I was hoping to be putting this post up with several pictures of my exhausted, limp, red puffy faced body below, but it looks like I may have to wait a week or so to compile all those, so I'll post an account of the day for now and put those up when I get them! Thanks again to all for your donations and support, my total is now £1370.90 and still going up which is an amazing amount and could end up desperately close in the end.
Here's the rundown of the pain and the glory;
The day started quite early, I woke myself up at 6.45 so I could cram as much breakfast and drink in as possible, then we sat about waiting, ironically watching the start of the BBC marathon program thinking shouldn't we be there?! Thing is, we sat about a bit too much and realised not long after we left that we'd be late... ...me late?! After a bit of running around trying to find the appropriate lorry to put our belongings in and then our allocated start point we managed to make it with about 2mins to spare, doing our stretches as the crowd edged forward!!
It took so long to get going in the mass of people and was quite frustrating for the first 4 or so miles because you couldn't get in a rhythm, people would be cutting you up and you'd run into a group of people walking. Luckily we were ahead of the rhinos, teddy bears and that millipede though otherwise there might have been some good footage of me tripping them up to get through!! It was like that at various points throughout really, you'd spend most of the time weaving in and out of people running in S's to get a good length of running going, but every time the road narrowed, people would bottleneck and you'd be all but stopped in your track until it cleared. As such we were already well behind schedule by the 10k point. I suppose the best I can describe it is that it was like trying to run through 26.2miles of Oxford Street on a Saturday, that sums it up really!!
Obviously that's not what it's all about though, there were some crazy costumes and the effort some people had made on the touchlines was amazing!!! Those that spring to mind was a man running in a massive star, a 79yr old running with a zimmer frame and a pub that had made the entire front like a castle with everyone standing on the balcony dressed as St George / maidens!! The weather was perfect for runners but I'm guessing not great for those watching, they were all offering sweets though which is my idea of heaven, 26 miles of confectionary!!!!
We did see a few people in a bit of 'difficulty' along the way, including one being stretchered off and another having the attention of two ambulances!! Always reassuring!!!! It was quite apt that the route took us past a funeral parlour too, good for business I suppose!!! For the rest of us that didn't collapse it was just a permanent feeling of light-headedness / deliriousness from about the 18mile point so it was just something you were used too!! Couldn't really form sentences by the end either but then there's nothing new there!!
The toughest point for me was not long after we'd left Canary Wharf at about the 19 mile mark. I'd long had the knee problem and the aching feet by that point, but the heavy thighs were really kicking in then and I managed to gain a brand new aching hips complaint!!! I had to power walk for a bit but got going a few yards later and had found a new wind by the 21 mile mark!! I struggled again a couple of miles later but picked it up for the finish. Cramp was threatening towards the end too. I stopped to try and stretch it out just near Parliment right next to a 4yr old girl who just shouted "Come on Whizz-Kidz, come on whizz-kidz" infinitely!! After several acknowledges I decided to run off and get on with the cramp instead!!
It feels like a dream now!! Apart from the physical reminders!!!!!! That's that done though, below are my split and final times;
Position (Overall): 22998
Position (Gender): 17510
Position (Age group): 3424
KM10: 0:59:50
KM20: 2:00:38
HALF: 2:07:48
KM30: 3:12:22
KM40: 4:31:39
FINISH: 4:46:49
