been to the PRC Christmas Night Out the night before and actually the photos give a flavour of the subjective experience of running the WOL that day. It was cold and I was wearing thick tights. I had a thick tongue and a terrible thirst.
Then 2010. I was probably quite sober this time and ran quite well. The past. It all seems such a long time ago. Except not really as I still have all the same clothes. I've washed them though.
Ahhh, back to the present. Here's me and Mr Hot Dog this morning. There's something way perverse about putting sauce on yourself so someone else can eat you.
I was set off with the legend that is Scott Balfour.
This was in the last mile or so, chasing down Dr Jones.
Ahhh, I so nearly had him.
Those little children look a bit concerned for me.
No.s 1 and 2 actually and I gather they had a chase every step of the way.
They won prizes for being fast and then we won the team prize.
Sandy and Neil.
I hadn't wanted to run this race for years and then something about it this year...definitely the fact that Richard and Peter were no longer involved in the organization (so I wouldn't get roped in to help) helped. Peter was going to do it, and why wouldn't I want a 13-14 mile stroll down the Water of Leith on a Saturday morning with nice people and cake at the end? So I got Peter to ask for an entry for me too.
I'm glad I did. It was a perfect morning, just a little bit milder than it's been all week.
We got up earlier than we might have liked but it's later than I have to get up for work, so it wasn't too hard.
We met Nick down at the bus and he and Peter seemed to have similar levels of caffeine in their systems. Actually the whole bus was buzzing with chatter when I pulled back from the immediate conversation and listened.
It was great to see running people I haven't seen for ages.
I'm too lazy to do a blow by blow account of the race. I liked the diversion up all the steps to Douglas Crescent.
The race winners were Jim Scott and Louise Provan. Peter and Nick were the fastest men. Because I was in a team with them I got in on the team prize, which had been donated by last year's team winners; Chris Henty, Graham Nash and Jim Hardie. We each received a gift bag with three bottles of home-brewed drinks, labelled "Lucky Pierre" which is apparently a thing...a rude thing...you look it up, I'm not going to. I think it's something kind of wrong you do with your friends and then you have to blitz your brains with the berry vodka to get rid of that burning feeling of shame afterwards.
I had two half pints of cider in the pub on a nearly empty stomach and because I hardly ever drink, for a while I thought I was king of the world. Happy days.
No comments:
Post a Comment