Yesterday was our annual friendly match against the ORR (Orpington Road Runners). For the past few years we, Petts Wood Runners, have won! Both on the 'mob' side and the points side of the match we wiped the board! It's quite an unusual way of scoring. It took me a while to understand it, but it's relatively easy. The best way that I can say it is like this. The mob part of a match is fairly easy, both teams gather as many of their club members as possible and then run against each other, but for the purpose of scoring points the only same amount of runners from each group, for instance, if PWR had 100 runners and ORR had 50, then only the first 50 people from each club will be gathering the points.
The points I can only describe as 'fines' for each runner home. The first runner will be 'fined' 1 point, the second runner will be fined 2, the third will be fined 3 etc etc. So the team who is 'fined' the most is obviously the losers!
The ORR did receive an award though, the first runner over the finish line was an orpie! So now, you all know about how things worked, and of course the results, by the way Sonia did an awesome job of getting it all down on the computer and getting it all ready to reveal in the pub later in the evening! So let me tell you about the run!
Oh my goodness! It was blimmin hot HOT HOT! Not only that but I was running a tad late as I wanted to take my bike for the ride back home after. But after I got my bike, back down the shed to find bike lights, found the bike lights, rushed to my bike, I realised that I had my second bike out, and the lighting mount was on my other bike! Grrr! So I just hoped on and rode off, I shall have to come through the park with company and then I can ride home on the pavement the rest of the way home.
I rode up Farringdon and then crossed over to Oxhawth. I was thinking of riding up the hill to Crestview and then go into Jubilee park from Tent Peg lane. But as I got to the main road, Southborough lane I saw a PWR runner going along the drive near the Catholic school. Now I knew he was heading for the mob match because he was wearing his colours! I decided to follow him, I crossed over the road and then rode along the drive towards another entrance to the park! I caught up with him and we continued to walk the rest of the way to the start. I hadn't realised just how near the start was to this entrance. Jubilee park always confuses me. I can't work out in my head where paths lead out to, probably why I have never taken group 1 through there before! I have taken the Thursday morning runners through there...and then got lost! Well, when I say lost, we popped out of the woods which was the complete opposite side of where I wanted to be!
Anyway, I met up at the start with all my running pals, and some group 1's as well as just over 200 other people! It really was an amazing turn out! I collected my number, I was no.11, legs eleven as the say in the bingo halls! I was still pretty sweaty from the bike ride to the park as we all walked over to the start like. DiscoRich had parked his car (with permission) by the start line with a speaker on top with some tunes coming out from it and also so that we can hear him when he used the microphone!
It was a brilliant atmosphere as we all waited for the off! The faster, scoring runners were all at the front and us from the slower groups were all at the back! My group 1's were all there, some with their new PWR tops, some just wearing a white top, as they haven't ordered their club shirts yet. Mixed among the PWR's were the orpies with their yellow tops, all getting excited and ready for the off.
Then we heard it, 1, 2, 3, Go! The throng of people started to move slowly at first and then we broke into a run. My running buddies were all ahead of me, Carole, RefMichael and even most of the group 1 runners were ahead, but there was still a couple behind me, so I slowed down. I really wanted to make sure that I was behind all of them for this run. I wanted them to see how fun it is to have a friendly match against another running club, that it's not all about speed all the time, it's fun to be part of a mob match and......it's even better to be part of a winning team! So I slowed down a bit, let the runners behind me over take until I heard IllustriousLeader and Tracy behind me, they were the last runner marshals. Just the first bit of the run, the bit that took us up the path and then left into the carpark and through the gate to go back into the park, well that bit, that was tough! I was sweaty, I also had a beer not an hour and half before, and I really thought I wasn't going to make it around in any sort of decent time! But then I head Alison, Charleys mum, just behind me saying that she really didn't feel like she could do it, and that she wanted to stop. IllustriousLeader sent Tracy on with me and walked a bit with Alison.
Alison soon caught up with me again and was feeling a little bit better. As I said, it was really very warm indeed. I said to Alison that I would run next to her for the rest of the run, I really wasn't feeling to good either! My running has really suffered of late. It's my own fault, I have put on way too much weight! I've been eating and drinking totally all the wrong things and not doing nearly enough exercise to overcome that! So being at the back of the pack was always going to be on the cards for me, only now I will have company! Of course Tracy and IllustriousLeader are great company!
So together me and Alison ran along next to each other, encouraging each other as we got around the course. The course was very well marshaled by PWR's, and the PWR Cheer Station was just simply amazing! You could hear them from when the first person reached them until the last people (me and Alison) got back to the finish! They had pompoms, noise makers and they were all in fine voice as they cheered, screamed and called out to every runner as they ran passed them! This is them.
The marshals were dotted in though the woods, by the sharp corners and by the gateways. We cam along a gate way and there was LittleJ, oh it was good to see her. We do miss her in group 1, but when the docs say no more running I guess you have to listen. But it hasn't stopped her being part for our group, Spence has created a walking wounded/healing group that meet up a with the usual groups on a Tuesday. So it's great that she is still a part of PWR. Then we ran along just a little bit more to see K, she was standing by the gate that I came through when I followed the PWR runner to get to the registration early on! And now I know where that gate leads! I feel the more I run through here, the more I can learn new routes for club night runs.
We were not far now from the start line, Alison was feeling a bit better and she was pleased that she hadn't given up. I was still suffering, but as I said, no sympathy, I am way to overweight! We started running along toward the start again, of course we were being overtaken by just about everybody and we had to sometimes just stand by the side so they could run on by. At least when we do the second lap we won't have to do that! But coming up to the finish line (for the first time) was brilliant, Kevtwoballs was there with his camera taking some pictures, and he got some fantastic shots!
I still had one more lap to do, however, and so we ran on by the cheering crowds, the runners who had finished and some cheerleaders too, to do the second lap. Alison was in her stride by then and was deffo looking forward to finishing. We started and we will finish! I have never not finished a race, whether it be a 5k or a marathon! Fortunately this run was only 5k!
The cheer was still brilliant, they never stopped, Spence reminding us about the whole in the board walks, Natalie showing us through to the right path, Littleton pointing us in the right direction! Just marvellous! The whole evening run was just marvellous, from the registration, to picking up our numbers to getting our finishing positions and of course the all important results!
Kev was still there taking pictures of us as we finished! I still looked pretty exhausted and made running a 5k look pretty blimmin hard! By the look on my face it looked like I was finishing a marathon, but it was hot, did I mention it was a rather warm evening!
I finished, last, Alison was second to last and another Alison was third from last! All of us from Group 1, I was just so pleased that for this year, group 1 was well represented! All of them had finished well ahead, which was pretty amazing as it was really hot! The terrain was a bit of a challenge too as the ground had all dried out and was cracking! But we managed to get everyone around the course with no one getting injured! A fabulous day, a fabulous run and a fabulous win for all of us in PWR!
Of course we al celebrated in the pub afterwards, this is me and the girls after we had a couple!
Pictures from Kev Howard, Spense Davis
Geeky stats.
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