The flight over to London from Cape Town was fine, although
neither of us slept. I find it
impossible to sleep on a plane. At
Heathrow, we stepped off the plane and realised how cold it was!
Then we met the lady representing the Sports Travel company, and we
waited for the others off the two flights, our flight from Cape Town and the
other one from Jo’burg. I went and
bought some breakfast, a roll each and a cup of coffee and an hour later, when
everyone had arrived, we were on the coach to the hotel opposite Hyde Park. It was still only about 10am so we all left
our baggage in a side room of the hotel where it would be stored until we
checked in later.
Then, we caught a tube and the DLR to the Excel Centre, on the
other side of London, to register for the marathon at the Expo. Although we had started as a group,
inevitably we all got split up on the tube, so went our separate ways. We duly registered, picked up my timing chip
and had a look around the Expo. We got
Steve’s gait analysed so that they could officially tell him he had rubbish
calves and knackered Achilles, and then went and got a bit of lunch before
struggling back to the hotel – the tube and DLR was very busy. I didn’t want to do any more walking for a
while, as I was beginning to get sore toes and, apart from being very tired, I
didn’t want to do any damage the day before the actual event.
After a cup of tea back in the hotel room, we had a rest and
then went out for a pasta meal. Luckily,
there was an Italian restaurant just up the road from the hotel, so we didn’t
have to go far. After eating a bowl of
lasagne and drinking a jug of water, we went back to the hotel in the rain and
had an early night.
The next day, Saturday, feeling a bit more awake, we spent
wandering around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and a bit of London. It was sunny, but cold – lovely in the
sunshine, but not so good when the clouds gathered. We bought some sandwiches so I could continue
to carbo load(!) and a few other bits and pieces, and went back to the
hotel. We were due to meet Taz and Nick,
and Russell and Sarah and the girls later so we had a bit of a rest to prepare
ourselves! We had the address of the
apartment they were staying at, so we made our way towards it.
We got off the tube at Liverpool Street and started walking
in the general direction of the apartment.
As it happened, after Taz had called us, we met up with her, and Sarah,
who were only a few minutes away, and who were out to buy some food for the
weekend. After buying enough food to
feed an army, we all walked around the corner to the apartment with it. I was eating pasta with water, while the
others ate Chinese takeaway with wine!
We left about 9pm. I didn’t want
to be too late back because I hadn’t prepared my stuff for the marathon yet and
didn’t want to be in bed too late either.
I eventually climbed into bed at about 11.30pm after a rainy trip back!
Steve’s alarm was set for 5.30am, and that is when I got up. I put some clothes on and ate my
porridge! The bus was coming to collect
us at 7am and we had to meet downstairs in the foyer at about 6.45, so I
finished getting myself ready and started to look forward to it. It was a bright sunny morning, although very
cold. After some group photos, we all
climbed on the bus and eventually arrived at Greenwich about an hour
later. We trooped off to the Blue start
area, which was my start, about 10 minutes’ walk away. A photo was taken of each runner as they
entered the Start field and I wandered around to the Changing tent to sort
myself out. After that, I found a space
to sit and eat my ‘picnic’- or second breakfast. I noticed that the queues for the loos were
about 5kms long(!), so I thought I’d better go and stand in one. When you’re in a loo queue for a long time,
you tend to make friends with the people either side of you, which helped to
pass the time. Both ladies were running
their first marathon and they were also both raising money for charity.
I eventually reached the front of the queue (I think it took
about 30 minutes, which made the visit worthwhile by the time I did get to the
front) and then I took my tog bag across to the relevant baggage truck. After that, I walked across to the pens. I was in Pen 9, along with thousands of
others, and passed the other pens, all massively full, along the way. I don’t think I have ever seen so many people
all standing together before! It was
quite chilly standing there and I was glad I had on an old sweatshirt, which I
was going to discard once I had started the race. We stood there, en mass, until about 10am (I
think) – difficult to work out as I didn’t have a watch on me (only the garmin)
and I’m not sure that the church clock nearby was showing the right time. Eventually, we were off, and started walking
forwards. We walked for what seemed like
ages, until we got to the Start line, probably some 10 minutes later, and I set
my Garmin to run from there. We
eventually, were able to move off a little faster and I started plodding.
I tried to keep my pace down. It was very easy to tear off, along with
everyone else, and I knew I shouldn’t be doing that. We moved across the fields at Greenwich, then
on to the road and through the first village.
What an experience that was! It was so overwhelming. I’ve never seen so
many people. They were on both sides of
the road. All ages from babies and small
children, to Grannies and Grandads.
I have never had so much support – people cheering us on,
calling out our names, all the way along.
They were having parties and picnics at the side of the road, offering
the runners food, and some even had brought chairs and seating out to watch in
comfort. And the South African
representation was amazing too. All the
way along.
I managed to run for 16 miles without walking at all, and
felt quite good. However, in Canary
Wharf, it was very narrow and became quite congested with so many people
walking. It was hard to keep running and
moving around people and I started walking in small bits until I could get around
them. Then my legs started to hurt. Don’t know why they hurt, but that did make
me slow down. The weather had been
bright and sunny until then too, and it got very warm, but then it became
rather windy. The clouds were beginning
to gather too. I kept going for the next
few miles, but was quite disappointed that I hadn’t seen Steve & Co at any
of the viewpoints they had said they would be at. It would have been a bit more of an incentive
to keep going for longer if I had seen them, and I found I was slowing because
they weren’t around. It transpired later that they had been around but not
where I thought they would be. Grrr! Still, I did see two people I know, Lara and
Richeldis. They where they said they
would be, and it really was great to see them.
At around Miles 23/24, it started getting very windy and started
raining. It got heavier and there was
even hail mixed in it for a while.
Cold! I started to get really
cold. I focused on what I was supposed
to be doing, and barely noticed the crowds shouting at that point. I had to keep going.
Eventually, I saw Big Ben and, very slowly, it got closer and closer,
and we turned right, and then ran down along the Mall. Very cold.
Very damp. Nearly finished. Finish line came up closer and I got across
it and switched off the Garmin. Phew!
Hooray!
It was quite hard to walk after ‘running’ for that length of
time but my chip was taken off my shoe and I was handed my medal and goodie
bag, and I collected my tog bag. Then I
went to find Steve and anyone else who was still around. After struggling to get my phone out of my
tog bag, a very kind couple who were passing helped me hold my foil blanket
together around my shoulders so I could find the phone and not get cold. Luckily,
after struggling to make a call, I saw Taz walking towards me, followed by
Steve.
The hardest bit was trying to get down all the steps to the
tube, but I did it slowly and we eventually got back to the hotel. After a cold soak in the bath (eek) with a cup
of tea and some biscuits, I caught a taxi with Steve and Taz to the apartment
and we had a take-away meal with the others to celebrate.
The next day we checked out of the hotel and were driven
down to Somerset by Taz, where we met everyone else when we arrived. We were staying in a beautiful, big old house
with Sam W, John, Finn, Russell, Sarah, Leila, Bethany, Taz, Nick J, Nick G,
Amy, William, Jack and Sam P. Oh, and
Sam P’s ‘girlfriend’, a huge teddy bear!
Thursday is my birthday, and I have had a lovely body
massage, which has helped stretch everything out again. Very nice and relaxing. And lots of birthday cards and presents. It has been a lovely week and thank you to
everyone for making it so special. Also,
thanks to everyone who has helped me raise so much for Alzheimer’s Research,
and for putting up with me during my training.
And a very special, THANK YOU, to Steve, who has borne the
brunt of it for the last few years, since I started this ‘project’. I know I’m not always the nicest person in
the world at times, and get stressed when, maybe I shouldn’t, but you have put
up with me, and I achieved my aim.
Thank you everyone. I
now have to close this blog as it has come to an end. I wonder what my next project will be?
p.s. Totally forgot to put my time in of 6hr 1min!
p.s. Totally forgot to put my time in of 6hr 1min!
