On the hottest day of the year so far, the Plymouth ½ marathon started from the picturesque Hoe overlooking the Solent at 9:30am. With nearly 4000 runners taking place, Aneel started towards the back and, as expected, never made an impression on the leaders!!

Accompanied by his eldest daughter Nikki and friend Sam, they set off gently eating into the miles. With Sam carrying a knee injury the pace was consistent albeit fairly slow as they tried to keep her going. The route out of Plymouth was fairly flat and it was not until they got to mile 5 when it all started to get hard. Sam was now struggling with the heat and her knee and facing a long climb was close to stopping. Aneel and Nikki took turns in helping her along and the next water station pushed us all on. Miles 7-9 were great with some fantastic help from the crowds cheering us on but mile 9 was the turning point. Sam decided that she was going to walk the rest and urged myself and Nikki to go on without her, convincing us that she would finish, and reluctantly we carried on with her disappearing in to the distance behind us. It now came down to a duel, father vs. daughter, age vs. beauty!

Miles 10-11 were steady as they were both now able to concentrate on the day but suddenly disaster, Nikki started to pull away and her youth started to tell as she found a second wind and the gap increased by the minute. After mile 12 Aneel pushed on and with the last mile in site, back up a crowded steep climb to the finish, he caught sight of Nikki a couple of hundred yards ahead. This spurred him on and with them both neck and neck heading for the finish line, Nikki again managed to just put in a quick sprint to finish ahead of her old Dad by 2 seconds.

Completely gutted and drained, they both collapsed at the side of the runner’s area accompanied by Jan and 2 other friends who had completed the race earlier in the day. They waited and eventually Sam crossed the line and the end of a very long day was approaching.

That evening stories of the day were exchanged and, whilst at dinner overlooking the oldest parts of the city, a young lad in a Borat mankini was seen loosing his costume to a rather over zealous driver – but that’s an story for another day.

Thank you to Aneel for taking part in this half marathon, thank you every one who has supported him, and for the £300+ sponsorship he has raised to date in support of Warwick Special Care Baby Unit.

Ade Houldey, Gary Bratt, Tony Nash, Paul Bratt, Dale Bratt, Kev Froome,

Andy Tain, Darren Bishop, Geri Bratt, Grainne Hanley, Andy Salsa, Peter,

And not forgetting Bruce Bratt My 8 month old cocker spaniel.

Well we had a very early start to the day. We were up and running for 6 am and all very excited about the challenge ahead.

But first we had a two hour drive to get to pen y pass car park to begin our climb.

When we arrived at the car park the weather was very breezy and there was a chill in the air, just right for the treak ahead.

We were all prepared for the day ahead with water, food and essentials loaded in our back packs and off we went.

The first part of the climb was very steep and I think it woke us all up to the fact this was no walk in the park, this hill meant business for us old uns.

After the first hour we were pushing on at very good pace, Stopping to take in the breath taking views and take of layers of clothing as we were all starting to warm up.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Dale and Grainne led the pack from the offset. We had to call them back on several occasions and slow them down reminding them of the dangers this mountain can throw at you. (They were still first to the summit).

In pack two, which was everyone else but Dale and Gron (as they were already at the top), My dog and I led the group and thank goodness Bruce was there to pull me up the Mountain like a husky, Setting the pace for the others to follow, Which was great as we made the summit in 2 ½ hours.