As I approached the coach wait­ing out­side Clapham Junc­tion, I sud­denly realised how great it was to be able to go to a run­ning event with a club.  63 of us from the Clapham Chasers RC squeezed into the blue coach that would trans­port us to Leather­head.  Organ­ised by Leather­head Fire Sta­tion, this year’s event would raise money for Help the Heroes.  It felt odd as a for­mer Army Offi­cer, not to be stand­ing on Hyde Park Cor­ner with my Reg­i­ment (the Gun­ners), remem­ber­ing the efforts of our armed forces.How­ever, true to form, 537 run­ners were stand­ing at the start line at 11am, remem­ber­ing those who have laid down their lives for our country.  It was not an event for a PB, as the first half of the run was a pretty much up hill.  It was part track, part road, with some cun­ning twists and turns.  At one point a vet­eran run­ner (53 year old Andy Fay) over­took me towards the end of the race.  I asked him if he was fit­ter at 53 than when he was 31, to which he replied ‘yes’.  So, there is hope for me yet!!!

When we arrived at the fin­ish, we were given a medal and a flo­res­cent run­ning band.  For an event that only cost £12, it was extremely good value — con­sid­er­ing the money was also going to char­ity.  The Clapham Chasers pretty much wiped the field, tak­ing most of the prizes — hardly supris­ing since we out­num­bered every other run­ning club.  In sum, the Leather­head 10k is a fan­tas­tic event! The results can be found here.

Result: 12/537

Time: 37:16 (5k split — 19:33)