Himalaya 100 Mile Stage Race - arrival in Delhi

Well the good staff on board the Gulf Air flight to Bar Mein looked after yours truly fairly adequately and a few tubes, a curry and a decent kip later we landed in this strange place. Now I have never been to this place before and, to be honest, from the aeroplane it didn't look promising. It looked like a slightly larger version of Morecambe Sands but with no sign of the tide. Arriving in the early hours of the morning we made for a sorry looking group. The dried spittle and curry stains were bad enough but the whiff of stale drink made sure that nobody was under misapprehension - we were there as proud ambassadors of our country!

Because I was on my holidays I set off to check out the bar ... well that was fruitless. Not a tube to be seen anywhere. But I spotted a MacDonald's so resigned myself to a Chicken sausage butty. After a sniff around the place I did a bit of shopping using some kind of money called a dinner - how bizarre was that? My MacDonald's cost me half a dinner - which I thought was apt.

A few hours later we were up in the air again and after another curry and a tube or two we were approaching Delhi. Some of our group got a bit over excited and got told off by the air hostesses for running up and down the aisle sliding on their knees - especially a Very Old Man called Albert who really should have known better at his age.

Anyway before you could say Tickly Masala we were landing in New Delhi and I had arrived - my long awaited return to Indialand was under way! After a brief three hour wait at Passport Control I began to rue my decision to travel as part of a group like an ordinary person. You see there are times when we Olympians just need a bit of space - like on buses and planes. Anyhow after a while we were through the formalities and onto the streets of New Delhi. I've said before that if this is New Delhi I'd hate to see Old Delhi - and once again the place didnt disappoint.


Driving is a real experience. You don't see many modern cars in the city - you certainly don't see any BMWs because most people in this country don't have small willies. But my oh my the driving. We all know that in some countries you drive on the left - and in others you drive on the right. Well in Indialand they drive on both - at the same time!!


An hour later we checked into our hotel and seeing as somebody had pinched some of my day - I could have sworn it was still morning but it seemed to be night time - we headed off into town for a bit of a bun fight.


Unfortunately, once again, I had to travel with the rest of the Nice Work group - I politely declined the offer of a VIP stretch rickshaw by playfully decking the hotel manager.

The journey over to Indialand had given me an opportunity to size up some of my opponents in this International Race of Elite Athletes. Most of them seemed quite old and, to be honest, I discounted them as bonio fido opponents. Some of them might have been able to keep up with me in parts of the race so I practised going up to them and then turning my backs on them - just so they could get used to the sight of my back.

But I knew it wasn't only going to be about competing with these people as athletes - some of them were women - so I decided to welcome them into my Inner Sanctum and try to treat them as normally as I could. In fact, between you and I Ronnettes, I began to feel quite humble about the whole thing. Here were these people - some of them obviously hadn't had a decent meal in months - but they had scrimped and saved to be with me on this important part of my Olympic journey.

Bless.

But it kind of worked me pretending to be approachable because by the end of this first night I felt almost the same as them - ordinary. That said I knew I would have to retain a certain aloofness - after all one doesn't rise to Olympic Super Stardom by mixing with riff raff. But I decided to treat them all as equals - so long as they only spoke to me one at a time.

A very pleasant evening though and we ended up me inviting them to my VIP area in the hotel where we shared a beer and I told them all about my rise to fame and current race strategy.


Tomorrow I would be going on a city tour to say 'Hi' to all my Indialand supporters - a kind of pre-victory parade if you like.

I bet Indialand, its people and my new running friends couldn't wait!

Keep on tapering.

Ron