Dear Blog,
Sunday April 7th is a big day in the Kirkham household calendar. It is the day of the annual ‘A Coventry Way’ walk / run, an event encompassing 40 miles of footpaths which circumnavigates the city of Coventry. The event has been renamed in honour of the late Cyril Bean who did so much to promote the idea of a pleasant walk on the city boundary, never is any point on the route more than 5 miles from the city centre. The field has reached it’s advertised limit of 250 entries long ago, but Blog, if you wish to join the Kirkham extended entourage, you are more than welcome. Although you cannot now enter, you can now enter with us!!! You do not have to raise any sponsorship; that is entirely up to you. So there is no pressure then!!!? We will be covering the route in an informal relay fashion with each runner / walker doing just as much or as little as each runner / walker wishes. For example, my grandson who is in a wheel chair will be doing the section along the newly tarmacked path along the Kenilworth Greenway (aka the route of proposed HS2 which received a fillip in the High Court yesterday!) with his mum. We will try to raise a few quids for Tiny Tims Children’s Centre which provides help for disable children. A couple of staff will be in the team. Do come along Blog. How far will you wish to run / walk Blog? Bring a couple of the Blog family with you. The start is 6am but that is very flexible … In the case of the Kirkham Entourage, it will be very, very flexible. The organisers provide drinks and sandwiches at many points around the route
A few years ago I ran round by myself. In those days the runners were supposed to start at 9am. I had arranged for my wife to be at certain points around the route at given times with drinks as a boiling hot day had been forecast. In those days it was held in the summer time when the weather was nice. I arrived early at the nine o’clock start. The organiser told me that there was no need to wait until the official start time of 9am as I could set off when convenient to me as there was a running watch to record starters and finishers. So off I trudged 40 minutes early. That was a BIG mistake with a capital ‘B’, Blog, I kid you not. A MEGA BIG mistake. Why you ask? Read on ……. I soon caught the back markers, the first slow walkers despite their departure being a couple of hours before mine and I arrived at my first, then my second prearranged drinks station with no sign of my wife but at this early stage I was not unduly perturbed. The other feed stations came and went, the sun got higher, the mercury crept relentless upward. After a couple of hours I had overtaken the whole field and was now beginning to get really worried at the non-appearance of my wife. Worries about accidents etc began to fester. The endless climbing of stiles and field gates was beginning to tire me and the desire for a drink was predominant in my thoughts. I was arriving at the official watering stations well before they were set up by the volunteers because they did not expect anyone through their checkpoint so early; this I foresaw, hence my arrangements with my wife to supply me with drinks during my trek around the forty miles. Slowly the penny dropped as my thirst grew. By setting out forty minutes before I was supposed to do, the timing of the points at which I had scheduled to meet my wife had become meaningless … and of course she was completely oblivious of my position on the course, thinking she had missed me because my planned schedule had been over optimistic; she started searching back towards the start, not thinking for one minute that I was miles ahead in the other direction. After a shade over five hours I arrived at the finish in record time and finally was able to get a drink. Forty miles in blistering sun with no liquid intake was a dangerous exercise for any athlete. ANY athlete. It was only because I had acclimatised over the many years by always running in excessive amounts of extra kit and knowing how to cope with a lack of water that my plight was no worse than it actually was. At the finish with a steady supply of water / shandy / tea / coffee, I did eventually recover after a couple of hours of slipping in and out of consciousness. Lying on the grass in the hot sun in the shade of a tree opposite the pub where the event ended, few spectators realised just how bad my situation actually was; they thought I was playing it cool so I played along and I pretended to be enjoying the post-race euphoria; but the periods of enforced unconsciousness must have been patently obvious to an astute observer. The First Aid had cottoned on and were worried and checked on me frequently but were reassured by me as to my state of being. My wife eventually arrived and instead of showing concern, gave me a bollocking in front of the assembled throng for wasting her morning and afternoon forcing her to drive fruitless around the Warwickshire countryside cooped up in a car on a boiling hot day!!!
No such drama is expected on April 7th Blog, I can assure you. The course is much easier to negotiate with kissing gates instead of the 136 gates and stiles I had to climb. The underfoot conditions are much improved with a solid couple of miles on the Greenway and no fear of heavy plough and the like in the fields. Footpaths will be much more runnable than they were a dozen years ago, through familiar and frequent usage. There will be no scorching sun. Promise!!! Everyone out to enjoy the run / trudge / walk. Perhaps if the weather is pleasant we can organise a Bar-b-q? Interested Blog et al?????
Oh yes and its my wife’s birthday on April 7th I believe ……………………..
Colin
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