Blackpool Illuminations 10k #5 August 2021
Areet?
It was time to make the annual pilgrimage to Blackpool for the excellent illuminations 10k…..
What I love about this race, is the stark contrast of it….
It’s held at 9pm on a saturday night, slap bang in the middle of Blackpool prom, where party central is in full swing…..
Picture the scene, if you will….
On one side of the road, you have thousands of revellers dancing the night away and getting smashed…..
Then, in the middle of the road, you have over a thousand ‘athletes’ getting stuck in to a 10k run…
You couldn’t find a more beautiful contrast if you tried….
It sums me up perfectly….
You see in my case, this race usually represents a massive fork in the road going forward….
‘Athlete’ or ‘Piss head’
Which will it be?
For the last 5 years, having trained hard and lived ‘clean’ for a good 6 months pre Ironman, I go on the piss, eat whatever I want and stop training altogether…..
I then enter the illuminations 10k to see how much damage I have done, go back on the piss and eat like a fat bastard without giving a flying fuck about training until around christmas, at which point I get onto to scales and say…..
‘Oh shit’…….
Not this time…..
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself for a couple of weeks post Ironman, but this year, something very different happened……
After only a fortnight of being naughty, I began to crave the training…….
Sorry, let me rephrase that…..
I began to crave the feeling you get when you live ‘clean’ and train all the time….
I’m not talking 20 & 30 hour training weeks here…..
I’m talking an hour a day on alternate days of swim / weights & sauna / bike / run….
Maybe a 2 hour loop of the Ironman circuit on a Saturday if the weather is really nice…..
Combine ‘all of the above’ with a clean diet and you’ve found fire my friend…..
Someone once said to me that ‘Ironman isn’t a race, it’s just an amazing way to live your life on a daily basis’…..
When I first heard that I was like “What the hell are you on about man?”
But I get it now…..
It’s the way it makes you feel…..
Every single day….
Anyone who has ever done it knows what I am talking about here…..
So is an addiction to Ironman such a bad thing?
I don’t see why it is….
Afterall, what’s the alternative?
Turning into a fat bastard pissing all his money up the wall and feeling like shit all the time?
I wonder what would happen if I stayed on the straight and narrow from now until next July?
I wonder indeed……
Having said all that, I just walked past a pub in Blackpool on my way home and they are belting out “Where did our love go” by the Supremes…..
In addition, the dance floor is packed with people ‘jiving’ away to it…..
That record is over 50 years old ffs…..
Sorry, but if when you see shit like this, you don’t immediately want to order a pint and go ‘join in’ then don’t worry about it…..
You never will….
Which side of the road will I end up on?
I’ll let you know when i’ve finished me pint cock…….
Besides….
I started at the very back of the pack today and over 500 of the cuntz I overtook….
500….
Now if that doesn’t need celebrating, then I don’t know what does….
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By the way, have you heard about this book? its nearly 500 pages crammed full of hints and tips detailing exactly how I was able to go from zero fitness to completing an Ironman triathlon and covers super sprint, sprint, olympic 70.3 & full iron distances all from a ‘first timer’ perspective – please take a moment to read the reviews on amazon www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Ironmen-Iron-Rookie/dp/1974002322/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540676777&sr=8-1&keywords=iron+rookie
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