The big day is drawing nearer – the 20th September 2009 is not only marked in my diary but 54,000 runners’ diaries. With only a matter of days to the start of the 29th Great North Run, the world’s biggest half marathon, I along with the rest of the field are beginning to get excited (you only have to look at the number or emails or phone calls flying between my fellow friends who are running the event).
This year’s elite male and mass participation event starts at 10.40am by a fellow Wallsend boy and international musician – Sting, together with Steve Harmison. Right now I’m as excited as a kid in a sweet shop and buzzing with excitement for the gun to go off. The training is all done and all that that remains left to do is run the 13.1 miles from Newcastle to South Shields.
Personally, my last week of training has gone well. The final long run gave me a large measure of confidence as I covered a distance of just over 12 miles in a credible time, hopefully meaning I’m ready for race day. This together with a couple of short, three or four mile runs have given me a little mental strength, which I was missing. It’s strange how the mental aspect affects you. You have a whole load of unresolved questions floating in your head: have I trained over long enough distances? Am I about to come down with an injury or illness? The whole point of training is to get your body in the best state possible, both physically and mentally, for the start line. Given my recent problems I’ve done the best I can to achieve this objective and now I’m ready to race!
Only time will tell if I manage to achieve my original A target or my new more attainable B target, but I’ll let you know after race day. Until then here are a few handy hints if you’re one of the 54,000 other runners. Personal experience has taught me these over the years – often finding them out the hard way!
5 Tips for the day – from personal experience
- Prepare you kit the day before – don’t leave it to the last moment. Preparing your kit on race day will likely mean you’re missing something. For me it’s normally the safety pins.
- Now is not the time to experiment – trying new kit or untested sports drinks/gels/tablets on race day is not a good idea. Your trainers should already be well worn in, so don’t be tempted by the expo to purchase new kit for the day. Trying sports drink on the day of a big race has caught me out as around mile eleven I emptied the contents of my stomach.
- Don’t miss the baggage buses – I’ve done this in the past and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. All baggage needs to be on the bus by 10.00am prompt. This gives you time to visit the toilet and get yourself ready.
- Soak up the atmosphere and enjoy – the world’s largest half marathon is worth soaking up and enjoying. For one day you get to feel like an elite athlete coming into the home straight and about to take Olympic gold with the crowd cheering you on. Enjoy it!
- Vaseline up – in normal life this sounds wrong but when it comes to running a half marathon it’s going to help the pain – trust me. Vaseline-ing up prior and during the race will save you those nasty chafing problems.
Finally if you need some inspiration have a quick read of these running quotes I assembled for the London Marathon earlier this year.
