Great North Badgerthon - a tale of two badgers

Taz’s Great North Run report

OK, here goes...

We got to Newcastle on breakfast time on Saturday morning, and had some breakfast courtesy of the lovely Sue and Dave who we were staying with. We then headed off to find t-shirts to wear under itchy badger fur, but failed miserably. I did manage to find a t-shirt which said "Pirates Rock" however, which obviously I had to buy as a cheer-up gift to myself...I was so nervous I was dashing to the loo every time I could see one.

We met for the interview at Satruday afternoon, by which time I had at least located Primark and some soft cotton tops to wear under the fur, and had even survived the Primark queue. The interview was cool, but very amusing - "how did we feel in our last training session? " And we're sitting there thinking - ah, training, we KNEW there was something we should have been doing for the last few weeks...

We then went for tea and buns, and it was really nice to spend some time altogether so Trudi and I could be nervous together, and Trace, Chris and Paul could talk about pubs which used to exist in Newcastle that aren't there any more, and Jason could drink tea and milk out of the jug. :)

Then home, I had a huge plate of pasta for tea, and went to bed fairly early.

I woke up at 6 on Sunday and could not for the life of me get back to sleep. I was so nervous it was all I could do to leave the bathroom, but the masses of good luck texts I had when I turned my phone on made me remember how many people were rooting for us. I put everything but my hat on and we walked to the start line. Unfortunately we walked to the start of the start line, so by the time we actually found Trudi at out assembling place at the end of the start line I had already been walking for three quarters of an hour, and was not particularly jolly.

Being accosted by some friendly photographers put me in a slightly better frame of mind, and Paul headed off to fight his way back through the crowds and back to the safety of the sofa. We then had a really long wait while they played annoying music through the P.A. and we stood nervously watching everybody assembling, and filmed each other eating our hands (paws?) and generally pulling stupid faces. We did wonder if the elite race might be made more interesting if the runners who could do the distance in an hour and a bit should wear fancy dress - imagine a speeding cat versus a speeding hedgehog...

When the gun went everything was rather quiet and then we stood for what seemed like an age. When we eventually got to the start line at about 26 minutes after it had all started it was a bit hard to know when we were supposed to start running, but we did, with grins on our faces. It was really hard to stay with each other in the crowd, and inevitably my long legs wanted to stretch out, so Trudi told me to go ahead - so I turned round and blew her a kiss, cos I couldn't reach to give her another hug!

In the first mile there was a split between an up road and a down road, and I densely chose the 'up' hilly road while I was still doing a jog...by the top of it I completely hated myself, and realised quite how hot the next 13 miles was going to be.

Having my name on my shirt and being in fancy dress really helped though, as all along the course people were shouting "come on Taz" and "keep going Badger" - it's really hard to make sure you've waved at everyone who is cheering you personally, but loads of fun too, a bit like being famous I imagine! Only 2 people thought I was a skunk, which made me giggle both times.

At about 7 miles I realised I had a large blister on my toe, and at about 8 miles I realised it had burst. Yuk. I was walking pretty fast though, and felt it was all going ok.

At about 9.5 miles I realised my leg was painful around the top, and every time I put my foot down there was a sharp pain at the top of my leg. About a mile later I saw a St. Johns ambulance crew and thought - well, if you go and see them, they are going to tell you to stop, and you can't stop, because then noone will give you any money. And in the back of my mind all the time "come on, do it for Trace you soft git, just flipping get on and finish it". Which, as I have said about three million times today, just goes to show that being stubborn can get you in to more trouble than you realise. So I kept going. By mile 11 I was yelping at nearly every other step I took, and hoping nonone else around could hear me. I knew I had slowed down, but kept thinking everything would be ok when I got to the finish. Like Trudi, I thought the worst part of the course was the down hill part near the sea, and walking down there was so painful I had tears rolling down my cheeks from the pain in my leg, I knew I was so close though and I thought - well, you could blooming well crawl it from here, you're not stopping now...so, in what was probably the slowest ever finish to a half marathon I walked limping to the finish, although in what may have been the most foolish move of the day, decided to jog (although I can"t say it was any faster than my walk) over the finish line.

The worst part of the whole day is probably when you get over the finish line and you have to bend over and take your chip off, and then they keep you moving. I was in so much pain I though I was going to be sick, but kept thinking...just get to somewhere to sit down and it will be ok.

Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, I found the cancer research tent, although I vaguely remember wandering around in all sorts of directions first, trying to text people to tell them I had finished, but my phone would not work and I could not see anything but car parks...

I did find the tent however, where I was presented with a banana and a kitkat, and I found a bench outside to sit on where I did indeed sit. After stuffing my face as fast as possible with aforementioned goodies I realised I was freezing cold and wrestled my silver foil cape on. And I sat, and I sat...I have no idea how long for, I think about half an hour, I know I spoke to some running people who were disappointed with their times, and I was just thinking "I have no idea if I can actually stand".

In the distance however, I spotted the ones called Jason and Trace and Chris, and flailing my arms having failed to catch their attention I found the energy to stand and and hobbled over. Hugs and discussions were just occurring about how they must have been distracted by Scooby Doo when I was crossing the finishing line and thus missing me, when Chris spotted a Trudi shaped badger and we walked slowly over. More hugs, and then we realised Trudi's foot might be falling off, so Jason got her to the red cross tent. I stood with Trace and Chris and probably talked rubbish for a few minutes, then had a text from Paul to say he was stuck in traffic. I thought it was best to try and find him and decided to go to find him, and catch up with the others later.

About thirty seconds after I started moving I realised something was quite badly wrong with my leg. The sharp pain had turned into a constant screaming ripping feeling, and I was disoriented and crying, trying to figure out if I knew where Paul was and if I could make it to the car. After, maybe half an hour more of walking incredibly slowly I did somehow manage to locate him while he was still in the world's worst traffic jam. As I got in the car it became fairly obvious that I would be going nowhere near the direction of celbration cake as I could no longer move my leg without physically lifting it with my hands...

Last night in bed was complete agony because I can't turn over without using my arms, as my leg seems incapable of understanding why it needs to move any more, ever, and in the instances it does move the sharp pain ripping across the top of my leg is not a joyous feeling! That today combined with not being able to move making the rest of my legs stiff has made it a harder experience than I was anticipating.

Would I do it again? In the name of the cause I did it, without question. I did find it an incredibly lonely experience, and found it very hard afterwards. In hindsight, if I knew quite what I had done to myself during the race I probably would stop next time, or at the very least have told my friends about it when I finished rather than making out I was ok because I didn't want to make a fuss (note to self: practice being less stubborn at every available opportunity, especially when it results in damage to yourself!).

Ultimately, I'm proud I did it, I'm incredibly proud that Trudi did it (nothing will ever beat the huge grin she had on her face as she walked down the hill towards us) and I'm really grateful to every single person who supported me on my way round the course and especially grateful to everyone who has given us money for this really worthy cause.

Now, if someone will please pass me a large plate of pain killers and a walking stick, I'll come collect my sponsor money!

Taz.x