When missionary work goes pear shaped

I understand that I have responsibilities.

I'm an elite athlete that is proud to win an Olympic Gold medal for my fellow Englishmen - and women, sometimes. So, I try to make sure some of my time is allocated to ordinary people to try and inspire them to reach my widths.

As Val Doonican used to say "You don't get nowt for something".

So, with my responsible hat on I trundled to Livingstone's Pit yesterday with the Half Share and the eldest Cash Drainer, Haille Minogue, in tow. The idea was to do a bit of hand shaking, do a quick burst of my warm up routine, a nippy 10K and then retire to the Green Room for a spot of hospitality.

Well, well, well, what went wrong there then chaps?

I'll leave it to others to articulate the shortcomings of the event - The Old Deer Park 10K - you can have a butchers at some of the comments made here.

I have my own gripes though readers:

1. No appearance money (sorry, I know we shouldn’t bring in the filthy lucre business, but I have to eat!)
2. No hospitality whatsoever
3. I had to stand amongst the ordinary people - no VIP area
4. Nowhere to do my 'routine'
5. A shambles of an event meant I have no idea of my time - so I suppose I'll just have to stick it down as another 29 minute dead race.

A word of warning to Race organisers - we may be celebrities, but we’re almost real people too. We need to have things sorted out for us or we'll just shrink back into our celebrity bubble.

Now shape up!

Keep on tapering.

Ron

PS Just to put the hat on a miserable day, Ernie's van got stuck in the mud! London? You can stick it Livingstone!