Well I'm still alive... just! What an experience, physically, mentally and spiritually. I have to say that London in the 20 degree sunshine is a truly beautiful and majestic place and the residents who live along the marathon route and the thousands who come to watch really show how accommodating, supportive and entertaining they can be. People open their homes to the runners and hand out sweets, food and carb drinks that they have bought with their own money. We are one and it makes you very proud.
The London Marathon experience is one slick operation. It's so well organized, from registration at the EXPO (no queues, in and out in 3 mins) to the pre-race bag drop, toilets, tannoys, marshalls, water stations, advice, instructions and build up that lasts until the starting gun. Then your standing-shuffling-walking then jogging and across the line you go.
For me it had to be about the experience and pretty much all the way through I kept telling myself this and trying to take it all in. After all I'd only had 6 weeks training and was still wearing my 6 year old beaten up cross-trainers so it was never going to be a record breaking time trial. So for the first 13 miles I held my pace whilst all those around me were overtaking. I can certainly see how easy it would be to get carried away with the whole day and set off too fast as you kind of get dragged along with everyone elses pace - something I was conscious not to do.
I was told that the "race" (if you can call it that from my perspective) is all about the second 13 miles and how true that was. I pretty much maintained my reasonable pace and found myself overtaking a lot of the runners who had so enthusiastically overtaken me at the beginning and all was going well until about 19 miles when my left knee popped and pretty much stopped me in my tracks. So I stopped, tried to bend my knees and stretch them out but the pain was excruciating. My quads felt like someone had stabbed me in both of them and my left knee felt in pieces. I was almost in tears.
I tried to walk but even that felt impossible. Fellow runners offered encouragement but the pain persisted. Fortunately I'd brought some pain killers with me so I popped two of them and walked for half a mile or so before feeling like I could carry on. When I started running again everything felt a lot better and only stopped again when I heard the shrieks of "SSSTTTTTUUUUUUUU!!!!!!" from my wife and her family - it was just the lift I needed. A quick kiss, and cuddle with Gem and Reece and I was off again.
The last few miles felt dragged out (every mile literally felt like 2) but I knew I was nearly there. 800m to go... 600m to go and then I hit the gas, especially when I saw some guy dressed as Pingu in front of me, sod that I thought and sprinted past him only to see two guys dressed as roman soldiers, nope I aint being beaten by them either so sprinted past them and crossed the finishing line, hands held high for the best photo finish I could muster.
After collecting my medal and bag I then hobbled the mile or so to our meeting place and finally slumped down on the ground, cuddled by a joyous Gem and Reece - perfection!!
Looking back there is so much to remember. When the "red" start meets up with the blue and green start it really is a sight to behold and despite the hot weather it gave me a shiver. The shivers like this came think and fast throughout; the crowds encouragement throughout but especially in the second half was priceless (com'on Stuey!!); the beauty of tower bridge and the crowds; the skyscrapers at canary wharf; the hundreds of street bands and parties; seeing Gem & Reece at 22 miles; the London Eye; Big Ben; thousands of supportive fellow runners; the Children with Leukaemia team; The Mall... My problem at the moment is I have vast patches which I can't remember but I have been told that they will come back. It's probably my mind and body's way of desperately trying to forget!
My closing thought on this whole experience is really summed up in the words of a sign that someone was holding near the end of the run yesterday, it said "The pain and agony is temporary, the glory and memories will last forever".
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