Saturday was a busy day, off to Glasgow in preparation for Sunday's Race For Life. Lynne and I arrived at Glasgow Central station to be greeted by two ambulances, a pool of vomit on the pavement, and some drunken youths having a laugh on a bench. It's the weekend – welcome to Glasgow! We got to the hotel just in time to watch the results show of Britain's Got Talent. After all the scandal about so-called fixing of the show there was a shock winner from Scotland and a 12-year-old's dreams were seemingly crushed (Though in real life Simon Cowell actually rules the world and Ronan's album will be Christmas no 1!).
Bright and early start Sunday morning. After resisting all the bad things on the menu the night before so as not to be too bad on my Jane Plan, I was very good and had fruit and yoghurt under the watchful eye of 'diet police' Lynne (I think she had a hidden camera in her button) and we headed off to the Glasgow Green to be met with that familiar sea of pink!
At the stage area we met the lovely Scottish comedian Kim MacAskill, who was also a part of the Funny Women part of the bill. We also met Kevin Giles who has vounteered to host for years and is an old friend of Race For Life. We watched some great Scottish dancers doing their 'fling' and we enjoyed speeches from the organisers and local radio stars and Kim and I did our bit entertaining the 16,000 ladies (the biggest Race For Life of the year). We even joined in with the military-style warm up and a had a little singalong of The Proclaimers biggest hits.
It was then time to do the 5k….due to the sheer amount of people it took us 10 minutes to get to the start line! We marched through the streets of Glasgow to the sounds of car beeps of support, chatting and laughing all with one aim: to raise money for Cancer Research and remember our loved ones. I had Sulina's name on my back and mentioned her onstage too. She would have liked that.
We saw so many brave and wonderful women in their costumes and tops with messages to their loved ones. I even did a bit of networking and was offered a comedy gig at one of the local venues, The Tron. We power-walked to the finish line in 50 minutes, which was a lot faster than our attempts at Battersea. Another medal for my collection!
We met some nice ladies who are research nurses, which really brought home why these events are so important. With achy legs we had a walk aroung Glasgow and made a promise to try to come back again in September for Shine, which is a walking marathon for all cancer charities that men and women to take part in. There's also one in London in October…get involved!
On the way back on the train Lynne and I had a masterplan to turn my disastrous love life and hapless dieting attempts into an Edinburgh show….so watch this space! Until then I'm doing some comedy gigs in London, weighing in with Jane Plan on Tuesday and trying to avoid eye contact with the owners of my recently-neglected local takeaways as I walk past ('It's not you…it's me….I need space' etc). Next Race for Life for me will be in my hometown, Plymouth, on 19th June. Very special one this….will have to top up my accent 'ooo aaar'. Stay tuned!
Suzy B
