The British 10K In London: Here I Come!

Yup, in case you didn't know, I will be one of the expected 25,000 runners at this year's British 10k London Run, dubbed the "greatest 10k event on the planet". Yeah, I can imagine your reaction. "Shit, jauhnya pergi lari?" Trust me, that's MY own reaction when I'm reminded of my participation.

It all started in February this year. I had bought a magazine called "Men's Running", and there it was, a full-page ad for the event. I then mentioned it to wifey, expecting a "merepek jelah" reaction. But instead, she was full of encouragement!

My pitch to her? This year's event is extra special as it's the Golden Jubilee Olympic Year, and it is indeed one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. I got the green-light rather quickly, and a couple of days later, I went online and registered myself, paying GBP50 (RM250) for a confirmed place in the event.

The thing is, I had planned to go for the Gold Coast Marathon this year, so I had to recalculate the logistics and budget altogether. Needless to say, it costs a tad more to go to the UK than Australia, but OKlah, God's blessed me with good rezeki this year : )

So here I am, just THREE days before I leave for London, and FIVE days before the run itself.

I must say though that the run-up has been far from smooth for the organisers. Just a glance at its facebook page and you'll see a large number of runners having problems like not receiving their race packs yet, no timing chips included for some and confusion continues on whether runners are allowed to wear their charity vests instead of the event t-shirts with numbers already printed on them.

I've been anxious myself until I received an email a few days ago informing me that as an overseas entrant, my race pack will be waiting for me at the Trafalgar Hilton on Saturday. Phew!

Now I just have to figure out what to wear; compression or no compression? Do I need to layer up? Sunday's weather is expected to be sunny with a high of 20deg celcius, but you know London lah, very unpredictable...

But the most important question for me is; do I run for a good timing, or do I run leisurely to soak in the sights and atmosphere? It's a tough one for me, really. Hehe. I fully intend on taking photos and tweet while running the "iconic route", but if conditions are good, why not try for a good timing?

Good thing is, I have a few more days to figure this out. But hey, if you're friends with me on fb, be sure to check out my progress there! They have this cool feature that would allow you to track my timing and even post comments for me, which will then be displayed on giant screens along the route. Just be sure to mind your language, ya?

For more info on the run, click HERE