Bupa Manchester 10K

How are you all?

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and Wigan are top of the league, happy days.

Well, it's the morning after the Manchester 10km run and what a brilliant event it was (Josh Charnley asked me where I was running the Manchester 10km run !!! ).

I never realised how big the event was previously but I was very impressed with how well 40 thousand participants were organised. To be part of a team again was also a good feeling. Over 50 people running with the same goal, to raise money and awareness for Joiningjack.

The run itself didn't really go to plan. I had done six 10km runs in the build up, one under 44 mins, one under 45 mins and four under 48 mins. I had managed to save my worst performance for the event, coming in around 50 minutes. I was running with a mate of mine called Anthony Hatton who I have known since our amateur rugby days. He is now well into his marathon running and is very fit, I tried keeping with him but I couldn't. After about 3km I knew I was in trouble and had gone off too quick. Lungs were bursting, knees burning and back aching. After about 6 km my head was going to explode. The trouble is that at the point when you are hurting most, it's coming to the end and therefore there are more people watching. That means you at least have to look the part, so internally my world was ending but externally I had to look like I was gliding.

The reception from the spectators on Deansgate was certainly worth the pain and I actually enjoyed that final kilometre. I am just glad that they didn't see about 400m earlier when Neil Cowie's wife, Jeneanne, breezed past me, slapping me on the ass!!

I was pleased crossing the line and felt a sense of achievement. I picked up my goody bag before looking for my mum and sister who had my little boy Samuel with them. Obviously they were not in the place that I told her to be so I had to look for her in a crowd of about 60 thousand people, brilliant. I waited near the finish line looking for all my JoiningJack team mates including my wife Rachel who completed the course whilst being 20 weeks pregnant, I was very proud of her.

My favourite image of the day was saved for when Andy and Alex embraced. The emotion was evident and after the torturous few months they had, it was a very powerful moment. The 10km was a hard run for two people who by their own admission are not very keen on exercise.

It was the completion of the first hurdle of what will be such a long journey but with a committed team behind them, a journey which they will tackle head on. I was proud to be a part of such a special team. A team who had/have put their own lives on hold to come together for their friends. In life you need motivation and it doesn't matter what that motivation is, as long as it gets the juices flowing inside of you. I am a massive believer in positive thinking and that anything is possible. Andy and Alex's motivation is to raise money and awareness and to find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and I am more certain than ever that these two parents will achieve their goal.

Doing the run over the weekend reminded me just how much I love Manchester. When I get spare afternoon (not very frikin often), I like to jump on the train and plonk myself in a coffee shop window and watch the world go by, I am a bit weird like that. I don't see a problem with being sat with my iPad, writing and observing the crazy and different people that populate our planet. I love the music that Manchester has given us, Oasis, TheStone Roses and The Smiths amongst others. I Like the rivalry between City and United. I like the fashion, were anything goes. I like the bars although I don't really like the poncy Prada pants wearing wine bars, give me an old fashioned boozer any day.

The Magic Rugby League weekend is coming up and it is a great opportunity for fans to get in there and experience what the great city has to offer. There is a pub in Manchester called Taps were you can pull your own pint for something different. If you fancy a mojito get yourself up to Cloud 23 at the Hilton which comes with amazing views of the city. One of the lads favourite bars is Mojo's, where you can dance away to Joy Divisions 'Love will tear us apart again'. You will usually find Paul Prescott and Joel Tomkins deep in conversation in there. No night out in Manchester is complete without a trip to the curry mile. A quick fight with some popadoms before falling asleep in the taxi back to Wigan, a perfect night out. Whoever you are supporting this weekend, the city will look after you.

This week was also a very special week for a life long friend of mine who was born with Cerebral Palsy. Phillip O'Connell was told that he would not live past his first birthday yet on Sunday he celebrated his 60th!!! Phillip possesses a wonderful spirit and has a fantastic support network. We are all very proud of you Phillip and I owe you a pint when I next see you Son!!

Saints V Leeds has just come on the TV and I must congratulate our Yorkshire counterparts on their cheerleader recruitment policy, it is nearly as good as SKY Sports news! The actual game was a good advert for the new Monday night live game concept. It again highlighted how tough rugby players are. Jamie Peacock seeing stars after three seconds but getting up and completing the game. I do think that now I must have been crazy to play the game as it looks so hard. When you are playing the bangs and collisions don't seem as hard as your body adapts to it but watching now, I wince at some of the tackles. Even though my nose is all over my face and my body reminds me occasionally of how hard the sport was, I do believe that I escaped relatively well. I hope all rugby players have long and successful careers and that they can look back thinking they got out unharmed (sort of).

I have just had a phone call from my Mum who asked us over to her house for tea as she had 'laminated' some chicken to put on the BBQ. How is it that Mums manage to get everything wrong. Whilst we were in Florida on holiday at the end of last year, my Mum pointed out a sign that said Polish Buffet saying lets try it out, attempting to support the origin of our family name……or at least she thought it did. Upon closer inspection it was a car cleaning place that was advertising a polish and buff!!! (thats Mum in the picture BTW)

This weeks video is a heartwarming story of a kid who against all odds turns into the unlikely hero. Jason McElwain is loved by his classmates and in the last basketball game of his senior year, his coach makes Jason's dream come true and throws him into the game even though he is medically classified as highly functioning autistic. The rest, well, Hollywood couldn't have scripted it any better….. watch for yourself.

http://goo.gl/O9sj0

See ya next week folks