Blog,
Sunday 25th November:- Coombe ‘8’ start time 10am; both daughters will be running. I promised to give out some race flyers for the Godiva New Year ‘5’ mile road race before the race started, then I planned to trudge around the park land cheering on my daughters in particular and all the other competitors except for those flouting the UKA ruling about wearing ear pieces. They want sorting.
1am – 9 hours to gun off ….. woke up by the sound of rushing water. Rain teaming down and slamming against the bedroom window by the high wind. In view of the flooding of three days ago, I get up fearful of a repeat.
1:15am – 8.75 to start time. Switch security light to driveway and the Lane. Water gushing from the fields and Lane, down the drive way into the vegetable garden. Water backed up on the lawned areas of my vast acres, about two inches and rises. Put on protective clothing and wade out across the drive to the end by the garage. Smash the retaining bricks to release the pressure build up on the drive and let very many gallons pour unfettered towards the River Sherbourne which borders the estate. Levels on the drive way drop noticeably.
2:00am – 8 hours to race start. Levels back up to pre demolition levels and rising. Back outside building baffle walls across the drive to stop water surges once our 4 by 4 friends start their aqua-planeing prowess, when they have had their cornies and coffee.
3:00am – 7 hours to Coombe ‘8’ at which it now looks as if I will not be distributing race flyers for Godiva’s New Years ‘5’ unless I can think of someone with a 4 by 4 who might drive by my estate and winch me up. Make plans to save the garage from flooding, about 2” of breathing space left. Feet freezing from the flood water.
3:30am – 6.5 hours to the off road event which now might be cancelled if conditions are as bad on the other side of Coventry as they are here. Water in garden about 2 feet deep in places, 6 inch plus of flow down the drive. Brilliant flood protection for double garage put in place … must patent that idea, so brilliantly simple … why has no one thought of it before????
4:00am – 360 minutes remaining. Water no longer rising and rain stops AT LAST. Get some kip in the chair.
5:00am – check the water levels. Stable. More kip.
6:00am – 4 hours left but who is bothered, I am too tired. Water starting to drop.
7:00am – 3 hour until the runners are assembled and there is a possibility of us wading down the Lane to get a lift to the race if we all take dry socks and a chance of footwear!!!
8:00am – I can see the drive way, and by quarter past, rain water is no longer flowing!! I clear the drive way of my obstructions including a few logs washed down the Lane by the torrent.
8:30am – If I can get up a degree of speed down the drive from the garage, and don’t have to stop, there is a chance of getting through the flood water as there is now only 3 inches of flowing water in the Lane with the drive total clear of water. Having been jet washed, it looks quite attractive. Fuss, what fuss?
8:45am – with a little over the hour to the commencement of athletic activity, I can see tarmac on the Lane.
9:00am – Depart from the Estate, and with a bit of fancy driving and the almost total absence of traffic on the city roads, turn into the country Park with 30 minutes to spare. Daughter goes for her number, other daughter already there. Wife goes to find the baby she has promised to baby sit while the baby’s parents both compete. I get flyers for Godiva’s New Year ‘5’ so I can get them dished out behind windscreen wipers so I can then trudge round watching the proceedings. Walk towards the first car and!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you believe in Devine retribution Blog? The Fates exacting revenge for some deed committed in the innocence of youth? Bang!!!! Whallop!!!!!!!!!! No warning sign. No twinge. Just Bang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whallop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My knee gave way. Locked. The pain Blog, I kid you not was excruciated. A real man pain. A proper case of male agony. Blog I kid you not. Couldn’t walk. Shuffle, hobble. Had to sit on a stump.
Total Trudge. ZERO with a capital ‘Z’. Amount of race seen? Missed the start. Missed the first lap. Hobbled to second lap and where the race finished.
Now sat here, writing to you, Blog, leg on stool, IN AGONY.
One sad fact I observed about the race today was to see some club members not wearing their club vest when they ran. Godiva members should be immensely proud of their distinctive vest. Which other athletics club has a badge as unique as ours? Forgive the use of ‘unique’ in such a sentence Blog … if it is unique, it is unique. And our badge is unique. Period. Every Saturday, during the winter, football supporters spend many quids buying replica shirts to identify with their team. Why are athletes so reticent to proclaim their allegiance?? At the winter cross country races, there is a sparcity of club sweat shirts, tracksuits, hats, and regalia of any kind. Club identification is almost completely lacking, no tribalism in our sport thank you very much!! Not only Godiva.
Question:- Are you proud to race in a Coventry Godiva Harrier club vest? O.K., in an official club competition, League, County etc., you are obliged so to do. But in open competition??? So many times I wonder why runners are not proud enough to don the yellow and red (gold and claret for Ladies) of Godiva preferring some other apparel. Occasions arise when obligation demand that a particular vest other than Godiva’s has to be worn. However, the non- wearing of club colours cuts across athletics ability. Not only do some of the less fast athletes turn out in non-club colours, sometimes citing that they feel they are letting the club down by finishing so low down in a race but no such excuse can be offered by a club international who consistently did not wear his club vest in races.(Ref * below) Invitation and international never saw a Godiva vest, being paraded in front of the world’s photographers. Do such athletes exist in all other clubs?
Let me cite a very praise worthy example of a Godiva club member who went that extra mile (no pun intended! ) to wear a club vest when he could have chosen to wear his Commonwealth colours, his International cross country vest, his sponsors’ strip or some other commercial outfit, probably doing himself a financial favour in the process? A few years ago, Glyn Tromans was not selected by the county officials to represent Warwickshire in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships. Because the race was the Trial Race to be used for selection for the International Cross Country Championships later in the season, Glyn was given a wild card to compete. Inter Counties, big important race, televised coverage, athletic press and photographers in attendance; so what did Glyn chose to wear from all the options open to him????? He chose to wear his Coventry Godiva Harriers club vest … which he carried with pride to break the tape in first position!!!
A similar preference for club colours has also been shown on occasions by Olympian Marlon Devonish when again the option of a Games’ or a sponsor’s vest could have been chosen.
Be it Park Run, Fun Run or The Great North Run, Go Godiva!!!! So wear your Godiva vest with pride is the clarion call!
Ref*above:- I never wore a club vest for the best part of half a year plus. Why? One spring, I attended a Harriers Section AGM in the days when the club was split into sections, historically for administrative reasons. In ‘any other business’ as a direct result of the Ladies Section changing their strip from red and yellow to what erroneously they had been told were the original club colours, the men followed suit. I contacted my sponsors and had a couple of vests run up (no pun intended!) and a couple of mesh type vests in the new scheme of claret and gold for racing in the summer. For the best part of a year, I was consistently ribbed about my new vest. OK …. It gives someone else a rest from the micky taking. I have broad shoulders. I put the barbed comments down to the club being rather slow in ordering and selling the new kit as well as the lads being reluctant to shell out a few quid on a new vest when their old coloured vests were perfectly serviceable. On one particular occasion in an open road race in which I particularly wanted to do well, a club official who was acting in some capacity on the start line, made a facetious remark about my vest. At the start of a race is not the best time to enter into pleasantries with me [ever] and I retorted rather rudely. After the race, I sorted him out to apologise for over reacting about his jibes about my vest colours and asked him just what the problem was. It transpired that at the Club AGM (which I had not attended) following a couple of weeks after the Harriers AGM, the men’s motion for a colour change had been thrown out in favour of retaining the use of the old colours of red and yellow. I very rarely went down to the club in those days, so unbeknown to me I had, in all innocence, being wearing alien kit for over six months !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got to stop now Blog as I need to hobble to the fridge to get some more ice for my knee, the last lot has melted and made a rather large stain on my new carpet. Blog I kid you not. Must try to keep awake for my tea after such an early start ……
Colin