Well after leaving Kate it was a game of chasing the cut offs for me leading to Reading , I picked up the pace a bit but the Shin was starting to flare up now.
I could see a runner in front of me and he kept looking round ,I stupidly thought I was catching one of the other lads.
Caught up and it was really nice indian chap over here for a year working in the industry I am in. He asked if he could accompany me for a while and it turned out he had done a 50 mile run in india .The Shin was starting to flare up now and was getting painful.
But he was in awe of what we were doing and even wanted to kiss my feet , after nearly 100 miles not a good idea.
He ran/walked with me for 6 miles taking photos of me to send home. he was also saying I was running faster than he normally runs and he had just got a PB for 6 miles . Anyway he left me and I phoned James, not being sure where the hell I was but I was on the right road to the aid station , arriving there my shin was quite bad but with 2 lovely ladies looking after me I didn't want to show what a wimp I was.. Yes James I know Gemma your wife was one of them and I think Jany to. I needed some painkillers now and luckily Gemma had some ,she had to phone james about timing and I had about 2:30 to make it back to streatly .
Easy Peasy 2hours 30 minutes to do about 12 miles .
Oh How Wrong Was I!!!!
But I am glad I didn't have to run through here at night!!!
I left Reading with the Thames Path map and headed out on the Path, was unsure at one stage if I was going the correct way so asked a walker if I was on the right route , no English was the reply, another walker, no English, bloody hell where are the normal people then found a chap walking a collie just like mine , and relief, just keep going he said how far have you run , from Bristol I replied . why the f*** do you wanna do that, and it was great just to say because I can and he shook my hand and congratulated me and then produced a £10 pound note for my charity. when I told it wasn't a charity run the look on his face was amazing.
So ,happy I was still going the right way helped a bit although the painkillers weren't really doing much.
So onwards and upwards to pangbourne through some fields which seemed to go on for ever to Goring on Thames which I knew was really close to Streatly .
Now I don't know what happened here but I got bloody lost
and ended running really fast now because I had to be back by
2:00pm .At one stage I was comfortably inside the time.
If I had not gone wrong I would have made it easily ,but hey ho.
I finally got to the Morrell room at 14 :15 to be greeted with big cheers from everyone , even the Winter 100 runners
clapped and cheered which was really nice.
James came over and said I could carry on if I wanted which
was nice to hear ,so I asked where the others had been sent,
hoping he was going to say the Thames Path but he said the
Ridgeway as soon as he said that I thought no way would my
shin stand up to that ,I know the Ridgeway quite well. If it had
been the Thames Path I really think I would have carried on .
So that was it I never found the end of the Piece of string but I know one thing I loved every minute of it and would love to be in it again next year.
All my fellow runners were bloody awesome.
All the aid station volunteers were just amazing as were all the helpers doing what they could to help us.
Just a last big thank-you to James Adams and James Elson for a wonderful race .How the hell are you going to beat this next year ,Thank-you once again and see you in May for the TP100.
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