What puts the "GREAT" in a Great Run?

On Sunday I headed down to Portsmouth for the Great South Run the second time I had entered this race having had such fun the previous year.

As before this entailed a 4:30am alarm call, early morning porridge and honey and a 5:30 departure with peanut butter sandwiches for the journey.
The roads were relatively clear, the temperature reading +1 degree as I headed down the M1, M25 and onto the A3 with anticipation growing.
I arrived at Gunwharf in good time, there's a great multi storey car park there which, whilst £10 for the day,  enables you to leave without any of the traffic issues of car parks closer to the start.

My usual table - well annually!

I left the car and headed up to a coffee shop where I ordered a latte and took up residence at the table I had sat at exactly a year previous when I met Mark, Jo and Emma.
The café was already buzzing with runners of all types obviously excited and some slightly nervous of the coming event. There was an overwhelming yet unspoken acknowledgement between runners everyone giving each other a nod and a smile.

I waited a while and then Mark (@staplesma) and his partner arrived, it was great to see them and their arrival also heralded the realisation that Bex (@runbeckrun) and her friend were already in the café secreted on a corner table.
We sat and chatted and Bex, who relatively recently had started her own business Therapy2fit as a sports massage therapist, updated me on how things were going.

After a while Bex and Mark decided they would make their way down to the start area, but knowing that Steve (@stedge27) Graham (@whickhamrunning) and Emma (@run_twinkle_run) were still to arrive I hung on.

The three amigos along with Steve's wife duly arrived and we headed off to collect our foreign correspondent Julie (@lazydazz) from her hotel.
I had met Emma the previous year but this was the first time I'd met Steve and Graham and it was at that point I realised what actually makes a "Great Run" "GREAT"
It is the people, people you maybe haven't see for a year, people you meet for the first time, the people are what make the whole thing so special.

Graham had flown down from Newcastle the previous day to compete, Steve actually I found doesn't live a million miles from me and Emma is a relatively local girl to the race.
We wandered along chatting and laughing, easily discussing the mornings toilet habits and indeed Grahams fluorescent pink nipple tape (apparently the only thing that works).

Steve and Graham - great lads!

We collected Julie and her Hubster and headed on laughing and relaxed in each others company, none of us were actually going to run with each other but that was irrelevant the camaraderie and social element to this race made it "GREAT"

Looks like an album cover (with the elusive Emma)

We arrived at the start area, agreed where to meet after the race and all headed off to our respective starting pens, Julie and Steve in orange, myself in white and Emma and Graham in Green.
I checked in my bag and headed to the white start zone only to realise when I got there that I needed a wee. I managed to find some male urinals set up behind a kind of maze of fences, did the appropriate and headed back to the pen.
By the time I returned there were 100's of runners milling around leaving me around half way down the pen but still fortunately in time.

Anticipation before the start

There was music and a warm up arranged for the runners. Now usually I just sway from side to side during these as I know what a twonk I look doing Mr Motivator moves, but this day I thought I could use all the help I could get so entered into the warm up with gusto.

And so we were off, a samba style drumming band thumping a rhythm that you couldn't help but run in time with, along the front seeing ferries in the distance and towards the historic dockyards with their tall ships.

My plan was head out at 10 min mile pace and once I got to mile 5 see how I feel from there, hmm this wasn't to happen.
The crowded first part of the course and a number of places where it narrowed made running any kind of controlled pace a little tricky, I dodged and swerved my way along until eventually the field split out a little and the course widened.

The support was great, the course interesting and the weather stunning, sunshine, very little breeze and around 17 degrees. I eventually reached mile 4 as below

So not 10 min mile pace then, ho hum I thought lets just see how long I can keep this going.

My Achilles were aching, I'd been having problems the past few weeks, however I was in a race now so that gets pushed to the back of your head.
At mile 5 a group of chaps burst into "Living on a prayer" by Bon Jovi, "Wooooaa we're half way there" their rendition was loud and enthusiastic and welcomed by spontaneous applause from all runners including myself, I love this shit!

On we ran through miles 6 and 7 then the least favourite mile for me, mile 8 through residential streets anticipating the reappearance of the seafront. A sound system belted out the Specials giving me a lift and then we were back on the Esplanade, the final 2 miles to the finish.

I saw a woman dressed up as a bee ahead, Janice !!! (@beesrun) I ran up behind her shouting "Janice" she ignored me, it wasn't Janice, Janice had decided to run as Janice, this was someone else dressed as a bee, I stared ahead trying to pretend I was shouting at someone called Janice in the distance.

We were getting closer, I could hear the announcer telling people not to overdo it in the final mile as it was hot, overdo it, I couldn't do anymore than I was doing.

I found my way to the finish in 1:32:44 only 40 minutes too late to meet one of my heroes.

Another hero of mine Jo Pavey -2nd in the Women's Elite race in 52.41!

I grabbed a water and collected my goody bag with T Shirt Medal and various other bits and bobs and worked my way through the crowds.

All of a sudden I went a bit wibbly, maybe the heat who knows but had to sit for a bit to save falling embarrassingly over and ending up on my face.
Service resumed I headed to collect my bag and meet the others, sadly this all took rather too long and I missed them at the agreed meeting point, but Emma texted me and said that Julie would still be around at her hotel If I fancied a drink.

Speedy Steve and Julie

The whole gang had finished well, some helping others on their first runs, some running rather quickly, but we all did it which is the coolest thing, 20,000 runners and us amongst them.

I wandered down to Julie's hotel and met both her and her husband for a well deserved drink and a good old chin wag in the bar, the event was over but the friendships hopefully live on.

Julie and I - Pic courtesy of Mr Sunshine! 

As I left to head back to my car I got lost, and couldn't quite orient myself for a little while resulting in the following pics.

Aha yes I need to be over there !

I finally collected my car and headed off home. Was it a good race? Yes, was it a great race? Yes, what made it great? The people purely and simply, Thanks Julie, Emma, Steve, Mark, Bex, Graham and the oh so elusive Janice!