Run 2: Hyde Park 10km

Sunday, 23rd August 2015 (09:00am)

Owing to a birthday part the previous night, I adopted the tried and tested method of getting the bus to London at 2am and sleeping en route. I groggily arrived at Hyde Park, collected my race number/chip and changed in to my running gear.

Once again my camera does not do Hyde Park any justice at all.

Chilling before the race

What struck me about this event was that it was a little less organised than the previous one. Though it didn't take long to find the camp that had been set up, the start/finish line was a little lacklustre. An elderly gentleman got the crowd fired up through a rather rubbish megaphone that only a few people were actually able to hear. Nonetheless, his welcome to those runners who were new and his appreciation of all the different charities being represented was a nice warmup to the event.

"Middle-aged man" mentioned later is the bald guy in this photo!

Having already written this blog post, lost it, been unable to find it again, and having recently started it again, I'm rather reluctant to write everything I wrote last time (mainly because I can't remember) but the main thing I would like to write about is the inspiring story of a middle-aged man who caught up to me mid-run to congratulate me on my cause.

Owing to the milestone of collecting more than £200 for my second run, I donned the Diabetes UK wig made famous in the South Wales Evening Post article that inspired people to ask "Why were you wearing pants on your head?" This wig made my cause instantly recognisable as I was actually the only one in fancy dress.

This is a wig - not a pair of pants!

My "fancy dress" allowed people to see quite clearly the cause for which I was running. Due to my lack of sleep and general fatigue, I started the run quite slowly. This allowed for something that I rarely have time or lung capacity for; it allowed me to have a chat. Afore-mentioned middle-aged man caught up to me at around 3-4km and told me how he heartily approved of my choice of charity. The man had recently been diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes and had turned to running to try and control it. He told me that through running he had managed to lose 6 stone and it had really had a positive effect on being able to control his diabetes. We talked about the different runs he and I both had planned, and being motivated by his story, I bade him farewell and pressed onwards with my run. After all, I would only do this run once, I might as well get a good time.

At the halfway point, I saw the clock just about tick over to 25:00. This meant if I pushed myself I would be able to beat last week's time of 50:04. Familiar with the course, which lacked any kind of inclines, I pushed onwards and felt even more motivated when, inspired by my diabetes wig-hat-thing, a woman whooped "Go Diabetes!" at me (it could've been worded better...).

Happy with my second medal

My final time was a quite impressive 48 minutes and 14 seconds, 4 minutes off my personal best.

Total money raised: £643.32