Fine Company
Well fine company indeed. This is Kenenisa Bekele pipping Mo Farah at the line of the Bupa Great North Run last Sunday, followed very closely by the 40 year old Haile Gebrselassie.
Well I'm sure they were glad to hear that I hadn't entered the race, I wouldn't want to embarrass them. I did however do my own 10 miler on Sunday morning and I was pretty pleased with my time. Like the Great North Run route my course had a couple of hills in it too and I completed 10.66 miles in 54:01. I thought this wasn't too bad.
Just for comparison Farah and co went through 10 miles at 44:41. That unfortunately is where the comparison ends. My 10 miles were completed on my bike, allowing me the luxury of some free wheeling and speeds in excess of 20mph on the downhill bits. It just blows my mind to think that I was shattered after my cycle and my legs felt like they no longer belonged to me and yet these guys covered the same distance on foot, chatting away as they went, 10 minutes quicker than me. In fact they finished their half marathon (13.1 miles) in 1:00:09. I've watched many races on TV including marathons and half marathons and whilst I've been suitably impressed by the athletes efforts its not until you do something like this that you get a true understanding of just how fast they are running. Next time you are out on a bike or even running just think of how far you've gone, how long it took you and the effort you put in and compare it to these guys, you have to be impressed. What's even more impressive is that the top guys are completing a marathon in just over 2 hours. The current world record is 2:03:38 by Kenya's Patrick Makau who in September 2011 beat none other than Haile Gebrselassie's time of 2:03:58 which he set in September 2008.
So it's back to the training for me and Mo and Co can rest easy for now!!!