Triathlon2Win

(11 July 2010) London turned on the charm for the 10th anniversary of the 10km race that has grown strength to strength in size and popularity.  Almost on par with the size of the London Marathon there was a record number of nearly 25k runners along with 40k spectators scattered along the route to give support.

There was a light patch of rain at the start of the race, but that soon gave way for for blue skies, sunshine and perfect race conditions.  The pre-start entertainment included a procession of the Lord Mayor of the City of Westminster and the horse mounted band of the Blues and Royals.

The actual course takes you through most of the major landmarks in London with views including Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, Tate Modern, Westminster Bridge, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.  The race route also has PA systems at all the major landmarks blasting out inspirational tunes like ‘Chariots of Fire’ to keep you moving along swiftly.  The local supporters also gave everyone plenty of encouragement along the whole of the run.  Plenty of drink stations were well positioned along the length of the course to keep the masses re-hydrated on the warm summer day.

This is my 4th straight year of entering the run with a team supporting the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) and like the run itself our team gets bigger every year, thanks to the special support from Drijen Shah and Ameet Aggarwal.  This year we raised over £11,000 as a team.  You can still donate with the details found online here:  http://original.justgiving.com/mikekirkman1

Our IAHV team was so large this year with over 100 runners, that even the local Wagamama’s didn’t have enough room to host us for the traditional post-lunch run.  We decided to split up and grab on own well deserved lunches, with Nikhil, Martin and I enjoying crispy duck in China town.  My running time was 48:41 and I will definitely be back again next year for the London event.  Who wants to join us?