I came ,i saw i ran,i conquered.
I arrived at the meet at around 6.30 am surprisingly there were very few people milling around the CMS end ,the experience concert at TBS was just wrapping up and they seemed to have had a good time . I crossed the road and arrived at outer marina to a barrage of MTN officials and police men shouting at no one seeing as there was no one there ,saying things like only does in yellow jerseys allowed , I kept walking , at first it was dis orientating to see so few people i kept on thinking i must be early ,or in the wrong place , etc .
I saw so few people i belived it was going to be cancelled, by 7.20 when those of us who had bothered to show up got shoved further ,to accomodate a 'minister' who had arrived for a photo up there could not have been more than a few hundred of us , MTN the sponsors should hold the organisers accountable so often we talk about accountability and corporate responsibility well it would seem MTN has been grossly negligent in both ,
A quick poll revealed that everyone there in a yellow jersey had registered by form , not by SMS the organisers had claimed that over 45000 people had registered by this method ,this was a lie ,no one could register .I know because i could not , and none of the people at the meet who tried could.
I ran ,
I got of to a late start ,i forgot to send of my customary begging text on behalf 'sponsor a child' until the starting pistol went off.
I got of to a bad start ,in the confusion i started of running in my old style which i had spent all year trying to change after the injury from 2005, once started i couldnt change it .
the conditions were perfect ,the temperature was low and the sky hazy , the organisers had decided to slash the water stations by about half ,which was annoying.
I got injured at about 13km just opposite the cathedral church on marina my achilles tendon kicked in and i had to stop running and reevaluate .
With so few people running i could not walk i would have been left to the mercy of the Lagos traffic so i walk /ran the rest of the way the longest 7km i have ever endured.
would i do it again ? Hell no.
But then again memory of pain fades fast , my memories are mainly of the sights and sounds and what a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours looking at your city,also i saw the times ran by the winners 1hr 3mins men and 1hr 16mins for the women . this is not to far from what i had done in the past may be a bit of competitive spirit would help give it an edge next time, who's to say .Lets see how i heal .
Its been great .