The Cabbage Patch 10

The Cabbage Patch is a pub in Twickenham, and each October it hosts a 10-mile run which takes a nice flat route mainly following the Thames.

Mick had decided a few weeks ago to join Juan and his brother Raf in taking part, and so the three of them were to be found loitering around just up the road from the Cabbage Patch just before 10am on this fine autumn morning.

With only a couple of minutes to go until the off, the traffic was stopped and the runners led to the starting line:

where they all waited patiently for about 30 seconds, until the claxon sounded.

With a field of around 1600, Vic & I (spectating, along with baby Tilly) doubted that we’d spot any of the boys as they passed, but we did manage to pick Mick out. He’s in this photo (bet you can’t spot him; Raf is also in this photo, even though we didn’t see him at the time):

Mick’s in this one too:

After a bit of a stroll and a stop for a cup of tea Vic, Tilly and I made our way over to the finish line where I took a photo of a random stranger crossing the line just to make sure that the position of the sun wasn’t going to scupper me snapping Mick as he crossed the line:

See – perfectly possible to take a clear photo! 

Things didn’t work out quite so well when I saw Mick coming as I managed to make him look headless:

It turned out that the three chaps were well matched to run together. There was no loitering around waiting for them all to finish. Raf came in first in 1.21.46. Mick was next in 1.22.38. And Juan was only just behind, finishing in 1.23.41.

Here they all are looking fresh as daisies a few minutes later:

 

Based on the enthusiastic discussion of the event afterwards, I suspect that they’ll be posting entries off again next year.