Perfect weather, immaculate organisation, great crowds, a hugely encouraging pacer, sensible strategy, target achieved - and 21st placed Stanley beat League 1 leaders Ipswich 2-0 to move to 18th. Things … can only get worser - but hopefully not
The complete lack of the usual Great South westerly gale, or any gale come to that, meant there could be no excuses (except possibly the previous evening's festivities ). With the fastest pacer for my second wave going to run my target time of 1 hour 30, I knew I had to get somewhere near the head of the wave, so deserted my ARBs shortly after the pic was taken to work my way through the throngs in the start funnel. Pictured are (L-R) Dexy5 , me, cheekychipmunks and Sandie1961 . We had already taken advantage of Mr and Mrs Coddfish 's facilities for a late civilised pitstop, and left them at home to come along later.
Duly assembled, we waited for the previous wave (Elite Men, fast-paced (self-defined) runners and firemen in full kit) to clear the start, then underwent a mildly masochistic warm-up and were sent on our way. It took the best part of a minute to reach the start pads, but we were all able to run free and clear from that point. My intended pacer already looked to be a long way ahead and going at quite a clip, and stayed well away for the first 2k. But a couple of unintentionally quick ks (I missed seeing my k3 time on my watch, Garmin now tells me it was a 5'10" - not in the plan ) saw me catch him at around the 4k mark. Feeling good, I got a little ahead but then, amazingly, sanity got a grip and I dropped back to shadow him.
And from there it was just an armchair ride on his shoulder to around 13k, doing mostly 5'33" pace, with a burst of raucous encouragement from Oldgirlruns giving a welcome boost around the 6 mile mark . Also encouraging, if a bit confusing, to overtake loads of runners from the first wave from quite early on - fair enough catching the aforementioned firemen, But some of the others must have been severely delusional regarding their expected times.
The last 3k is mostly the return leg of our parkrun, so I was reasonably confident to push on unaided from there. k14 was a bit over ambitious at 5'15", but 5'21" for k15 and 5'18" for k16 set me up for the last bit (290m rather than 100, according to Mr G) at a hopefully reasonably athletic looking sub-5 pace, and a finish time of 1 hour 27' 47", with the bonus of even being sub 1.30 on the gun-time clock over the finish. I went back to thank the pacer, who I noticed crossed the line spot on 1 hr 30 - to the second. Now that's classy running
I'll leave it to me ARBs to describe their days in their own ways, but as far as I can tell, a good day was had by all .
Oh and did I mention Stanley beat the league leaders 2-0?
Onwards and upwards!! On Stanley On!!!
Written by
UpTheStanley
Graduate10
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Oh wow UTS, that sounds like an amazing race! You seemed to have managed a pretty steady pace through it too.
I think being in the wrong category just shows inexperience in a way; psychologically I prefer overtaking than being overtaken but maybe they prefer the reverse
So nice to have RB and a supporter. And well done on a sprint finish! Lovely photo
Congratulations on completing the Great South Run UTS, fantastic time as well, beat the pacer, well done, I was watching it on TV, I recorded it as I was at a concert in Glasgow, now I know what Portsmouth looks like, you have a great place for you a Dexy to run your parkrun on a Saturday morning, lovely photo of all of you, I am just wondering what keeps the labels with your BIB number on from falling off when you run?.
Thanks for the reply UTS, I thought it might be some sort of adhesive sticky glue, safety pins, there is always the chance that they could fall off during the run, that's why I like parkrun as you don't have to worry about such things falling off.
O dear I now have parkruns on my brain, it was my 8th yesterday.
Ah, that was yesterday - as was a 9-0 win at hockey - a game I shouldn’t have played really 🏑😀. But Dexy claims Welshness for rugby purposes so their result didn’t hurt her day 🏉🙄
Fantastic running UpTheStanley and very well done on holding your great pace and finishing sub 1:30. Excellent stuff. I was away most of the weekend with a family reunion and did not visit the forum very much. But I kept an eye on it today looking forward to a run report on the Great South Run. Congratulations and very well done too to Dexy5 cheekychipmunks and Sandie1961 , I love the photo.
Thanks again UTS. It was an incredible weekend and you guys made it all the more enjoyable! You smashed your run - I hope you’re doing nothing this evening, just like me! 💤
Well done Cheeky!! 🤩 I’m not in the Marathon Forum, so just wanted to congratulate you all for a brilliant run! What an experience that must have been!! Fantastic! 🤩🤩🤗❤️
Fantastic run UTS! I watched it on telly this morning and noticed the perfect weather - how brilliant was that! And, did you see the police pulling a police car - bonkers! Well done all (and the Stanley😁)👍👍👍
Great running once more, lovely pic and run report too. That’s some pacer you had there... and a perfect plan to kick ahead at the right time. Very well done.
It was a brilliant day and you ran a superb race. Thank you again for your wonderful hospitality. A couple of drinks and a lovely roast dinner with my sister and now ready for the drive back north where hopefully Strictly awaits! See you at Stratford 😃
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) saw me catch him at around the 4k mark. Feeling good, I got a little ahead but then, amazingly, sanity got a grip 
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
