Teespride Review

I've been doon the big smoke to see the young 'un competing at the world aquathlon championships (well...proud parents prerogative). A 1km swim and a 5k run. Watching all the coming and going made me want to be 30 years younger.  Looking through the photos I took, I thought this one was a laugh (Giant hand pushes in flagpole...not my hand).

Alas,it was over all too quickly and I'm now sat here on the train coming north from London.  My wallets empty and its begun to rain out the window, so we must be going north...

Not one to waste time blogging, I have time as we sit waiting for a train ahead to get itself sorted out, to critically review my performance at last weekends Teespride 10k. Let me start by saying that I could have gone faster and finished stronger toward the end where my pace dropped off from sub-six to six eleven for the last mile.  I say I could have gone faster, but that was really just in my head. My legs and lungs were working at max, little sacks of fleshy bellows sucking in the clean Middlesbrough air! I spent time trying to fend off those johnny-come-lately Teesside based vets who had the cheek to come past in the last mile. Before that, I was moving well over the flat course, the breathing not too laboured.

The Council had closed the road, so it was a stress free, car free circuit that wound its way out of Acklam and down Marton Road. I think we passed Clairville stadium in the final stages, although I couldn’t find the spare energy to turn my head right to see if they’ve pulled it down to erect more houses.  Waste of a perfectly good athletics facility with velodrome.

It was a proper big event with chip timing and a field just short of two thousand.  The sun was out and hardly a drop of wind.  The event was well supported with crowds at junctions and a few had dug out their deck chairs and were sitting on the pavement or at the bottom of their drives. The course kept runners away from the more industrial hinterlands so we didn’t quite get the full ‘Boro' experience.  The bands who were playing music around the course added a cosmopolitan air to the whole affair. The course was fast but not quite fast enough for a sub 37. A goodie bag at the end with a T- shirt, medal and a Frisbee which I threw away.... 

Not sure what's on this weekend. Need to have a look at the racing calendar.