On Sunday 10th October, I took part in the Run The River 10k starting and finishing at the beautiful state-of-the-art Lee Valley Athletic Centre – the home of the Team GB track athletes’ training ground. The last time I was there was 2019. The event was cancelled last year due to COVID-19 lockdown. But I was so pleased to be able to return this year thanks to the great effort from the organisers for demonstrating to the UKAA Scrutinisers that this event has complied to all the COVID-19 safety rules such as the cancellation of the 3k run fun in order to reduce the number of participants, moving the registration desk from indoor to a more spacious outdoor area, a rolling start to give more space amongst runners congregating before the start line and zero touch handover of medals and goody bags. The organisers have done a great job indeed.
The carpark outside the athletic centre has been converted to a COVID-19 Testing Centre. Therefore, for those of us who drove there, we had to park outside Odeon cinemas next door. At first, I thought was a little annoying, but the Odeon Cinema carpark is massive. There was plenty of space. Inside the Athletic centre, there was the usual queues for toilet but other than that everything flowed smoothly. Bag drop service was still provided but I didn’t use it as this year, I decided not to take the shower at the venue after the race like I used to do many times in the past. I think the COVID-19 has changed the mind set for a lot of people. People (including me) feel conscious when being stuck with each other inside a confined environment such as a communal shower room.
I bumped into the lovely Hameera. She was running with 3 of her friends. The course is predominantly as flat as a pancake along the River Lee and most parts are scenic. Unfortunately, there was no water station enroute. This was part of the COVID-19 safety measure to avoid runners from getting too close to each other when picking up the water from the station. They told us in advance so I carried my camel bag to run. I don’t mind carrying extra weight as I was not aiming for any PB. I just wanted to soak up the running atmosphere. The majority of the course is on the towpath with a small section of about 200 metres where we ran on a wet grass surface. Since I don’t like mud, I’d rather run zig zag along the edges than stumbling on the mud in the centre. At times the towpath can be narrow but runners had been quite patient for example, when I was running on the narrow section on the towpath, I kept hearing someone with very heavy breathing right behind me for a long while. Only when the path became wider, the runner behind me overtook me. What a thoughtful and patient runner. As soon as he had overtaken me, he was shooting like a rocket and I almost lost sight of him right away.
I finished in a disappointing time of 01:05:46. I can only reminisce those were the days when I finished this event in 53 minutes. My body is good at telling me that I am not fit and I need to devote a bit more time in training as well as resting. I hope when I retire from work next year, I will be able to spend more time in training and resting….
