Born Again Teenagers in Torquay brings new Record

Hi.

Torquay. Jesus, what a place! Arrived on Saturday afternoon. It's like Tenby only seething with manners and patriotism. England (should I sat Engerlaaand) play Equador tomorrow - you can't move for unashamed bare tatooed bodies, declaring their undying adoration for "the lads".

The Hotel looks good - the Bishops Court - it's a 3-star - and it's up on the hill - but it needs renovation - badly. They have a huge wedding party in as we arrive and so despite paying the odds to stay the night, we are given the "Fawlty treatment". It's an experience.

Dinner at the Orange Tree www.orangetreerestaurant.com was bloody delightful. Probably the only decent place in town.

Paignton is where the race was and lies 3 miles along from the Torquay front. Did I say "front"? The signs say its "The English Riviera". My arse. The place smells of seaweed and sewage. That's Torquay, not my arse, mind. I ts like Llandudno but with attitude.

They do Tacky, well. There is no understated elegance. It's just awful. Think Primark everywhere, no Versace, Daaahling. The highlight for me was walking back to the hotel and witnessing a very pregnant youth queueing to get into a nightclub. Nice.

SUNDAY

This morning, we were almost killed by the pensioners in the rush for breakfast. Most of them had been up since the sun rose and must have been bloody starving. Delightfully, they were really happy which was just as well as they all smelled of wee - I'm just glad I didn't have to smile along with them all day. The Head waiter, who was urging them all to "do the prunes", looked and sounded like Tommy Cooper. I think he had it in for the tour bus driver who was charged with ferrying these lovely, prune-ridden pensioners around all day in high, sweaty temperatures.

The run? Was bloody boiling. 24 degrees celcius and hilly at points. The time? 1 hour, 56 minutes and 50 seconds. And it took me a minute to cross the start line. I'm very happy. The race was brilliantly organised. The race announcer on the tannoy system was also a comedian, thanking South-West water board for providing the water for the race - "What would we have done without you?" It was lost on their CEO who I think started the race or maybe appeared in it. Who knows?

I feel great.

Here's the full posting of results. http://www.torbayhalfmarathon.co.uk/

I came 519th out of 1068 runners.

See you back here soon. I have a target of doing two 3-hour runs in July. It'll be a challenge. But I feel like I'm on target to do OK by my charity and finsihing the Berlin in under 4 hours.

Thanks for reading my blog!!

Kevin