Sue's Sports Starter by Sue_Thearle

Greetings dear friends this fine Monday morn. Well I write with grave news. Yes chums. After a long and extensive running career, which has seen me battle some of the toughest courses know to man, well err London anyway, I have reluctantly decided that race running is no longer for me. Yes I fear it is the scrapheap for me and the bin for my running shoes. Why I hear you cry, have I taken this momentous decision? Well several reasons. First things first, I can barely walk this morning. I am dragging my right leg behind me, courtesy of a pulled groin muscle.

It occurred around the 4-mile mark of the Kingston Run yesterday and consequently I hobbled home in a blistering time of 1 hour 51:26. Yes 1:51:26 of unrelenting misery. My efforts left me a spectacular 1340th out of, wait for it, 1351 finishers.......oh ho yes, I think it’s fair to say most of that time was not spent in my happy place and as predicted the 0.2 of the 8.2 miles was the most painful. Now there were the traditional comic interludes when I had to stop to remove a fly from my eye and then, as is habitual with me in any race, I had to do a change of outfit because I’d overdressed, which involved a full-scale number removal as well. But the only consolation I took from the whole thing was that (a) I finished, (b) I ran every step and (c) I didn’t have to do the 16-mile race......

My running mate April performed brilliantly. I insisted she leave me at the halfway mark, because I knew I would hold her back and she finished in 1:39:09, a top effort for a first time racer. But as I hobbled over the finish line and collected my finisher's mug, I knew that was it for me. I think my son summed it up best, as only children can, when he peered at me as I sat slumped in Starbucks afterwards (ever the athlete), sipping a skinny latte (natch) and shoving ice-cubes down my running pants to ice my pulled muscle. My little boy watched this fairly comic scene for some time before tapping me gently on the arm and asking; “Mummy, did you get hit by a car?” “No darling,” I replied, “it just looks like I did......” (see attached picture).

So I shall go out with a bang in Edinburgh and officially wave farewell to the world of competitive running. I've decided I'm going to play more golf instead. It is a little kinder to the knees and body in general, which is clearly feeling the pace, or lack of it actually, but you know what I mean. But despite the blood, sweat and tears of yesterday, there is always the shallow and I thought that my red and yellow running tops looked quite nice......toodle pip.