I don't want to dwell too much on the tragic circumstances that occurred at Boston. I was out with a group of people from work on Monday evening celebrating what would have been a 40th birthday of a friend and colleague who passed away suddenly last year. I then saw the Newsflash. Thoughts were immediately of a PWR who was running the marathon. The beauty of technology and social media meant that word quickly spread that he was fine. My thoughts are with those who have suffered as result of the mindless attack.
I ran Parkrun on Saturday morning in beautiful weather and a 30 second silence as a mark of respect was impeccably observed by the 350+ people there.
In some ways the London Marathon being only 6 days after the Boston was the perfect tonic for Marathon runners and society to unite and show that acts of terrorism cannot and will not break the human spirit!
In the build up to the Marathon, I must admit I have been envious of those who were running, but I have also enjoyed sharing other people's excitement and expectation and it was also nice to help a couple of mates with their training.
Sunday morning, I awoke to another glorious morning and to be honest, it was actually quite nice having a relaxed morning getting ready to go up to London but without the pre-race nerves.
Myself Mich and Max met up with a group of PWRs on a train just before 10am. By 10:45 we were situated at our vantage point just past the 12 mile marker. Walking to our rendezvous point, you could already sense the feel good factor in the air as we witnessed a young lad sitting on a police motorbike having his picture taken with a police hat on and being shown how to turn the flashing lights on by the Police officer.
Our vantage point had everything you could want. It was in the sunshine, we had a band a few hundred yards away playing good old classics you could sing along to, my favourite (as it is my karaoke song) being Sweet Caroline. There was a pub only 50 metres away (important for our hydration) and we were just past a water stop (important for the runners hydration) which meant we had the bonus of people slowing down slightly to collect water giving us a better chance to see them and start shouting and waving manically.
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| Our 12 mile spot (note PWR vest on the pole ready to be held aloft) |
We were fortunate enough to see the Paralympians run past including Richard Whithead and also got a glimpse of Mo Farah flash past with the leading Elite group. Flash being the operative word.
Now excuse me while I digress, but I looked at Mo's stats on the London Marathon website and I saw that he was averaging over 20km/h. So I am going to conduct a little experiment this week. After a warm up, I am going to increase the speed on the treadmill to 20km/h and see how long I can maintain it for. I will update you in my next blog.
Anyway, a couple who we were with (Brian & Susie), we actually knew before we found out that Brian was a PWR. Brian is not a bad runner (sic) with a sub 3:20 Marathon PB. Susie actually admitted that as the throngs of runner streamed past that she had never really seen this part of a Marathon as she had normally moved on to try and ensure she could get to the next point to try and see Brian again. Mich on the other hand was used to seeing this many runners waiting for me to trundle past.
The atmosphere was superb and it was so inspiring to see people all shapes, sizes and ages running past. We managed to see quite a few PWRs and I also managed to see a couple of people from work and also one of my mates who I had been running with at lunchtimes. It was quite difficult trying to keep an eye out for people amongst the constantly moving kaleidoscope of colours, spotting them, shouting, screaming & waving and then trying to get a picture, as the picture of my mate Kirbs demonstrates.
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| Kirbs looking good |
Max was evidently enjoying himself and liked pointing out all of the weird and wonderful characters. He seemed to particularly like the two Peppa Pigs, the countless Rhinos and the assortment of different Mr Men characters that he saw. He was very vocal also, even if sometime he was only copying what either myself or Mich was shouting, but by the time he repeated our shout of encouragement, more often than not the person had already ran past. But I have to award him 10/10 for enthusiasm, despite his timing being about as good as my photography timing ;-)
We wanted to wait at the 12 mile mark until one of the PWR Group 1 runners (Donna) had run past and there was an explosion of noise from our group when we saw her. She was running and she was smiling which was encouraging. Once Donna had run past, the PWR supporting group split. Myself Mich & Max, along with Brian, Susie and their 2 boys and Jo another PWR made our way over Tower Bridge to find a spot near the 23 mile mark.
As we were walking across Tower Bridge a runner came past carrying a surf board, I commented that he was mad and his response was "Never bet when you are drunk"
I was surprised to find the 23 mile mark to start with extremely busy, especially compared to 2 years ago. I think that it was a combination of the nice weather and also a show of solidarity by the British public.
It is at this point where you really get to see what the Marathon for what I reckon 90% of runners is all about. Pain, true grit and determination. This is not to detract from the effort and no doubt pain that the elite athletes may suffer, but they are conditioned for it. Max was insistent on trying to get high fives and did get a bit upset that his offered hand was quite often ignored. How do you explain to a 3 year old that these folk have been on their feet for 4 hours plus, are shattered and either don't have the energy or just completely focused on getting to the end.
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| Max hoping for a High Five |
I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see everybody I wanted too, but with the number of runners, that was always going to be inevitable. But I am sure I speak for our little group that we were all delighted to see Donna again and she was still smiling!
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| Inspirational Donna |
Mich admitted that the atmosphere is intoxicating and it makes her want to run the Marathon, although first on the agenda is a 10k. 26.2 miles might be a couple of years away.
All in all a fantastic and uplifting day. My blog probably doesn't do the day justice so if you have never spent the day at the London Marathon, put it on your 'To Do' list, in fact, put it on your 'Must Do' list. You won't regret it.
Incidentally, Kirbs finished in 4:24 and Donna finished in 7:03. I just want to say a massive well done to everybody I know who completed the Marathon, apologies that you have not all been mentioned in the blog, but I know that your family and friends will all be very proud.
So 29th April is when the ballot for the 2014 London Marathon opens I believe, I have a reminder set in my calendar!
Until next time
TJH
P.S. Donna is a fellow Blogger, and her blog can be found HERE
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