David Bayley is one of those runners who does a huge amount more than *just* running loads of marathons. He's about to run his 100th at Nottingham, ran Comrades this year and is going to run the 10 in 10 for the third consecutive year in 2011. But he also selflessly and cheerfully paces people round to PBs, raises thousands and thousands for charity and puts on marathons for those of us desperate enough to want to run them every weekend of the year.
The Summer Enigma was the second in the series, and I freely admit I found it really boring the first time at Easter, but this promised to be a great social day out. Of the 27 runners, I knew about 24 of them, a great mix of 10 in 10ers, Fetchies and 100 Clubbers and there was a great atmosphere, especially at the finish where everyone sprawled out on the grass to welcome people in. It wasn't the most exciting of races but I didn't dislike it as much as I feared and there was some good company from Heather, David himself and Joe. Catching up with 10 in 10 Jim on the way there and back was a particular treat. My X marks the spot tan line from my top was well and truly reinforced too so it was a grand day out on the Grand Union Canal.
I legged it back to London to get scrape off all the salt and put on a cleaner pair of shorts for Frances' birthday drinks with many of the usual drinking suspects and some very fierce shoes. Several cocktails later and I was dropping so, as inviting as more drinks and dancing at some nightclub sounded and as fine as the company was, I did my Cinderella and went home. I had to be up at 4am to get to the completely misnamed North London Parachute Jump site, in Cambridgeshire. North OF London perhaps.
I'd signed up to do a tandem skydive with a bunch of people from work and was so floored by the combination of lack of sleep, mild hangover, not eating very much and a marathon that the thought of throwing myself out of a plane really didn't get the nerves going at all, my brain just couldn't compute it. After a few hours hanging around in the sunshine drinking tea and watching a solo jumper land in the only bush in the entire county, it was our go. I was attached to a predictably lairy pro who distracted me from the 13,000 foot drop with talk of our second date until he shoved me out of the hole in the side of the plane. The freefall bit was an unbelievable rush, it didn't feel like we were falling, more like we were entirely weightless in a monstrous wind. The parachute bit that follows is very calm and peaceful. Your focus shifts from "Oh my god, this feels incredible!!!!!!" to "Oh, wow, look at the view!", the widest horizon you've ever seen, the stillness and silence, and the bloke behind you yelling "You want more, baby? You want me to give you MORE?" Cambridgeshire looks infinitely prettier from way up in the sky than it did in the Pathfinder marathon last August. It's all over far too quickly and my only fear is having discovered a potentially new, very expensive hobby.
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