so proud (and sunburnt)

On bank holiday Monday at 9am I found myself in London's Green Park surrounded by hundreds of eager runners limbering-up and pinning numbers to their t-shirts. Why? You might be asking. For the answer we have to travel back in time to the Saturday before...

Mitch and I were enjoying a drink or two in the pub with my friend Tom. He was telling us about his most recent physical challenge, Tough Mudder (it sounds horrendous - a 12 mile obstacle course including such delights as: a vertical climb, crawling through mud and even some electric shocks). Tom's account of the event made me reel but, bizarrely, it struck some sort of cord with Mitch and there and then announced that he was going to take part in a 10k run on the bank holiday monday, 9 days away. I thought it was just the booze talking, and to be fair it probably was, but nevertheless, Mitch had made up his mind.

And so, there I was, 9 days later, in Green Park for the Bupa London 10k, wishing him luck and waving goodbye (and telling him to remember to stretch before the start). I stood on The Mall with a few other spectators and watched Mitch, and nearly 11,000 other runners - including 2 x gold olympic medal winner Mr Mo Farah - set off.

1hr 29 mins and 20 seconds later Mitch returned in one piece with a massive smile on his face :D
It was pretty inspiring stuff and I am unbelievably proud of him.

A massive congrats to Mitch's work friends Tom and Toni who both beat their personal bests and gave Mo Farah a run for his money!

The rest of the day was spent drinking booze in the park and eating strawberries and cream. Bliss.