My running has taken a back seat the last few weeks. Not that I haven't done any, it's just felt like I've had to squeeze it in between shopping, weddings and birthdays. Including doing the flowers for my Niece's wedding which was quite stressful, not knowing whether the florist wholesaler would have the correct colour and quantity of flowers I needed, whether a 5 am set off was early enough - flowers are sold by auction by the growers and then travel overnight in refrigerated wagons, florists then shop for what they need, getting there as early as they can to pick the best from what's available. Needless to say my cream and black bouquets turned out perfect and the bride seemed very pleased. Next up, my husband Martin's 50th and a cake to make and catering to do. As the party had a music theme in the form of 45 rpm singles being played all evening it seemed fitting to base the cake around the same theme. Anyway the alternative for a running theme would have been a treadmill (since that's what he trains on), perish the thought! Marc very willingly baked a fruit cake for his Dad a few weeks ago and then agreed to bake some cup cakes, in black and white cases which I then iced in the opposite colours, the black ones white and the white ones black, and fashioned a 7" single for the top of the cake and piped musical notes around the sides! Appropriately themed rice paper 'singles' and musical notes fixed on top of each cupcake completed the look! Lovely! Just very time consuming! The party went off smoothly and even my first ever attempt at barbecuing and the odd shower failed to dampen the mood!
After a very late night/early morning - Sunday proved to be a challenge from the minute I opened my eyes. Very tired, I set off for Robert's Park in Saltaire, the venue for a Vets race at which I had agreed to marshal. Eccleshill had agreed to co-host the race as a learning exercise of how to put on a race. On arrival everyone was milling around and I chipped in to help move some barriers into place. Following this we were all designated our roles, timing at the finish for me : 0
I have to say I was mortified at the very thought of being involved in such an important job but hey ho it had to be done, thrown in at the deep end comes to mind! I was partnered with Liz from club, all became clear as mud when we found out it was a relay race with runners a, b, c and d in some cases. Our job was to stand a little way past the official timers, John and John, and manually record the finishers team, number and sex as a back up just in case anything went wrong. As the race progressed my confidence grew and I really enjoyed it. As we all know a runner's finishing time is very important to them and I think we did a brilliant job - each time one of the John's checked with Liz how many finishers we had had across the line it matched so I'm guessing all were present and correct when the results were processed.
So, very light training this week and the Great North is upon us, our caravan is booked, the transfers to the start of the race are booked, our vests are printed with our names, so roll on Friday when we will be setting off up to the North East to take part in my favourite race ever! Excited isn't in it! More so since we have far exceeded our fundraising target for SCOPE. There is however room for more at http://www.justgiving.com/Juliemartin-Steele1
Marc will complete his final Junior Great North Run on Saturday and will then be eligible to run the half marathon next year. So it's fingers crossed for a great weekend, see you on the other side! (That's Monday for the King's Road Hill reps!)
The vests are ready to go!
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