23 October 2016
Another Sunday morning and another cold, early start. This time it was for one of the biggest races of the season, The Great South Run. The sun was barely up when we set off for Portsmouth. The race didn’t start for hours but we knew finding somewhere to park wouldn’t be easy and we didn’t want to miss the team photo. There was a tiny amount of getting lost and some entering Portsmouth then leaving, then reentering Portsmouth from the opposite side, but I wasn’t driving so I’m not taking the blame.
Eventually we made it to Gunwharf and parked, then there was a half hour walk to Southsea. We bumped into John, Rachel and Sam somewhere on Clarence Esplanade and, with the sun just rising over the Naval Memorial and the gulls circling above, we headed for Southsea Castle where the pacers had a VIP room to get changed.
It seems to me the pacers changing rooms are getting more and more historic with every race. Commando was more than a little disappointed not to be running but his slowly recovering fibula probably wasn’t up to ten miles. This did at least mean that we could wander off to Costas and get a takeaway coffee while the pacers were getting changed.
In fact there was quite a group of us heading for Costa. A hot cup of coffee is great for warming your hands on a cold morning. Back at the castle a helicopter was circling, there to film the race. We watched it going round and round and wondered if we would be little dots on TV?
After a while we went to see how the pacers were getting on. To be honest I couldn’t wait to see their costumes. Originally, before his injury, Commando was planning to be a pacer for this race. I have a feeling he was feeling pretty relieved when we bumped into Rachel and Kim outside the changing room and saw what he would have been wearing. As the sponsor for the race was Duracell, the theme was decidedly bunny.
While the ladies looked rather fetching with pink bunny ears and tails, inside the room the men looked slightly less impressed. Let’s face it, it isn’t the most masculine look. Rachel, on the other hand, seemed quite gleeful about pinning John’s tail on for him.
Then the Duracell Bunny himself (or in this case herself) turned up. After John had a stern word with him about the costumes they made up and posed for photos.
The next job was putting on flags so the runners could easily spot their pacers. While this is a great idea for runners wanting to hit a certain pace, I’m not sure running with a great big flag strapped to your back is much fun for the pacers themselves, especially in windy old Southsea. For the men it wasn’t quite so bad but the chest straps were a little unfortunately placed for the ladies. Thankfully I’ll never be a pacer because I’m pretty sure the straps wouldn’t have fit around me!
With ears, tails and flags in place it was time to go out to the start line. This posed a bit of an issue for some of the men as those flags just didn’t want to go through the door. Obviously, this is not a problem I’d have had.
With more than twenty thousand people running, this is one of Europe’s most popular races over ten miles with elite professional runners, world record holders, club runners and relative novices running the same course. In normal circumstances finding friends in the crowd might have been difficult but the flags did help a little and we soon found John in the crowd with his one hour thirty flag.
A little further forward we saw Gerry and Beth, who looked far more at home with the bunny ears. Beside them were Rob and Luke, two of Commando’s old martial arts friends. What are the chances of bumping into people you know amonst a crowd of twenty thousand?
The race started in waves, with the elite runners going off first, shortly followed by the fastest of the normal mortals. Once John’s wave had left we turned our attention to the next crowd, hoping to spot a few Rob. He turned out to be easy to see as, with his one hour thirty flag, he was right at the front of the crowd. He gave us a wave as they all began to walk forward towards the start line.
We scanned the crowd for more people we knew. I, for one, was slightly distracted by the group of men dressed as World War One soldiers, complete with guns, not to mention a whole group in curly yellow wigs running to raise money for a cancer charity.
In the next wave we saw Rachel but she was so surrounded by people I couldn’t get a clear photo of her. Kylie spotted Kim a little further back. She was right by the rail and we had a few minutes to wish her luck and take some pictures before they were off.
Commando had left us just before the first wave set off, hoping to find a good vantage point for cheering somewhere on the course. Now it was time to try and find him.
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It must be hard to run with all of that on, especially the flag.
I think the flags must make it tough, especially on the windy sea front. Kim said she had to have a back massage afterwards.
You certainly got a variety of photographs.
The bunny ears were my favourites.