I DID IT – 4 hours and 33 minutes

I did it, I ran the London Marathon and it was totally and utterly brilliant. OK , I know that I’m writing this 48 hours after the event but I’ve been saying it was brilliant even at the finish and yesterday too. A totally amazing experience, yes I hurt, but I’d do it again, no problem, even thought that when I finished. So here’s some of the story……………Blackheath, 8.30am Sunday, my friend Pat and her son Oliver dropped me off right on the heath, blue skies, sunshine. the event was really well organised, dropping my bag off on the baggage lorries without a queue was very civilised, not experienced that before, it’s usually a rare old fight.

Same with getting to my pen at the start. I was in number 7 along with Dave in the blue thong with lots of blue and white balloons tied to the back of them, fortunately he did have quite a nice body so looked quite good, but cold, and also I think with the giant pasty as someone behind me was yelling ‘oggy, oggy, oggy’ a lot. The oggy bit was great, although the person next to me did comment that ‘he wouldn’t make it to finish yelling that all the way!

Felt great until I got to 7 miles and the pain in my feet started up, I’d taken nurofen at the beginning hoping that it would stop the pain coming on and I should have waited until it started as it made no difference whatsoever. The it started raining, hard, temperature dropped and i wished I had my running jacket with me or that I hadn’t thrown away my bin liner at the start. I’d figured on my feet, my knee or my hips stopping me but hadn’t considered hypothermia.

Rain let up by mile 10 and I ran into (not literally) the Massai warriers. They were fantastic. They jingled as they ran and sounded like bells tinkling, the roar from the crowd as they approached was great, stuck with them for about half a mile just to take in the cheers and then left them to up my pace a little. Stuck to 9.30-10 minute miles as all the training stuff tells you that it’s the last 6 miles which count not the first so I held back and went steady.

Crossing Tower Bridge was fantastic, looking forward to Docklands to see Peter and the children but was dreading it a little as this was going to be the long slog. Got hugs at 16 miles and had loo stop at 19 miles, this added 7 minutes onto my time so my official time is 4 hours 40 mins but I stopped my Garmin whilst I waited so my Garmin time was 4 hours 33 mins. Then off again, more hugs at just over 19 miles then I would see everyone again at the finish.

At some point – can’t remember when exactly as it’s all bit of a fog I took more nurofen and they worked this time, pain went although at 20 miles my right hip started clicking and was getting worried about it popping out. Walked but this made it worse, was too nervous to try and stretch it in case it did pop out so just jogged very slowly and after about a mile it wore off and felt OK again.

Tower Bridge in sight, 22 mile marker, I went for it, got my second wind and all that training paid off. Found myself doing 8 minute miles at one point and slowed down a little. The heavens opened and it started hail stoning. the crowd were just amazing, coming down the embankment in horrible, heavy rain with so many people on each side of the road with umbrellas cheering loudly, I felt so honoured that they were still there in all that rain and it was cold too so it must have been really unpleasant for them.

Round St James’s Park and no sign of Peter and the children – Westminster tube had been closed due to congestion and they’d had to walk from Green Park and got to the finish area after I’d finished – no change there then as this is what usually happens at my races.

Crossed the finish line and felt like I could have gone further – the next challenge was the ramp to get my medal. Don’t the organisers realise that when you’ve run 26.2 miles that climbing a ramp is not a good idea! Obviously not. Got medal, got bag and eventually found Peter.

The worst bit of the whole experience was trying to get through the crowd to the meet area, not the runners, just all the friends coming to meet other people. When you’ve run 26.2 miles and are carrying a heavy rucksack plus your heavy goody bag all you want to do is keep moving as fast as possible, if you slow down you know you’re going to seize up, and get to your family. I went in meltdown mode and moved from ‘excuse me please’ to ‘move out of the @@@***&$ way NOW! very quickly, when you’re chilling off and about to fall over it doesn’t take much!!!

So, forced myself to eat something, got home and the advice was DO NOT TAKE A HOT BATH for 48 hours. The one thing I desperately wanted was a hot bath, the last thing I wanted to do was the one thing they said you should do – take an ice bath. Forget it, hot bath it was.

Monday morning – being upright is fine, sitting down is fine, moving from one position to the other either way isn’t. Upstairs is bad – going downstairs is very bad, relieved mildly by doing it on my bottom. I was ravenous, I don’t think I’ve eaten so much in one day before ever, even when I was pregnant, scary amount of food, absolutely starving all day. Also, my brain didn’t work at all, couldn’t do a an easy Su Doku, bit pathetic really. Good job I didn’t go into work, I would have been totally useless but would have given everyone else a good laugh. Went back to bed for 2 hours and felt a bit better – only after I’d eaten again.

Tuesday morning – legs a bit better, can go downstairs if I do it quickly to get the pain out of the way quicker. Went up to the woods with the dog and lots of children and this was fine apart from when Jasper pulled on the lead and I’d never realised how much you use your quads to hold a dog still – ouch! So, not eating so much today, but about to have large glass of wine cos I think I’ve earned it and chocolate before the diet starts tomorrow.