After months of waiting, The National Lottery Olympic Park
Run was finally here. A five mile race through the Olympic Park, this would be
the first public event to take place in the Olympic Stadium, where the runners
would do a lap of the track to finish the race. The runners were to be the
first to cross the Olympic Stadium finish line in a competitive event, leaving
5000 people able to say “I beat Usain Bolt to the Olympic finish line”!
Over 40,000 people had applied for the ballot for 5,000
places, and there were four Windle Valley Runners who were successful – Katie, Lyn,
Tony and me.
The £15 entry fee got us all a red running shirt,
personalised numbers, and two spectator entry tickets to the park and stadium,
plus free race photos and certificates.
The information pack advised us to get there early on the
day, for a 2pm race start. We got to
Stratford to find long queues snaking round towards the park entrance, but
after about 15 minutes queuing, and airport-style security at the entry, we
were in, walking between the Aquatics and Water Polo arenas to get to the
Stadium. There was entertainment in the Stadium from 12.30, with various
musical and dance acts performing to keep the crowd entertained.
Before the race, I bumped into Robin Wakefield, who missed
out in the ballot but whose wife Lucia got his place! Then on my way from the
Stadium to the race start I managed to take a tumble over a cable and skinned
my elbow, but nothing broken, my water bottle took the main impact! Too busy
gawking at the sights to watch where I was going. Then at 2.00 we were off!
Princess Beatrice was the official starter before herself joining in the race.
Starting by the Orbit Tower, the course took us round the whole of the park and
past all the sports arenas, but for quite a lot of the route it felt like running
round a building site – which it was! Still, four months is plenty of time to
get it finished for The Games. The route included a circuit of the terrace of
the Velodrome, from where you could see all the runners ahead of you and behind
you. There were several points where it looped around and again you could see a
lot of the course ahead and behind you. Finally, we were entering the Olympic
Stadium, running a half circuit inside the building to the strains of “Chariots
Of Fire”, before bursting out into the stadium proper and onto the running
track, where there were 10,000 spectators cheering us round the last 300
metres. I saw Pat in the crowd and waved to her, then crossed the finish line
in 38.40. It was really very exciting to be running there, with the crowd, and
the thoughts of what will be happening on that same track in four months’ time.
After finishing, I watched the rest of the race from the comfy seats, and saw
Tony come in, clearly enjoying his moments on the track.
Windle Valley Results:
Katie Pearce – 36m 59s
Steve Moody – 38m 40s
Tony Sheridan – 42m 15s
Lyn Taylor – 46m 50s
(Click the photos for bigger versions)
