Lap of honour

We arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London at about ten minutes to eleven. We were here for the #IamTeamGB event. It’s part of a series of events to welcome athletes home from Tokyo and involves walking, jogging or running a lap around the perimeter of the former-Olympic (now, London) Stadium.

We joined the queue to enter, confirmed we had completed the health declaration, told some passing people what we were here for and, eventually, got our wristbands for the 11:30 circuit. There was a little warm-up, some music, some Olympians and then we were off. In spite of all the effort I am putting into getting fit, running outdoors with other people is a very different experience. Nonetheless, I completed it, quite literally got the t-shirt, and was pleased that I finished it in under 6 minutes. I accept that’s terribly slow but I am taking it as a little win.

We grabbed a coffee at the Pret at the park’s entrance watching the passing crowds heading to later circuits. I know several medal-winning athletes passed us on the way to the event but the only one I immediately recognised was diving gold-medalist Matty Lee. Glad we got up early to take part.