Marwell 10k 12th May 2013

It’s not often you get to run next to wild animals, well it is if you run in Southampton regularly, but Sunday they were really wild at the Marwell Zoo 10k.

The day didn’t start too fantastic as I pulled my car over to throw up on my way to the race, good start, pretty sure my pb has gone out the window, with most of my breakfast alongside. I parked up and waited for the cramps to pass before joining the queue to collect my number. I had already emailed the guy running the race to advice of a name change but this had not been done, so today I will be running as Mr Macarthur, apparently I should be beating his pb today but we will see.

I love the zoo, I like to walk backwards passed the monkeys to confuse them about evolution, today I will be running by them, I don’t even care if one escapes, as long as I can run faster than the guy behind me I should be fine.

Looking around as I always do I am happy that there are a lot of people in fancy dress, seriously if I get beaten by a banana or a meerkat today I will not be happy !!

I meet up with my friend Stephen Keenor, a good sub 40 min 10k runner, I am going to stay on his coat tails to hope for a pb today, I know the course is hilly but that’s what I train for, and seriously how hilly can it be .. stupid question .. one of the marshals advises me it starts on a hill, and it’s pretty much all uphill until 6k, one of the hills lasts for 1.5k, I wish I hadn’t asked.

Heading for the start we inch our way forward towards the front, we don’t want to look too keen but we don’t want to weave in and out of everyone either. Chico the 5 foot meerkat counts us down and we are off. It’s a bit surreal running passed the Zebras and the big cats, and for a moment I am striding through the Hampshire Serengeti. Round a corner and up the hill, round another corner and up another hill, and then its hill after hill. By mile 2 I feel awful, my first mile was 6.19 and the second was about 7 minutes, that’s when the 1.5k hill loomed ahead, the usual rule of thumb in any kind if distance run is ‘if you can’t see the top of the hill, walk’, however this isn’t a distance run so I persuade my legs to keep on going (and persuade my stomach not  to invite Chaka Khan round to play). The hill goes on forever, my watch bleeps that mile at 7.59, this again means no pb for me today, but I can still make it respectable, I am pretty sure I haven’t been overtaken by the banana yet so all is not lost. I set my eyes on a target lady in the distance and stride out to catch her.

At mile 4 I suddenly snap out of it, all it took was a moment of inspiration, I suddenly have clarity, an epiphany eureka moment, snapping me out of a spiralling downward free-fall of self-pity, ITS ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE !!!! I start to reign in runners ahead of me, passing more and more people as I get my minute miles back into the 6’s again, striding long I hit a good rhythm as the km markers come and go. Rounding a bend back into the zoo a marshal tells me its only 400 to go, I come up to the shoulder or Mr Blue Shirt, all he has to say is ‘come on mate’ and we are in a sprint, I am hell for leather in the lead, the crowd are cheering, the lions are roaring, the trumpeting elephants are heralding my triumphant finish, the .. hold up .. the buggers just run past me .. .. with one final effort I pump my arms hard and catch him up, dipping over the finish line exactly at the same time. My wobbly legs carry me forward as my mouth tries to breathe in the world’s oxygen in one big gasp, a handshake with Mr Light Blue Shirt confirms it was close, I really don’t want to lose 2 sprint finishes in a row. I find Steve who has finished in my pb time of 41.35 (which earns him 31^st place) he wouldn’t like to call it either, to be fair I am just glad I haven’t decorated the pavement.

Throughout the day I keep checking the page for results, nothing is coming up, then all of a sudden it is there.. a time of 42.45, not bad considering the hills and a technicoloured yawn, but best of all .. JOINT 49^th place, well it says 50^th but exactly the same time as Mr Light Blue Shirt, now it’s based on alphabetical order and I was running under someone else’s name, Andy comes pretty high in the alphabet so I am calling it 49^th place out of 960 odd people.

This is a great race, scenic and completely different to anything else, all countryside, hills, next year is a definite entry, I reckon a few of the Vixens should come along too :o)