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| The green umpa lumpa |
London
well and truly delivered it was everything that people had told me about; the crowds
were fantastic loud, encouraging and kept you going at some points it was a little
too loud. What is surreal was that people
you didn't know calling out your name as if they were a long lost friend and in
that moment they were, so a BIG THANK you to the crowd support!!!
I was in the charity red start zone so after
walking to the blue start I bid farewell my fellow Trentham runner Andy Vickerman
and made my way to the park. It was on the entrance to the holding area my I made
one of my two school girl errors and tired the lady urinals the least said about
this the better but let’s say must practice more. On to my second school girl error
I hurried over the bag drop off I gave my bag and as I walked away I realised that
my gels were still in there with my lip balm oh well too late now. So now off to
the actual loos, to waste a good 20 minutes before heading off to my starting pen.
In the pen I soon started to make friends with
a lovely chap who was running for the Royal life boats, he was a veteran with 4
marathon under his belt it was nice to get chatting with someone to help settle
the nerves. The start was fast approaching and I needed another pit stop I couldn't believe it, fortunately just before you cross the starting mat there was soon loos
so I darted off for my last pit stop and rejoined the crowds surging over the starting
line and that was it we were of, filled with excitement and anticipation.
The race itself was simply a run; the BIG one
problem was about the crowds of runners which did slow me down in the beginning
however I was not too concerned as it helped to make sure I didn’t go off two quick.
However during the middle beaten 9-17 it was quite tiring trying to navigate around
making sure you didn't trip them or yourself up.
What was nice was that I saw a couple of friends
during the race, a couple of familiar local running club singlets which was nice
and finally couple of friends spectating; unfortunately I didn't get to see Sean
and Emily Vickerman I was looking really hard but it was really hard to make people
out (I think Trentham RC need a couple of flags to help spot our supporters). I
got really tired between 22-24milles but kept plugging away and was determined not
to walk, I knew by now that I wasn’t going to make sub 4 hours and Good For Age
time was a very distance pipe dream and tt was during these dark moments I was not
looking forward to running Edinburgh Marathon in 5 weeks, I was even considering
pulling out. From mile 24 I got my head down and decided
I was going to finish and finish as strong as I could and there is nothing better
than crossing that finish line.
I was completely shattered at the end of the
run but carried on walking through the finishing enclosure to pick up my goody
bag and my clothes bag; dug out my phone and rang Sean. Due to the power of
chip timing and the advent of the smart phone he already knew that I had finished
and were waiting for me to make my way to the meeting area. So I quicken my hobble
to get there faster but navigating around the hordes of finishers and their families
was quite difficult as changing direction was not that simple! But I got there and
it was great to catch up with how the rest of Team Trentham had done, although
after a quick photo there was no rest for the wicked next thing on everyone’s
mine was a celebratory drink and for same strange reason my legs got a
sudden burst of life and they were able to move a little quicker.
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| Janson, Greg, Dan, Andrew, Ryan and me in the centre |
In summary a great run and mixed emotions about
whether I will run another marathon again….ok I’m not fooling anyone……Edinburgh
here I come...sorry knees
