Great Manchester Run

Planes, trains and automobiles... 5 trains, 3 planes and a car ride

Two weeks ago, on the train to Edinburgh airport (and then Switzerland), I got an email telling me I had won the Vodafone Just Text Giving Fittest Fundraiser competition. I was headed for Nyon to visit my sister Kate and then on to Javea to visit my parents and dog. On arrival in Nyon I changed my return flight to Manchester!

I flew into Manchester (from Spain) on Saturday with a background buzz of adrenaline. I had cut short my trip to run the Manchester 10K on the Sunday. I should probably mention at this point that I travel about as well as a banana in a bag of bricks.

Vodafone had booked us (Dan Bowsher, Grant Counsell and I) into the Malmaison Hotel, which turned out to be an inspired choice as they - without quibble - let us check out at 14:30 and thus not have to worry about packing in the morning or stinking out our respective trains in the afternoon.

I met Dan, the Vodafone representative who is running 6 of the 7 races with us and Grant, the male winner of the prize, and his wife Helen for drinks (water and mint tea all round!) then we headed across to the Hilton to get our VIP passes. After dinner (bruschetta, beetroot salad and a side of broccoli for me) Dan and I raided the supermarket for supplies. Dan reluctantly accepted a malt loaf (I bought two because they were on offer) which I insisted was magic race food. I was down to half of the loaf Mum acquired from Javea's 'QuickSave' (they'd had it shipped in specially!) and didn't want to run short...

Race Day (Warning: Name Dropping Ahead)

I woke early and soaked in a body temperature bath (any hotter and my mast cells react) whilst my Dorset cereal soaked in soya milk. Tempted as I was, I eschewed the hotel breakfast as this was no time to risk reactions (or temptation to eat things I shouldn't, like croissants and muffins!).

I met Dan, Grant and Helen in the lobby and we headed off to find the VIP bus and our photographer. Not exactly my usual pre-race preparation! Our photographer managed to get lots of photos of us with celebrities, from athletes to soap stars.



Ciarán Griffiths (Shameless) was concerned about my lack of 'tunes' (I don't race with music) and I was concerned about Tony Audenshaw's (Emmerdale) lack of ventilation as he was wearing a furry monkey suit on a hot day. I reckon he was the fastest monkey of the day (ever?) running 52.50! Ciarán hadn't had the best race prep and still pulled off 46.14. Kudos guys!

The absolute highlight for me though was meeting Haile Gebrselassie (28.00) who happily posed for pictures and offered a cool thumbs up over his shoulder in response to my good luck wishes as he headed off to warm up.

With around 20 minutes to go I snuck out of the VIP and elite athlete enclosure and started warming up. For once I wasn't the only one doing hopscotch and twisties (dynamic warm up) up and down the road. Via the VIP enclosure we were able to walk up to the start line up the course and didn't have to fight for position in the mass pens. I think there were around 40,000 runners spread out throughout the day (in different start waves over around 2hrs) so this was a real advantage.



I toed the line with Shayne Ward (pop star, X Factor winner) and was buoyed up to be surrounded by the fluorescent yellow shirts of the celebrities running for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research (my charity!). The start was split under the gantry, to our right were the elite athletes. They were introduced (Haile got the biggest cheer by far) and then we were off. A glance at my watch showed we were being  dragged off too fast so I moved to the edge and slowed. I still ran my first mile in 6'24, which was too fast given my race average of 6'40. The course was slightly undulating but mostly flat as it headed out to and around the edge of Old Trafford. It was around there that I realised my fingers were quite swollen and my vision a little blurred. This suggested a bit of mast cell degranulation, so I grabbed a bottle of water at the water station (to try and get my blood pressure up a bit) and choked on more than I swallowed. In the end I gave up and used it to wash my hands and wet the back of my neck. I can't remember much between then and around 2K to go except being confused by the traffic signs as I couldn't differentiate between them and the signs for runners... I didn't do any U-Turns or exceed the speed limit so all was good. Somehow I had stayed roughly on pace and as we reached 1K to go I realised that I could, quite comfortably, finish within my target time of 42 minutes. I picked up the pace at the 800m mark and turned on autopilot, that tunnel visioned ploughing ahead that has served me so well in marathons. I crossed the line in 41.31.

I drank the water very quickly to try and boost my blood pressure. I found another bottle of energy drink in my goody bag and started to drink that before realising that it was causing my throat to constrict. There is an art to staying close enough to the first aid tent that you can get there in an emergency but not close enough that they capture you prior to that point... In the end my breathing settled so I walked around looking for Dan and Helen. Found neither so went for a warm down jog. My jog brought me to a man giving out Soreen Malt Loaf. This made me very happy indeed! I wound around towards the Hilton where I was due to meet the others if we hadn't found each other before. I bumped into Tony Audenshaw who was looking hot but ridiculously good for a man who had just run 10K (fast) in a monkey suit.



By the time I found Dan my mast cells had settled down and I was surfing a wave of endorphins (poor Dan). After a while Grant and Helen joined us and then our photographer called wanting a finishers photo. Such a hard life!



After my shower I still had a couple of hours before my train but headed straight over to the train station as I knew what was likely to happen next.

As the endorphins and adrenaline wore off the fatigue hit hard. I sat in Yo! Sushi watching the food circling, too tired to know what I wanted or lift it from the conveyor belt before it had passed. Consequenly I tried inari pockets for the first time (captured by mistake) and discovered a new favourite :)

The train ride was very pretty. I was glad that something good - and very green - had come from all the rain.

Please consider donating - for this race and the next six Great Runs - whatever you can to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. You can Text TINY81 £2 (or any other amount) to 70070 to donate or visit my JustGiving page and read more about why I'm doing this and what I'm up against!

Latest thank yous: Mum and Dad, Roger, Sara, Latty, Anon and Joad.