Roddy Hamilton
Roddy's Oxford Radcliffe page
Fundraising for Oxford Hospitals Charity
Story
The last eight months of training in , , , and the finally paid off yesterday when I was lucky enough to take part in the 21st Great South Run in . The leading European 10 mile road race had been my objective for months and to have a glorious October day on which to complete my running debut made it even more special.
We arrived at the venue at around 0830 in the morning giving us time to explore and to soak up the incredible atmosphere before the official warm up session started at 1040hrs.
I had hoped to complete the 10 miles in under 2hrs but having never run the full distance in training really had no idea how long it would take me. The first 3 miles were fairly straight forward as that had been my daily training run but as we crept up to five and then seven the pressure was on.
At around 8 miles it began to hurt with my mind firmly focused on the last couple of miles - the fantastic support and cheering from those watching the race helped enormously as we turned to run down the last two miles along the sea front being offered water and jelly babies along the way !
With 800 m to go the Finish was almost in sight and then with just 400 m remaining it was time to see if my legs had anything left. Focus and utter determination coupled with a gear change saw me increase my speed to a sprint for the remaining distance and I managed to cross the Finish line at an incredible and officially recorded time of 01:42:11. That put me in an overall position of 9549 out of the 23,500 runners.
For me that was one of those special moments in life – all the health problems that I had had to face up to exactly a year ago, all the worry, the training and the energy required to complete the race and I'd managed it in well under 2 hours! I was thrilled.
To all those that contributed to my fundraising effort I owe huge thanks for to have raised in excess of £1500 for the British Heart Foundation and a little over that amount for the John Radcliffe Coronary Care Unit and their fantastic Cardiac Rehab facility in Banbury is truly humbling.
To my closest friends and family who supported me so very much not only through my illness but throughout my training programme I owe massive thanks but it is to my wife that I owe my greatest thanks for her patience, understanding and encouragement.
If you have not already contributed but would still like to do so my page will be 'live' for a few days more. Please remember that these are two great causes both of which make such a difference to so very many people each year. Every penny raised is vitally important to their ongoing work.
Many thanks once again and who knows, perhaps I might even attempt it all over again next year !!
Roddy