The last post

Its over and i am now back at work wondering what all the fuss was about :-)

I drove up on the Saturday, which took about 4.5 hrs, and stayed over night at a hotel in Darlington. As we were meeting others there, there wasnt much scope to travel in to Gateshead to get involved with the activities going on, and try to meet people. A bowl of pasta and a early night was all i managed after watching my wife sink a couple of pints.
Up nice and early and a train ride into Newcastle Central, were the Metro made the London underground rushhour look deserted. After not being able to get on a tube, we decided to walk instead. As we were there nice and early we had a casual stroll through the toon and stopped off at a coffee house for some extra carbs and a cup of coffee, before making our way to the start.
I was in the White zone (E), and after queuing to get in for a good 30-40 mins and just reaching the front, the guy on the gate shut it at 10.30 and told us we would have to move down to the next colour zone. There were easily 100 people still standing there queuing to get in and this caused uproar. And also a H&S hazard. The guy on the gate would not listen to reason and flatly refused to let us in, so people were jumping over the fence, lifting the fence to get under it, and some just barged there way through the gate.
This is definitley something the organisers need to rethink, as someone could have been injured here.
Anyway, after cutting my hands to ribbons, and ripping my t-shirt while climbing over the fence ;-) the race got under way and we crossed the start line.
My worries about my achilles, knees, back etc etc seemed to fade away, and i settled down to the only pace that i could get into surrounded by thousands of people.
Everything went really well, and to be honest, i was coasting along. I felt great, and hit 6miles in about 51 minutes. Well on target for sub 2 hours. I was feeling really good, and full of life so i decided to try to work my way through the crowd abit. Its really frustrating when you cant really get into a rhythm and there is so much dodging and weaving to get past people. Anyway, at 8 miles disaster struck. I felt something go twang just below my right calf and i was hobbling around in a lot of pain. I tried to stretch it off a bit, and just tried to keep on moving. I kept going, but for the next 5 miles it was more of a hobble than a run.
It eased off a little towards the last mile so i tried to make a last gasp effort to make a good finish. Again, its difficult to get past people on the last stretch, but i managed to cross the line in 2hrs and 29secs. All things considered, i am quite happy with that....could have been a lot worse :-) I am quite confident i could have shaved a few minutes off that, so would have come in under my target of 2 hrs. Actually the race wasnt that bad.....it was the 6 hour drive to get home that was the killer. I would have loved to have come for a few drinks afterwards but unfortunately i had to get back to work for the Monday. Maybe next year :-)
So, right calf receiving some treatment, and hopefully it will be OK for the New York marathon in November.
Anyone who would like to sponsor me for that, can do at
http://www.justgiving.com/DaveHartNYC

well done to everyone who completed the GNR, and i look forward to reading all of the bloggs.

Dave