The Curry Club Runners' Weblog

5th April 2009. The day had dawned, breakfast had been eaten, tracksuits off and photos taken. Standing in a crowd of 40,000 other runners on the Champs Elysee while peeing into a discarded water bottle and listening to the theme from Chariots of Fire.

This was the culmination of four months of training throughout the previous winter. Three plucky Curry Club Runners and three hangers on were about to start out in the Paris Marathon:

It started with an amazing performance by Major Dunne who started to creep ahead of the 3.30 pacemakers from the start, hotly pursued by Gill and Radjen. Murray and Newsom meanwhile began by running a steady race further behind and well ahead of the bottle of London Pride but were hampered by the crowds at the 5km water stop…. But where was Hammond?

Radjen was running to a pre-determined plan of treating this as a training run before the big one in London and fading at the 5km point was all part of the grand strategy.

Gill and Dunne managed a crafty pee stop just after the Place de la Bastille and things were looking good for the entire team until Gill went over on a discarded bottle at the 25km water stop. After just managing to stop crying like a girl, he continued on but by this time Major Dunne ‘s steady pace, dedicated training regime and military discipline had pushed him ahead, never again to be seriously challenged. With only 5km to go Dunne could sense that a sub 3.30 was a possibility if he could only keep focussed. Gill held on well and managed to make up some time after his injury but after being overtaken for a second time by the pacemakers at the 38km marker and then by a pink fairy, faded and just wanted it to all to end. It eventually did before he laid down in the red cross tent, knowing from previous experience that it would get him extra attention and make his excuses sound more convincing.

Meanwhile 30km saw Murray taking off his bandana and break away from his running partner in a dog eat dog bid for the line in his first marathon appearance. Newsom however kept his cool, dug deep into those legendary energy reserves and answered this challenge by keeping the power on.

Hammond by this time was also running.

Murray’s bid began to fade post 35km however when his lack of experience began to tell and the energy began to visibly fade from his legs. Walking like a pansy enabled Newsom to catch up and beat Leeds’s great hope by a full three seconds on the finish line.

Hammond finished too.

Wadda day!