Off to Wembley

It’s been a fairly quiet week, with not too much happening - work and marathon training (including commuting to work with a rather bent pair of handlebars and only a rear brake). The weekend was fairly quiet with just the usual long ride on the Saturday morning and a long run on the Sunday morning. I got drowned on the ride as it started to bucket down after the first 20mins and didn’t stop til just before getting back home nearly 2hours later. The rest of the weekend was just a casual indoor affair while the wind and weather really didn’t give us much of an invite to go outdoors.

The week since has been relatively ‘normal’, but with a couple of bus rides while the bike got it’s new handlebars fitted. Must say I’m liking the folks at Condor Cycles, as they fixed up the cleat placement on my shoes when I picked up the bike too. The bars look swish too - nice yellow bar tape to match the seat and new front tyre! Kitch... Hipster... whatever you want to call it, it probably looks less appealing to any thief wanting to get themselves a nice looking singlespeed bike!

Tuesday, was a full day session of ‘ICE’ or Intense Customer Experience training with AXA. It lived up to it’s name for the last 2 and a bit hours. An amazing training course, complete with trained professional actors as the “customers”. An 8week scenario played out in 90mins, it was full on! I’ve never experienced or heard of anything quite like it before. It threw the usual ‘role-play’ stuff out the window and literally immersed you in the experience.

That night, it was time to be immersed in a different type of experience - White Hart Lane, Spurs v Arsenal in the Semi-final for the League Cup. This was my first ‘North London Derby’ and the atmosphere was awesome. When we got to the ground, we were just in time to see the police marching the Arsenal fans to the ground, and the abuse was flowing in both directions. Inside the ground all fans were in fine voice as the songs and chants were belted out with some serious passion.
Spurs hadn’t beaten Arsenal for nearly 9years, so when we scored in the 3rd minute of play the place erupted. When Arsenal scored an own goal 23minutes later (see pic) it was mayhem in the stands once again.
2-0 up at half time and most Spurs fans were pinching themselves. It was pinch-me time again 3mins into the second half as Spurs made it 3-0, and the “we’re going to Wembley” chants and songs kicked off in fine voice. The fourth goal was scored just as the game reached the hour mark as we got to wave goodbye those Arsenal fans who could take no more and started leaving.
A few minutes before the final whistle the fifth goal went in to make the final score 5-1. Yeah, Arsenal scored at some stage towards the end, but no one really cared or noticed to be honest. The below video doesn’t really do the scene justice, but it will give you a taste of towards the final 5mins.
Needless to say, the celebrations in the pub we went to after the game continued well into the night. An eight year streak of either losing or drawing to Arsenal was not just brought to an end, but done so in magnificent style in a most entertaining game.
Next stop will be Wembley Stadium for the League Cup final, so stay tuned for that one!

Don't forget: http://justgiving.com/aussierunner to support my London Marathon effort!