10th September - Nick's Half Marathon - NottinghamThose of you who visit the site regularly will have seen our 'Running Man' movie, and those curious enough to have clicked on it will know that Nick Courtney (Mark's brother) recently took part in the Nottingham Half Marathon. Unbeknown to Nick, he had quite a fan club on the day from various corners of the globe - his wife Caroline, sporting a fabulous pink wig for easy crowd recognition (unfortunately we don't have photographic evidence of this!), Pat & Oswaldo (Aunt and Uncle from deepest, darkest Peru), Monica & Martin Courtney and Mark, Jo & Alex (from London - somewhat less exotic!). Other than Caroline, Nick can't remember seeing us all there - but he certainly respond to our shouts of encouragement on the last bend. After a gruelling run on a very hot day, he crossed the finish line after 1 Hour 48 minutes 18 seconds - a fantastic time (even more so as Nick last ran a similar event 18 years ago!). Thank you Nick - we are so proud of you!! Here's Nick's account of his run.... After many months of training, sometimes interrupted due to injury in the early stages, but with preparation having gone well none the less, race day finally arrived. It was a cold and foggy start when we set out on the drive to Nottingham at 7.30 in the morning. We arrived in good time, parked easily and by 9.00 am the fog had cleared and the day was starting to warm up.
The warm up routine started to get the legs in working order. Then the call to the line the excitement and tension mounting. ‘BOOM’ went the starting cannon and we were off.
It was now very warm. I eased through the first few miles like a Gazelle. The course was fairly level and well marshalled and I continued running with ease. At 4.5 miles I could feel that I was working and was starting to tire slightly. I pushed on to the 7 mile mark before checking my watch to see that my time was going well.
By 9 miles I was knackered, but still in good time. By now I was slowing and my legs were getting heavy, but again checking my watch at 10 miles knew I was still in good time. The last 3 miles were agony and my legs were beginning to stiffen and cramp up, but I pushed, now more of a shuffle. My motivation was easy to find though, to keep me focused on continuing, that being The Daniel Courtney Trust. I knew Caroline was going to wave me on at the 12 mile point, wearing her bright pink wig. She was easy to spot, a welcome sight and gave me the last spur to make it to the finish, which although torturous I finally reached in the time of 1 Hour 48 minutes 18 seconds. I hadn’t seen Mark, Jo and Alex or my parents, aunt and uncle from Peru, but they had all shouted encouragement in the last few yards.
Hard work, without a doubt and I believe I earned every penny of the sponsorship monies that you all so generously donated, for which I would like to thank each and every one of you. Thanks again to all my sponsors – so far I’ve raised a massive £810.08 (with Gift Aid, this rises to £938.05).
Pat, Monica, Nick, Martin, Mark & Alex, Oswaldo, Caroline
|
||||||||||||||||
