Sunday, 9 May 2004

Personal

Woodbridge 10k

Today was pay-off day.

For weeks I've seen them. Always at the same time of an evening. A man on a bicycle and two children running alongside. They puzzled me at first, but then I remembered the Woodbridge 10k.

The weather today was probably perfect for participating in a road race, but not so good for spectators: overcast with a fine mist. Consequently the Market Hill wasn't as packed as was the last time I saw the race.

[The Woodbridge 10k in 2001]

But all the same characters were there. The moments of tenderness as runners check up on each other. The children, nearing the end of their race, holding their stitches in. The fathers (never mothers), once whispering words of quiet encouragement, now barking instruction: "come on, you're there!", "don't give up now!".

Ipswich Hospital Radio was there too, pumping out motivational tunes. (Although I'm not sure how someone laid up in hospital is supposed to respond to Moby's Run or Girls Aloud singing Jump.)

The old gent with the microphone, stopwatch and Adidas top, is the Murray Walker of road-race reporting, although with far fewer pile-ups. (And to be honest, today he's looking a little Jimmy Savile too.)

If this all sounds cynical or even rude, I don't mean it to. I love these events when the roads close and the town comes together. You never know, I might even join in one year.

Posted by pab at 12:55 | Comments will be back later in the year. Please email me instead!