Sat - 21/09/19

This was the day of the BMAF 10000 metres in Jarrow. Unusually for pre-big race night I had slept very well at the Old Rectory B&B close to Jarrow Metro station. Last night I had a meal, a mixed grill, at the Ben Lomond pub and I drank Diet Coke.

I had a low carb B&B breakfast of Natural yoghurt with a few berries, then, egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, and half a tomato. Carb wise, I had some brown toast and butter (one and a half slices).

It was quite a warm and sunny day though not as warm as Venice! There was a slight breeze at times and later on in the afternoon it was chilly in the shade. I walked to the track, that was just over a mile away. Our race was delayed for nearly an hour. There were so many entries for the M65+ and for the women that what was timetabled as one race was split into two. This actually gave me plenty of time to warm up. So it was a good thing. In the race itself I needed to beat David Jones of Stratford to collect Silver. He went off fairly quickly and I let him go but I caught him after less than two laps and I settled down behind two 70 year olds. One of those guys fell back after about 5 laps and I spent a long time slip streaming behind the other (Alan Wilkes?). With about 1000 metres to go I could see that I was 300 metres ahead of David Jones and that I was likely to lap him. I knew then that I had got silver. So I overtook Alan Wilkes, pushed on and lapped David Jones, and collected my silver medal. My time was faster than my time in Venice.

After the medal presentation I headed back to the B&B. Lauren came and picked me up and we had some food and drink in their back garden. I got a taxi back to Jarrow (£15.00 inc tip). I had a nightcap in the Ben Lomond (two pints of Dark Fruits cider) and retired to bed.