Reading Half Marathon (aka: ouch)

So, yesterday was spent doing one of three things:

• Walking a few miles to collect/after returning the lovely rental car (Peugot 207)


• Sitting in a room, filled with geeks and gadgets, computers and consoles, eating junk food and playing games


• Driving aimlessly around the middle of England trying to get from one major city to another

I walked about 7 miles and got home at about half midnight.

Now, I'm not a morning person. So, waking up at half seven this morning to get myself showered and dressed for the Reading Half Marathon, I wasn't in the best state. Walking another three miles to get to the start line didn't help, and walking a couple more to sort out various registration things also hindered me a bit.

The Half Marathon (13 and a bit miles) started at 10:05. I was walking from one place to another from 8:15am until...10:05. Nice. It was also a surprise to me that there was no water at the start, so I ran the first three miles feeling very dehydrated. The crowds at the sides were fun, as were some of the novelty runners (Elvis had a mp3 player and some speakers) and the various bands about.

Over the 13 miles I discovered many things, and thought about many others. Most of the thoughts were something to do with "ouch", but that was fine as it was always a new place on my body - some of which I wasn't even aware could hurt previously to today.

One thing I thought about and never managed to think of a reasonable explanation for was the disbursement of crowds along the various pavements. Obviously some bunching near pubs and bands is to be expected but why, on identically residential streets, were there long gaps with barely any crowd, and then a large gathered crowd. Was this co-ordinated? Herd mentality? One to look into.

My key takeaway from the Marathon, the one thing I truly learned, was that the Government needs to give some more jobs to the unemployed. 'Morale workers' we could call them. These chaps would wander around the street giving support to various people walking past. "You're doing fine, it's 4pm, work's almost over". "Brilliant trousers there sir! Love it". That kind of thing. People would be a lot happier if we had these guys to cheer them on as they went about their day to day life, and it would be a lot more useful than simply giving them benefits.

As three hours in the bath didn't help, I'm going to try watching some more TV to soothe my aching limbs. It won't help, but I am becoming rapidly addicted to Lost. Just a pity that the TV's downstairs, and my legs aren't big fans of stairs at the moment. Think I'll polish my lovely new tin medal whilst I'm down there too.t

Oh and, did I mention the 3 mile walk back home? That's dedication. Dedication to acting like a student and refusing to either queue for a long time to get a shuttle bus, or pay for a taxi.