Another blog from the 'other side' of the race. I was on the marshaling team for the Bromley Mid Summer 10k! I love marshaling, it's one of the ways that I can give back to the running community what they have given me!
I arrived at Normans park Track, that is where registration was set up and the baggage drop off. I was on registration along with Ali, Tracy, Carole and Michael, and DiscoRich's daughter was on baggage, for the life of me her I can't recall her name! I must do more brain exercises! My first job was the 'On the Day registration' while the others were on the other desk handing out the numbers. There were only 316 runners registered this year, it's still a very new race, only the second time it's been held, it's takes time to get word out. Being mid summer too, there are always people that think "actually, I fancy a nice 10k run, and a bit of bling at the end of it will be good." Bling is always good to get. Most of us mere mortals would never be getting running related medals any other way but by joining in these lovely local races. You can imagine there were a few people that did show up for 'on the day' regristration, I was kept quite busy!
Registration was going brilliantly, people were turning up, collecting their numbers and more importantly signing the back of the numbers. On Wednesday 21st (which was last week by the way) the date of the race was, I think we must have had the hottest day ever! I guess being mid summer might have something to do with that! Mind you, last year it was a bit drizzly. The comments that I was hearing as they signed the back of their bib numbers were "I think I should definitely sign this, it's so hot out, not sure if I am going run really fast" "Best sign this, in case I keel over" I was hot just sitting at the desk, and I was in the shade too!
We kept registration open as long as possible, and it was just as well, we had one chap turn up just as we were packing away, around 7:30 pm, the time the race was due to start. Thank goodness it was all chip timing! We packed up the rest of the numbers, and walked over to the start which was in Normans park.
The next job was to set up the water and the medals tables, and also we had post run snacks of jelly babies and salted crisps, just for those that needed to put back the salt into themselves. I think we had extra water as well, that sun was relentless, I would think that the runners would need to replace a ton of water in that heat!
Once the tables where all set up, the trophies all set out, we could relax a little. The picture of me doing the 'Imran Ali' jump, was seen by my fellow PWR's, Imran Ali is a chap from a Facebook group I am a member of, and he does these magnificent jumps in the air on his races when ever he sees a camera! So we decided to try it as a group!
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| l to r Michael, Tracy, Carole, me and Ralph |
Enough relaxing, it was time for my next duty, which was screeching down the microphone! I know what you are all thinking, and don't worry, I was thinking the same thing! How can this shy retiring person possibly be responsible for getting the crowds cheering! The first runner came in, speeding, how on earth he did it in such hot sticky conditions is beyond me, but there he was, a chap called Alex Money, in a time of 36:21 chip time! Incredible! He is an Orpington Road Runner, he also comes along on a Thursday evening to run with us at the track on Thursday evenings. The second chap was one of our own PWR's Roger Vilardell, Nick Wright and Sam Agnew came in 3rd and 4th with our next PWR's coming in 8th and 9th Stephen Pond and Oliver Hitch!
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| Stephen |
The first three females to come in was from Beckenham Running club, Ruth Aylward. she came in 46:38, closely by Lucy Shepherd with a time of 46:53 and then Kate Marchent also from BRC, with a time of 46:59. It was all very exciting. We had some sprint finishing, with some racing to beat the person in front! We had some great finishing photos too from Brian Page of So lets Go Running, the co founder of SLGR was there too, Dawn, here she is looking lovely in her marshaling vest!
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| Dawn of SLGR |
So that was it....or was it! I still had one more duty to do, and that was to be the lovely assistant (stop that laughing at the back) that hands out the trophies as DiscoRich called them out! What a brilliant day! Loved every second of it!
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| The second overall winner, our first PWR over the line |
Here is just a few more photos to enjoy, some taken by Brian page and some by others. A great race, so hot! I was glad I wasn't running!
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| Dab! Matthew and Jason |
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| Adele doing warm up (Shes a personal Trainer!) |
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| Jason with little Matthew by his side! |
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| Here's our Tim with his headband |
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