Every Second Counts

Pipped to the post by 1 second!

Stewards enquiry!! 

Three Hours Earlier

Arriving by train, Birmingham stood before us, grand and majestic (the floosy is off to the right of the pic).

The station and city packed with runners and their support teams was a comforting sight as we made our way to the start, briefly being accosted by someone from BRMB to have our photo taken (see the gallery here ). Helicopters buzzed around the cloudy but bright sky as the first wave of runners was about to set off. Birmingham was well and truly packed.

As is our tradition we stopped for the pre-run photo tweet:





Being unconfident of our times we found ourselves in the Pink wave, the last wave to go. Not only in the last wave, but we also found ourselves towards the back. In retrospect this was quite good as it is good for the soul/ego to be passing lots of people rather than being passed.

So, we made our way to the Pink Wave start area.

By this time our support team had split up. Our father had caught the train to catch up with us as we staggered through Bournville and @julietims, having seen us to the start and carrying the bags, was now filming and taking photos from the start/finish.

And we’re….almost off!

The Pink Wave amassed, waiting to go through the start line.

And we’re….still almost off!

This picture sees us minutes before the start of the run. @jazzlegs looks up momentarily from playing Words with Friends, both of us prepping the running apps on our phones. There were a lot people, though at 15,000 runners it was by no means the biggest. We were surrounded though by a lot of people. All ages, all shapes and sizes and many in fancy dress. The atmosphere was great and the sun was shining….only 13 miles to go.

 

The Run

I would like to say that we had a relaxing run and were able to take in all the sights of Birmingham, but come on, we were running a half marathon!

I do know that Pershore Road is bloody long, dual carriageways in Birmingham go up as well as down and the gradient map of the course did not do the last three miles justice at all!

We saw our father twice around Bournville (he was able to cut through the station to catch us the second time) and he took some action photos and video.

@julietims was waiting at the finish (with our father) poised and ready for action to capture our triumphant arrival. As the beginning of the post attests, this was done perfectly.

13 Miles Later…

The Finish!

We did it. We ran all the way and even managed a sprint at the end.

This was a distance that neither @jazzlegs or myself had previously done and I think we are quite rightly pleased with ourselves for this achievement.

As tradition dictates, the post-run photo was tweeted:

Support

Huge thanks have to go to our support team: @julietims and our father.

It’s always good to have people on the ground to help with bags, take action photos and meet you at the end.

Also, a huge thanks to the people of Birmingham who lined the course giving support, encouragement and High-5s to all the runners. It was much appreciated.

And finally a thank you to the organisers of this year’s Great Birmingham Run who did a fantastic job.

Great Birmingham Run 2012

Here it is for all foolish enough to take part:

http://www.greatrun.org/Events/Event.aspx?id=14

Needless to say I have already signed up for next year!