Great North Run - badger's eye view

Trudi‘s Great North Run report:

My last two weeks of preparation for the GNR hadn‘t quite gone according to plan. Work had been so busy that I‘d spent far too many hours in front of the computer for comfort, and the last few training sessions had been really difficult as I was so tired. I‘d been OK up til Wednesday evening but became ill on Wednesday night and was still struggling when the time came to leave for Newcastle. There was no way I could drop out; I had both the badger costumes so wouldn’t have had time to post Taz hers, and the thought of dropping out at the last minute was only making me feel worse.
After a good sleep on Friday I was feeling more positive. I still wasn‘t convinced I‘d be running, but it didn‘t feel like such an impossible task.
On Saturday afternoon Jason and I went out with Trace (the inspiration for doing the run) and Chris. First stop was a fabric shop, where the plan was to buy some neon netting to put the finishing touches to the costumes, but as we went in, Trace spotted the most fantastic material – black net with multi–coloured shiny stars – so we bought this (and some safety pins for my race number). After a refreshment break we went to Nova International to meet up with Taz and Paul, where Taz and I were due to be interviewed for the Great North Run Moving Image commission.

The interview went well – Kimo, who was interviewing us, was lovely – she told us a little more about the project and then asked us lots of questions about how we felt about running which hopefully can be used as soundbytes on the soundtrack. My guess is that we will provide the light entertainment – many of the interviews were with the more, uh, elite athletes, rather than the ones who dream of cheesecake on the finish line to get them through it!

We said our goodbyes, then after a trip to Tesco in which I discovered (unsurprisingly) that there were no glucose tablets, carbohydrate gels or blister plasters to be seen (good thing I‘d come prepared), we headed back, and Trace and I made last minute glittery skirts to preserve badger modesty.

The following morning got off to a shaky start. I woke up around ten to seven in a state of mild panic. I tried to get myself organised by pinning my race number to my top, only to realise when I tried to put it on that one of the pins had gone through both sides of it – I was jammed in, and had to be rescued by Jason.

Taz and I exchanged text messages along the lines of:
Me: AAARRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Taz: That‘s exactly what I was going to say!

Trace, Chris, Jason and I left at around 8.30. There was brief videoing of a nervous badger (which probably perturbed the neighbours no end) and off we went, only for our progress to by halted by hundreds of sheep crossing the road.

We eventually managed to get sensibly close to the starting point, where we were met by the sight of a fleet of baggage buses, and more portaloos than ever graced Donington Monstors of Rock. Most of the early arrivals were of the serious runner variety – many of whom, it seems, wouldn‘t know what fun was if it beat them about the head with a soft cushion – the only sarcastic or derogatory comments aimed at my costume all day were from serious runner types – rather sad, I thought – everyone is entitled to be there, and there‘s more to life than competition!

We soon started costume spotting. Nuns, Musketeers, Spiderman, fairies, a giraffe, giant traffic cones – all manner of fancy dress was in evidence. After a number of texts and phone calls, and some last minute hugging, I headed off to find Taz in the unfeasibly large crowd of runners. Things were starting to feel seriously scary. We found each other, videoed ourselves looking scared, and then pottered off towards our starting areas, being accosted on the way by a couple of photographers. After the race started, it was a half hour and another mile before we actually got to the start line!

The first few hundred yards were exhilarating. Off we all trotted, at what was for me a very comfortable pace. If you were watching and saw the camera zoom in on Spongebob, we were about 15 feet off to his right, just out of shot – no televised fame and glory for us this time around then!
The pace started to pick up, and the inevitable happened – my shins started to cry out in protest. Bloomin‘ typical. So I motioned to Taz to go on ahead (within a couple of minutes she was out of sight – Go, Badger, Go Go Go) and slowed down to break myself in gently and avoid the danger of shin splints. After half a mile or so I found my pace of part jog, part walk and started to enjoy myself. The crowds especially for the first few miles were absolutely amazing, and I was grinning and waving like a loon along with everyone else. I started probably 80% of the way back in the field, and dropped back a bit further, though managed to keep pace with the same groups of people pretty much throughout. I was overtaken (twice!) by the giant millipede. That had to be the best synchronised running I‘ve ever seen. But I was nowhere near last! Yay!

Miles one and two were relatively uneventful. Mile three started with a torrential downpour – it was exactly what I needed. The badger fur, though surprisingly comfortable to move in, was extremely warm (despite me electing to gamble on the fur not being too itchy and not putting the cotton top on underneath), and this plus the fact that I was determined not to take my hat off at all, was making me overheat slightly. Rain was good.

The water stations seemed to come up at exactly the right times – I was carrying some powdered lucozade energy stuff and poured some of it into every bottle I picked up, was drinking constantly and didn‘t feel at all dehydrated – I can‘t stress enough how important it is to keep drinking during something like this – I saw some very dehydrated people in the Red Cross tend afterwards who looked like they should have been in much better physical condition than me, and appreciated how much of a difference it does make.

When I got to the halfway point, I was really proud, because I was feeling so much better at that point than I had when finishing the 10k last year, and that wasn‘t in costume!

Throughout the run I was spurred on by shouts of ‘Go Mrs Badger‘ and ‘Go Badger Lady‘ , mainly from small children, the ones who hadn‘t yet noticed the Cyberman running nearby. That‘s the way to do it, folks, if you want to be cheered on in a race, Doctor Who is definitely the way to go! I can‘t emphasise enough how much a shout of encouragement helps, especially when you‘re two thirds of the way along and starting to flag.

Around the 8 mile mark I realised that my stomach was growling – I was really, really hungry despite having had breakfast, so had some carbohydrate gel to keep me going and visualised cheesecake.

I videoed nearly every mile marker (just to prove I‘d really done it and not caught a lift on the baggage bus), plus some of the bands, some of the road signs (I really didn‘t need telling to ‘reduce speed now‘!), some of the other runners, a bus full of cheering Cancer Research supporter, and probably lots of tarmac :o)

I ran through the first few markers, but my pace really slowed towards the end – my stamina was good for around ten miles but then bits of me started to protest. Loudly.

There was some motivational singing, too – this is a habit I have to keep myself going. Song lyrics get changed (the Ramones suffered a bit at the 9 mile marker – Only only only four miles to go–o–o– I‘m gonna need sedation – but I was out–cheesed at the 10 mile marker by the metal band changing The Final Countdown to The Final Three Miles.

Around 9 miles my left foot was a bit sore, but I assumed this was down to a blister. Handy hint: don‘t show off to the crowds and pretend you‘ve still got bags of energy by skipping round a roundabout when your feet are starting to die. OW.
At around nine and a half miles my left hip started to ache, and by ten miles my right hip had joined it and I slowed down seriously. My low point was at around 10.5 to 11 miles – both hips were hurting so much I was seriously thinking about sitting down and not moving again. I was spurred on by the big yellow signs declaring ‘shuttle bus to finish – 100 yards‘ – there was NO WAY ON EARTH I was doing that much and hurting that much and NOT getting to the finish.

Along the way I shared the theory of motivational cheesecake with a passing cheerleader, and cracked up as I was overtaken by a Scottish bloke with a bucket full of cash in one hand and a bottle of Newcastle Brown in the other, declaring ‘never let your running interfere with your drinking time‘. It seemed to be doing him good – at the end he was running, drinking and singing, sounding like he‘d just started out!

The most painful bit of the race was the short steep hill down to the seafront in South Shields. When you‘ve spent 11 miles going up and down comparatively gentle hills, a sharp downhill is a shock. I‘d already been warned not to attempt to run it by a man who had learned the hard way on his first GNR (this was his seventh) by knackering his knee on said hill, resulting in him needing an operation. As it turned out, running was out of the question as my legs went to jelly and it was all I could do to keep walking. This, of course, was the point where the photographers were positioned, so everyone was being photographed looking knackered and uncoordinated. Once along the flat and doing the last mile and a bit along the seafront, all I could see were people with space blankets and medals STILL WALKING. Were they mad? Why weren‘t they having a rest? How could their legs still be functioning? (Oh, that‘s right – some people run because they like it)

Making it to the seafront was fantastic, though. We’d been asked in the interview how we thought we would feel as we approached the finish. I could not stop grinning – when the 800 metre sign came up it dawned on me that I was actually going to finish it – I completely forgot that my legs were screaming in agony and started to really enjoy myself – relief, euphoria. I really can‘t describe it. It was GREAT. I started giggling and I could feel myself starting to well up. Then I saw the finish line and found energy I didn‘t think I had in me, declared to the camera that I was going to do a sprint finish, and ran over it shouting with my arms in the air. I may even have jumped over it, I really can‘t remember! (I have no idea if the video camera was running at that point but if it was, you‘ll see it before long).

The first task over the finish line was to remove the timing chip from my shoe. This was when it dawned on me that bending down was REALLY difficult. Then I wandered slowly in the direction of the goody bag collection. Most people were rummaging immediately for their medals, I was just thankful to have something to put the video camera in! I eventually found where the family reunion area was and headed towards it, but was met halfway by the troops, and another tired and very relieved looking badger. At that point it was pointed out that I was bleeding – the front of my trainer was starting to soak through. Everything went a wee bit wibbly then, but Jason got me to the Red Cross tent where I had a sit down til the dizziness wore off and my foot was sorted out. Turns out one toe had attacked the one next to it and managed to take a chunk out of it, this was probably the slight discomfort I‘d felt four miles from the end.

By the time I emerged, Taz had headed off to find Paul, so I shed my badger fur (which was not nearly as rancid as predicted) and had a cup of tea. Tea! Yay! We then made our way to the pub where we found Nick and sat down on proper chairs (oh the bliss!) and I demolished a Fisherman‘s Pie. Food from heaven.

The rest of the evening was spent reliving bits of the day, chatting, hugging, consuming celebratory cheesecake and then driving home, where thanks to Jason‘s heroic driving we arrived at around 2.30 am. This morning turning over in bed provoked more whinging of the achy hip variety, but I‘m starting to move less like an arthritic pensioner now. Just. I‘m rather glad I‘d booked the day off work though!

I‘ll stop there, and finish with just one plea – if you havent done already, sponsor us please! All of this was in aid of Cancer Research. We did this because someone we love dearly has had to go through so much and we‘d like to contribute to making a difference to her and to others in her position. The address is http://www.justgiving.com/madasbadgers2006 - if you don‘t feel comfortable about sponsoring us online, both Taz and I have sponsorship forms so please, if you‘d like to help, contact us on trudi@madasbadgers.org or taz@madasbadgers.org.


Would I do it again? Yes, but not today. I'm off to find a hot bath :o)
Trudi xx