I've finished Battersea Santa Run

Preparations

We had to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning to make it to this run. We drove to Huntingdon station, then spent 1:15 minutes on a train to Kings Cross, took tube to Victoria and another train to Battersea Park. But it was worth it.

I've collected my suit and changed. I was wearing my running clothes already so I just put Santa outfit on top of them. Then we went to band stand for a little warm-up. I've done a little stretching myself and then joined the rest of people.

Race

Race has started on time. I've thought that I would try to run the whole distance below half an hour. I've established pace around 12 km/h. I was checking my timer after passing distance marks. First kilometre: 5:10, second: 10:05, third: 15:10. The pace was good but not my condition. Despite that I was already tired I've decided to keep up and not to surrender. I don't remember times for next marks. I was just forcing myself to breathe and not think about the pain. Every step took me closer to finish line. After running two laps there was the last straight. Finish gate was few hundred metres away. I've looked at my watch: 28:30. I don't know how I did it but I sped up. Finish was closer and closer... I wasn't thinking, I wasn't feeling anything any more just running. And I did it.

I stopped my timer at 29:55 when I was crossing the finish line. I was exhausted but very happy. My official time taken from electronic chip was a little different 29:57. And I was 158th.

Something is wrong...

But my place was not exactly correct. I crossed finish line as 158th person (see image below) but my time wasn't so good. Results are available on www.blacksheepsports.co.uk I've noticed that some people behind me in ranking had better time. After some thinking I've figured out that this list is ordered by time one crossed finish line from official race start. I've tried to order results by chip time (personal run time) but I couldn't and always got no results. Something is really wrong with this website. I was frustrated but I wanted to know my real place. So I've just "imported" all 16 pages to my spreadsheet and sorted it there by "chip time". In reality my time gave me 211th place. Still good!

Santa Run results

This is a Battersea Santa Run results spreadsheet (Size 343.0 kB) ordered by run time (chip time) not place. There are two sheets: one sorted correctly and the other - original. You can download it and find yourself if you have run.

After comparing times with places I have bad news for Mr Hugh Torry. According to official results he was first on finish line with time 20:34. But 10 minutes after him Jack Iacovou has finished his run with time 20:10 and should be announced the winner. After some thinking - he may cheat and run just one lap, who knows...