While I am keen to start this blog on Saturday morning, with twenty four hours prior to my 10k run, I am actually going to turn the clock back a little further and start on Friday. I had a relatively easy day. Well perhaps ‘easy’ is the wrong adjective to use, a relaxed and stress less day. This was mainly because I had been working so hard in the previous three days (yes I know it sounds crazy but I have to confess that this was the most productive period for me.) Something just clicked and I was focused. However, I was looking forward to leaving at 4pm and kicking the weekend off. I had loads to get done and it would be a long evening, well night really. It has been a while since my last mission weekend, so I consider myself a little out of practice. As I walked away from the office, I realised I had my book with me and this was mildly inconvenient. As I walked past the barbers, it was very busy. I headed home, I would drop the book off and then perhaps go to a different hairdressers in town. As I actually thought this decision through I realised I was going to be wasting too much time by going back to my flat later, to shower and change, then only to head back into town to the train station. Therefore I decided to go back to my now usual barbers and wait in line, there was only on person ahead of me as I took a seat and decided to read The Sun. Much speculation about the Britain’s Got Talent Final. Thankfully I got served by the lady (I think her name is Sue) and she did a grand job on the hair, plus she was quick. Kick FM was playing in the background as usual but no mention of the run for the few brief minutes you did hear the DJ. I headed back to the flat, had a very quick shower, got ready, grabbed my Zen and headed out the door. I checked the time on the Boom as I left my bedroom. It was 17:20. Plenty of time before my train. I was at the station, fifteen minutes later and waiting for my train, which would not arrive for another twenty one minutes but that was not a problem. I had my music with me and I was looking forward to my first visit to the big city since February. Ironically looking back at that post, I talk enthusiastically about having just set up my donation page and also considering buying some new running shoes from Nike Town (I stuck with my old Pumas in the end!) My feeling for this visit, almost three months later were very different. The train was direct and relatively empty and I took a window seat, put the volume up on my Zen and feel asleep (well only briefly). When I woke up we were near Southall and not too far from Paddington. As I walked onto the concourse, there were no barriers, I could have got away with just buying a single. I was hungry and needed a quick snack, I knew I was not going to be eat again until I got home even then it would not be something too appealing. I went for the Bagel Factory got a quick snack, sat down in the busy shopping area and quickly had my food. It had just gone 18:58, there was no time to relax though, next thing I knew it was heading down to the Underground station and into the West End. We had planned to meet up at the Orchid Bar (on Coventry Street, almost opposite TGI Fridays). However, it was closed. Well the lights were on but nobody was home. I tried the door but it was locked. It was at this time I text my friend but within a minute, I had a flood of texts directing me to the new venue, around the corner. Onanon on Shaftesbury Avenue. A fancy bar come club, but I went upstairs and then hunted around for my friend. I found them, snuck around the corner strategically placed by the toilets. However, the main reason was so that there was no blaring speaker above our table. Of course, now having been playing the game (for the lack of a better phrase) for several years I have been at this stage (and no further) on a regular basis. However, this time it felt different but I was to be proved wrong again. Although with now greater experience, which comes with age, I struggled off the rejection quite well. I did not really see it coming but as usual in these circumstances, more so now than at any time before I will clearly state that I was not given the complete chance to shine. I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed but I was not going to let the moment spoil my week or my weekend. The journey home was not going to be easy but I was keen to not look too deep into the events of the past few hours. Instead, I took comfort in the songs on my Zen and enjoyed the busy life of the tube and then Paddington station. It was very different now, very quiet. I can summarize my feelings as being upset but upbeat. I caught the 22:12 heading for Oxford but without an idea of when the next train to Newbury would be, I text Bhavna to let her know how it went and for her to check the timetable online. She explained that the next train was at 11pm. It was going to be tight but thanks to her SMS, I did not stand around on the platform, I rushed straight down to platform one to the waiting train. It was a matter of a minute before the doors closed and I was on the final leg of my journey home. I got home around 11.30pm, got a drink and then spent a little time online. It was only then the reality hit me that my run was now only a matter of a day away (or two sleeps). Saturday morning I got up around 8.30am and after a hearty breakfast I got on with cleaning my flat and then called my Mum. She was the only one awake, my sisters were asleep and my Dad was at work. I spent most of the morning online but it would be a waste of a day to spent it indoors. I started to formulate a plan, I would get ready and then go into the park to read my book. Then I would come back in for a late lunch and watch the Cup Final on TV. It took me longer to get away from the computer than I expected but I eventually got into the park around 1.30pm and found a spot on the grass to read my book. During which my sister Natalie called, to confirm they were still coming and if there was anything else I needed for the flat or for my race in the morning. Nothing I had not already sent through on e-mail. I looked forward to their arrival around 8pm that evening and got back into my book. Checking the time, as it started to approach closer to 3pm, I headed back inside around 2.45pm to get the pizza in the oven and watch the cup final. After the football, I was back on the computer, catching up with my old work colleague, Chris. He had tried to call me at midday, I had missed his call, called him back left a voicemail but also called him at home in Henley only to discover from his Dad that he was out shopping in Reading. I thought he had wanted to meet up to watch the match but it was in fact just a catch up call. We spoke at length on MSN before I decided to get off the computer to watch the final of Britain’s Got Talent. This was the first time I was watching the final and I had only really started watching this series from the first semi final (but then missed most of the rest later in the week). Although I am getting very tired of this so called reality television format. It was this point in the evening, that I checked my phone. It was around 8pm but my sister had tried to call me at 7.27pm. The news was not good. My family were not coming over and would instead head over first thing in the morning. I was gutted because I had not had dinner yet but more importantly I was hoping to have a double movie bill as inspiration for my run the next day. My immediate concern was food, so I headed into town to grab something, even though I had thought about jumping in the car and driving to Tescos. I had my food, while watching the result of BGT. Thankfully Susan did not win and Diversity took the crown and well deserved. This was the point I would have put on my second movie of the night (I will return to the first movie a bit later) but I had seen the trail for Mumbai Calling and I thought I would give it ago. It started well but it was not really that funny. There was the odd moment when I was laughing out loud but perhaps because I am Asian and have been to Indian and parts just work. I will give it a good chance, I am hoping it gets better. It was at this point in the evening, around 10:30pm, I jumped back onto the computer to sort out the music on my Coby mp3 player. I needed to have a motivating soundtrack to my run. My friend Savita was on, as was Nush. Savita became DJ Sav offering some fantastic songs to include onto my mp3 player. I need to actually consult the Chat Log to make sure I mention all the fantastic songs she suggested. (Do you not just love MSN Plus!). When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going by Billy Ocean, which I quickly copied over. I already had a few songs on my list, Eye Of The Tiger, Energy (by the lovely Keri Hilson) and the album version of Live Your Life by TI featuring Rihanna. Savita like me is a big fan of 80s music and asked, “Have you got any 80s?”. Her next suggestion was Mikey – Beat It. At first I thought she was referring to Mickey by Toni Basil but then I understood and copied the song over. The next suggestion was We Are The Champions but I felt that was too premature, so we went with another Queen track – Don’t Stop Me Now. The pressure was no on Sav and she felt it. However that did not stop her, the next track, Burn Baby Burn by Ash and I duly did the deed of copying the track across. I was going to watch Run Fat Boy Run straight after but the allocated time of 11pm, was slowly being eroded away as I tried to stuff the best tracks onto my mp3 player. Sav’s suggestion from the movie was The Fratellis – Chelsea Dagger but I was not feeling it and even was not blown over by the next suggestion. Girls Aloud – Something Kinda Oooooh. I was not that keen and in any case did not have the song, so had to download it, but in any case it was confirmed as one hundred percent certified by Savita so it had to go on the play list. I had to have some Britney, but selected Stronger rather than Toxic. I have uploaded the complete track listing for you to view, although it is in a random order and not in the order played during the run. Nush (with whom I was having a simultaneous MSN chat) also made some suggestions. Two of which made it to the final cut. Her first selection was R. Kelly – The World’s Greatest. A fantastic choice and I was perplexed as to why it was not already included in my world famous mp3 collection. Within a few minutes it had landed and was on my mp3 player. The next choice was to provide something bang up to date and give some much needed dance input into the track list. Put Your Hands Up For Detroit by Fedde Le Grand. Switching back to the chat window with Savita, I mentioned the suggestions from Nush and then came up with one of my own. The Best Thing by Savage Garden. Probably not a well known track from the Australian duo’s second album Affirmation, but an excellent driving song and even better when running. By now I had all the songs queued in Winamp, was listening to a selection and totalling up the time. I wanted to enough material to cover the time I would spend on the run. Basically an hour but I went over by four minutes. Could it have been some declaration that I would complete the race in sixty four minutes? In the end, I would somehow forget to copy across R. Kelly but never mind. At 23:35 I said goodbye to Savita and Nush and went to the lounge to watch my movie. I was over half an hour behind schedule but it did not matter at all. This was the film that was going to inspire me across that finish line, although there had been another movie I had wanted to see before the weekend was out. Run Fatboy Run was very funny. Simon Pegg was very convincing and Thandie Newton was as beautiful and angelic as you would expect. Some famous faces come in with cameos including Stephen Merchant but in the end it is all about one man’s mission to prove he could stick it out at something and cross that finish line. My training was never as intense but then I do consider myself at a rather good level of fitness. Perhaps I did need two friends following me on bikes or scooters giving me encourage (or worse). In the end you feel so much sympathy for Pegg’s character, the man on the street running his first marathon. It was very good, complete madness in many scenes and there were many moments which had me laughing out loud. Some of the advice though was true enough, Chris had told me on MSN earlier that the night before the London Marathon he eaten two big meals to build up on carbohydrates. I felt I should have taken his advice but it was now too later to eat. I had done one thing though and taken on as much water as I could all day. I drank constantly, switching between water and Ribena. I finally went to bed around 1am and set my alarm for the morning, I was very tired and wondered what tomorrow would bring. I got up at 7.30am, to beautiful sunshine outside, blue skies across Victoria Park. I had a lazy breakfast watching BBC News and kept giving myself more time before I jumped in the shower. Then around 8.30am, I noticed a car outside and went to the kitchen to see my family had arrived, much earlier than I had anticipated. I opened the door and was greeted by them all. It was time I got ready. I jumped in the shower, put on my running gear (including shorts for the first time) and put on my charity XL t-shirt on top, then pinned on my race number. We then went into the garden to take some photographs before we headed into the town for the kick off.

The waiting around was actually getting to me, I wanted the race to start and just wanted it to get it out of the way. We headed over to the Market Square around twenty past nine and the heat hit me, it was going to be a tough race in these conditions. I kept drinking water, as I had done since my family had arrived. Then it was the long wait, we saw a few people jogging to warm up, a few doing stretches by the Waterside Youth Centre (the official Race HQ). We headed down the canal and into town and into the Market Square. My family starting taking pictures and I looked up to the bright blue sky. My favourite colour but today I would have been happy with cloudy skies.

It was a long wait, well just under thirty minutes but I did try and do some stretches and looked out for people I knew from work. There were fifty six runners from Bayer but I only knew a handful (James, Jo, Fran, Caroline, Belinda and Natalie). Somehow I spotted James and Caroline the other side of the road (near Lloyds TSB) and wandered over to say hello. They were all set but James was in need of comfort break but I insisted he follow me to meet my family, which he duly did before disappearing in search of the toilets. It would be the last I would see of him until the end of the race. It was time to get ready and I took off my glasses, which perhaps with hindsight was a mistake. I did not want them to distract me and wanted to remove the additional weight (yes I know very little but it still counts). However, the knock on effect of this was that my earphone would not fit or rather sit snuggly on my right ear and I would have to battle with it throughout the race. As the other runners made their way to the starting line, I followed and put on my mp3 player. It was going to play Girls Aloud but I skipped ahead to Energy. Waiting in line, the song finished and was followed by Beat It. I was all set. The horn sounded and we were off, although it took a while for my section to finally move along. This was it. There was a great deal of traffic and I did my best to keep to my pace and cut to the left as we made our way down Northbrook Street, the ‘works’ and then down West Street and up Strawberry Hill. The highest incline and then down the A4 up to Speen and then down back into the town. Rather than bore you with a text commentary of the route, you can just view and download the PDF from the official race site. My target was the hour, so I needed to keep a pace of a kilometre every six minutes which I kept up for the first three. Following that milestone my pace dropped, to what speed I cannot tell you but it was hard work in the heat. At one stage I almost tripped over a concrete slap as we entered a field and a single file track. However I got my balance just in time and then maintained the slower pace as we were stuck in traffic. At the half way mark, I grabbed two cups of water and then was down to a brisk walking pace as I downed the H2O. Although I declined the opportunity to splash the water in my face, infact I actually waited and put it in the big that a steward was carrying a little down the road. It was then back to the road back to the pace and the next milestone was 6k and getting back into Newbury and Northbrook Street. When I was a few minutes from that point, Keri Hilson blasted onto my mp3 player and it was the boost I needed. I speed up, getting the energy from somewhere. As I took the corner the spectators clapped (as they had been throughout the race). It was at this point, I saw my sisters, Natalie and Samantha further down on the right cheering me on but before them my sister Natalie had a bottle of water, which I grabbed and then I disappeared around the corner down the road by the canal. This was the final part of the race, the second circuit as James and I would refer to it. It was hard work, my legs were really tired now and having to be tred on the gravel road next to the canal was hard work. Overtaking was difficult too, with so many runners coming up from behind. I was happy with my progress as each subsequent km marker appeared but knew my pace had dropped so much that I would be lucky to beat my target of sixty minutes. I did feel a little despondent when the sixty minute mark clicked through on my Adidas Sports Watch. I tried my best not to let it get me down and just kept on pushing harder. The best moment was the corner and bridge which takes you back into the town centre. It was here I put the pace up steadily and then sprinted from the 400m mark. Where I got that sudden burst of energy from I cannot tell you. Perhaps it was Britney? I was listening to Stronger as I crossed the finish line. My official time was 01:05:40 placing me 438th in a field of 513 runners (that completed the race). 650 officially registered but I am unsure how many of them actually started. You can view the full results plus there are photographs on the Newbury Weekly News gallery. I picked up my medal, Bayer goodie bag and t-shirt (I asked for medium but perhaps should have gone for small). It was then I found my family and got the cheers and more photographs that had made all the training and day so worthwhile.

After catching up with all my colleagues, getting stories and times and getting some free Lucozade Energy Bars from the van next to the town hall, it was time for the obligatory group photograph (although Jo is absent!). We then headed to the Youth Centre for the presentations by the Major (the first Sikh major for Newbury). After the awards had been given out (ironically the winner was David Fry but not the same guy I went to school with although they both do share baby face features) we headed back to the flat for lunch. My Mum had brought loads of food and we ate, while my sisters sunbathed in the garden and my Dad watched The Politics Show on BBC1. I had to jump on the computer to update my Twitter and Facebook status but refrain from coming online on MSN (although I did change my personal message!).

What did I do with the rest of my day? Well it was quite busy actually. After lunch I headed to Homebase with my Dad to get some shelving. We got back to the flat and then headed out again with my Mum. We went to do the weekly shop at Tesco Extra (I had not been shopping for a while). Afterwards we got back to the flat and put everything away before my sister Samantha was eager to get going home but my sisters Natalie and even Julie wanted to stay. In the end, Natalie decided to stay and Samantha would come back to collect her later in the evening. I did a little web browsing before we sat down to watch the movie which had been planned for the previous night.

Whoever Wins Is The Hero (or Conqueror apparently but I prefer to use the word Hero) is a famous 1992 Bollywood movie. It was a watershed moment for me, when I watched it all those seventeen years ago. I remember our neighbours popping around with the VHS tape and me being told by my sisters to stop watching whatever was on television to watch the movie, which I did. It would be the last time I would watch the genre with any real care. Soon my head would be turned by the lure of Hollywood, action, explosions, superheroes and escapism. Watching the movie now as an adult, I began to truly appreciate why it had been such a big hit at the time and more so, why it had lasted the test of time. It was to be my second dose of inspiration for my race but watching it now, after the event, it felt more like the reward. Pelha Nasha remains (and most likely will do forever) my favourite Hindi film song of all time and there are few who would disagree. I was hoping to watch the whole movie but after the first part (first 1 hour and fifteen minutes) Samantha and her friend Liz arrived, so it was time to switch off the XBox and order some food and the after party could begin in earnest.