Story
The Albany Massive are running the Bath Half Marathon 2010 for the Haiti Hospital Appeal.
The Haiti Hospital Appeal is a Christian Organisation involved in providing life saving care to some of the world’s most desperate and at risk people. We have a heart for justice and equality, and seek in all we do to provide the people we help with the highest level of love, care and compassion we can. We’re passionate about standing against the injustice of poverty, as we seek to bring hope to life. Currently we have a Health Centre, 4x4 Ambulance Service, Children’s Home, and Hospital Building Project. Each week through the generous support of our donors lives are being changed, communities transformed, and families saved. We hope through our web-
As everybody knows, Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake. This is our bit to help the aid efforts, inspired by that 7-year-old who rode his bike!
We are also running in memory of KJ who died last year. He would of been proud of our efforts, especially Tapesh's, ensuring we knew all there is know about the Half Marathon. He would also let us know all our "school boy" errors. Legend!
Albany Old Boys Vs. Albany New Boys
The Albany Old Boys are Luke Dillon and Cong San. The Albany New Boys are Nathan Baines and Tapesh Patel.
With a wealth of knowledge (they've both graduated) and years of combined running experience, the Old Boys are fully expected to "run" away with victory. However, with youthfulness, damn good looks (mainly from Tapesh) and a degree of naivety, the New Boys will not go down without a fight. They also have a complete home advantage (they both currently reside in Bath) compared to the Old Boys partial home advantage (Luke lives in Bath, Cong lives in London), which could prove vital in the final stages where Cong may get homesick and decide to sit down and cry.
This is your chance to place your bets on who will win and in the process win yourself some... pride and happiness - the greatest prize of all.
During many Pro Evo sessions, Mark Lawrenson took some time out of his busy schedule to offer his words of wisdom.
"Treat the floor like a friend" and "I often say 'He's getting tired!' - don't get tired."
Esteemed Mathematics lecture, Professor Victor A. Galaktionov, was asked to comment on Tapesh's chances of winning:
"Okay"
Individual Profiles
Nathan Baines
Nathan was born and bred in the mean streets of Norbury, South London. Consequently, he has a natural instinct to run. A standard training session involves running down to him local crack den and then differentiating between the products (by the product rule obviously) on offer. This results in general anger and a releasing of the dogs specially trained by hanging off tree branches.
When Nathan is not eating fried chicken from Dallas, he is eating fried chicken from Morleys. When he fanices a special treat, he digs deep and goes to KFC. He always keeps it real.
Odds: 4-1 - mentally very strong; could prove vital in the closing stages.
Luke Dillon
Luke was born in the spiffing city of Oxford. Due to the ingenious road layout in Oxford, Luke has opted to walk everywhere. He walked like a cowboy which was well received. But Luke likes to live life in the fast lane - his car has speed stripes! As a result, he started to run. And run. He can often be found lying on the floor with 10Kg+ weights in each hand. What he does with them, no one knows. He was deemed too good for Oxford University and hence decided to mix with the elite at the University of Bath.
Luke is the only one of the massive who has actually been to the First Bridge.
Trumpets!
Odds: 2-1 - a good, solid runner in his native country; worth a cheeky punt!?!?
Tapesh Patel
Tapesh is an alcoholic from Warsaw. He comes here, steals our house, steals our women and takes our runs. A typical training session often involves a lot of fluids resulting in general merriment and eventually a gentle stroll home motivated by the hatred of paying for stuff... and taxis!
Everybody loves Tapesh. Everybody. Except the French.
Odds: 10-1 - an unknown quantity over any distance; you'll have to see which Tapesh turns up on the day.
Cong San
Cong lives in a council flat, which looks better at night, in the crap part of Clapham. Since graduating, he has found a job with amazing benefits and flexible hours - sitting at home! Sometimes, he sells DVDs - "£5!". However, since the big media companies have decided to cut their price whilst maintaining the authenticity of the product, business has been bad. Consequently, he has found lots of time to run.
Cong can be found waiting at your local Job Centre Plus.
Odds: 1-1 (fav) - has previous experience which gives him the edge.
Place your bets now!