The 2012 Bling Post

It has been a long time in coming but finally I am able to post my bling in review edition, where I look at my bling from the last year. Now, I recognise this was my first year of running, and that 2013 has such a fantastic calendar of races that my bling collection is going to be amazing, but seeing as in 2012 I went from not being able to run in March, to 2 halves in 7 days in October, and a race a weekend in December I am pretty damned proud to put them on this, my first medal rack.

So here it is, the bling in review.

BUPA LONDON 10K (my first race and first bling, so by default I love it. Buckingham Palace on the back, as we started on the Pall Mall. The only race I am running a second time this year too)

NIKE BRITISH 10K (A very different feel for the Nike British, even though pretty much the same course as the BUPA London. It all felt too commercial, more about Nike than the race. The medal was different from the BUPA one though, and I am all about the difference)

BUPA GREAT YORKSHIRE RUN (Another BUPA run, this one oooop north. And again a solid double sided medal. BUPA medals are heavy and good. Although this year I will find out if they change them between years)

TEACH FIRST 10K (Should have been a good race, but the imbeciles (209 events) measured the course 400m short. They then denied this, as did the charity, and they lost all respect from me, despite several of us sending in our GPS results. Cheap medal too and I feel cheapened when I look at it)

ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON (How about this for a unique medal for the royal parks, a wooden medal shaped in the leaf. Wonderful race too. And the back sums it up, “your piece of the parks”)

AMSTERDAM HALF MARATHON (My first European medal, and we are thankfully moving away from the standard circular disc format. Nice and heavy, and thankfully half the size of the full marathon medal)

MOVEMBER GREENWICH 10K (A great little medal from the Movember team here. I do wonder if the other countries had their own map and stamp around the outside. I will find out one day)

KINGSTON 10K (Fast race up and down the Thames at Kingston and Richmond. The medals at the end were bargain bucket though, with different faces and ribbons. I don’t like that. Still, this was the first 10K I ran without stopping or slowing at all, so I remember that achievement when I see this)

TWICKENHAM 10K (Legendary. On the day of the race the medals were stolen with the Race Directors bag. It made the news. The sponsor then had some new medals made up, and the Race Director kindly mailed them out in his own time. I put a temporary medal in its place whilst I waited for a new medal to arrive and, when it did, am proud to have it on the rack)

VIRTUAL HALF MARY (The #virtualhalfmary was a great idea. It brought together racers all over the world and gave them a reason to run, some bling and something we could all do without jumping on planes and flying across the planet)

2013 has a wonderful calendar but I have not, at the time of posting, run a race. My first race of the year I missed with flu (Bromley 1oK), my second was postponed until March 17th due to snow (Les Whitton 10 Miler in Dartford), my third and fourth I couldn’t be fussed to travel so far for a 10K (sorry Hadleigh Castle 10 and Eton Dorney 10). But that is not to say I shall end the year empty handed. Still sitting on my calendar is:

• Tunbridge Wells Half
• Semi de Paris
• North Carolina Half
• Crescent City Classic (New Orleans)
• Edinburgh Rock and Roll Half
• Shakespeare Half (Stratford Upon Avon)
• BUPA London 10K
• Gunnersbury 10K
• York 10K
• Bacchus Half Marathon
• Berlin Marathon
• Great South Run
• Terschelling Half Marathon (Holland)