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| Trentham on Tour |
This was our motley
crew the morning of our trip to Madrid Rock and Roll marathon, it has been a long time in the planning
and it was finally here! There were 38
running the race and we had a number of supporters coming along for the occasion.
Our flight passed
without a hitch and we were in Madrid 2.5 hours after leaving the sunny shores
of Liverpool Airport. Following a detour to the Metro station to
collect our travel cards, which is no mean feat when there are forty people to keep
track of, but our trusty Trentham on Tour T-shirts helped us keep together, we made our way to the hostel.
With regards to the
days before the race itself, there was an agreement that "what happened in
Madrid stayed in Madrid" although having said that here is are the
highlights
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| Hydration is important |
Thursday: TOTs descended and caused chaos at our
lovely hostel of the weekend, then we found a great Irish bar
Blood Brothers which we drank dry of
both wine, larger and very nearly rum, needless to say it was a 2:30am return
to the hostel!!
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| Photo bomb |
Friday: Morning Run, with a few die hard
runners, even with a hangover they were ready for a run at 8am, the obliquity
photo bomb!( photo). Expo, bib and t-shirt pick up via a unnecessary detour via
the Zoo! Visit and re-hydration stop at the square and then finally the evening
activities with far far too much red wine.
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| Bib pick up |
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| Friday night |
Saturday: Very much a quieter day mainly due to my massive hangover, Sean and I
had wander round Madrid and finally got served at the
HARD ROCK Café and
finally I started to feel like me again around 4:30pm in the afternoon.
Some of the group had also managed to get tickets for a little game that was taking place locally ;o). For Sean and I it was back to the hostel to meet up with the rest of Trentham crew and more party games, but very much dryer and more civilized than the night before!
Madrid the run itself
For some strange
reason this year is have really become very lax in my research and pre-race prep, I had not looked at the course elevation, or even where the start
and finish was. So when asked "where are we starting and finishing" I would waved my hand in the general
direction of over there! But safe in the knowledge that as with any large
scale race you know how to get to the start by following the masses and this was no
different.
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| Green Army ready for duty |
One of our group was going to be running in the 10k and
was focused on getting a good time, so much so he left well before we made it
down for breakfast to get in to his pen and also in the zone! As we
wondered past the start we saw him and yelled like lunatics until he
acknowledge us, thus undoing all of his
mental preparation (oh well), he still looked focus and was in a good position
as the gun went off. He also finished 35th overall and 1st Brit home.
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| Lets rock and roll |
After we saw him off we wondered down to our own pens,
this's is where we all got a little more split up but the majority of the army
girls & boys were together. Once we we in our pen there was an attempt made
to look for our missing friends, much to the joy of our fellow runners.
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| someone embarrassed? |
Once Jodie's cheeks had calmed down, we waited for the
gun and then we were off....well we were eventually, you never really get over
the line that quickly and with having both marathoners and half marathoners
starting together there we over 22,000 people crossings the starting line. We were all in high jinx, which was my
downfall as 0.25miles into the race I fell over! I would like to say that I commando rolled and jumped back up unscathed but it would be a lie. I did fall straight on to my knees and elbow
which was an attempt to save both my face and my camera, oh my poor poor knees :o(
My race strategy had always been to enjoy the race, I was
not going to time, with this in mind and my previous struggles with my
performance since Manchester I had made a mental note to run with Emily and
accompany her around the route (regardless to whether she wanted company or not!). Both
Emily and I could not understand why we were finding the 1st 3 miles so tough,
were we that unfit? had the drinking taken that much of a told on our bodies? should we give it all up and find a bar?
Fortunately we there was a water station looming on the
horizon so after hydrating it felt a little easier and we agreed that we would
carry on to the finish as we were now already quarter of the way through the
race and with mile 4 coming up shortly we would soon be third of the way
through the race, which always helps.
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| Emily on the run |
The rest of the race went with out a incident, especially as
Emily kept highlighting all of the pot holes in my path to make sure I avoided
these and remained vertical for the rest of the run.
We soon approached the end of the race and there is a
cruel trick, they had something that looked like a finish gantry which made you think it is within
touching distance and the you have to turn right, now that is MEAN.
After that
disappointment the finish seems to take ages but it was approaching and both
Emily and I enjoyed the crowd support and seeing our friends in the
crowds lining the finish runway. With a finish time of 2:18 it
was a personal worse in terms of times but personal best in terms of enjoyment
and have a fab run, thanks Emily.
So soon met up with the others for a team photos and
hearing about how everyone's run had gone, not forgetting we still had some
fellow runners out there both finishing the half and the full marathon.
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| Say Cheese Green Army on Tour |
I went
back to the finish straight to wait for Sean to finish and the others went off
to find hydration and a much needed sit down, but they were soon back to see the others finish too.
Once everyone had finished we wondered back to the hostel
for a quick shower and change before heading off for more hydration at our new
found gem 'euro bar' . Later that night we had a celebratory meal at Italian buffet were Emily and I found out that the 1st 3 miles were all up hill, ah
all makes perfect sense now!
And after
It wasn't long until we were preparing for the journey
back to blightly, interestingly the journey back was a lot more subdued that
the journey out! Not surprisingly as there was a lot of very tired and possibly
up hungover people, in addition to the realisation that the fun was over and we
need to head off back to our lives and jobs :o(
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| Where next! LISBON |
However one of the main topic of discussion was what
next.....Lisbon 2015 watch out we could be very well on our way to see you
