Well that truly was a marathon - six hours and twenty five minutes of pain and pleasure (mostly pain at the time but in retrospect seems quite pleasurable now - the brain is a very strange thing or maybe it's just not working very well having been bounced around for such a long time). Even with the long queues for the loos, I would only have been about ten minutes faster, but my main objective was to get round. I shan't be aiming to better this time as I will never be doing one of these again! You have permission to shoot me should I even start to talk about it.
The crowds were great, the runners mad and the weather typically English - boiling hot to start with then cold, windy and wet. There was always something to keep your spirits up - jazz bands, pipe bands, drum groups and pub PA systems playing encouraging music, a whole raft of fancy dress outfits - a lady on stilts, someone dressed up as Borat (he must have been freezing, although he was wearing a pair of y-fronts under his thong), a pack of rhinos and a lot of men dressed as women for some reason. Wonderful people handing out jelly babies and other goodies and everyone shouting Go Jo Go. Never have I seen such an amazing amount of litter as 35,000 people plus chucked water bottles, banana skins (had to watch out for those) and sundry other detritus as they ran round some rather drab bits of London, but some spectacular ones too - I can finally say that I have been to Canary Wharf - next time I will go by train!
I came 33,290 out of 34,420 (I'm sure I passed more than a thousand people as I did actually do quite a lot of running towards the end - it hurt as much to walk as it did to run, so why prolong the agony?!). I came in 1,050 in my age group which sounds a little more impressive. Buster (allegedly aged 101 but actually a mere 94) did it in 10 hours - I think he has an age group all of his own.
A huge thank you to all of you who have donated money, time and put up with me over the past few months - and big thanks to Faith and Jill for being there at the 18 mile mark, to Nick and the Busvine girls at 25 miles and to all of you who were there in spirit. I would also like to thank Kat and the whole team at the Haven who did a stupendous job and to the Middle East Association (Carol and Jacqui in partciluar) for opening up the office on a Sunday for the post race party (and wonderful massage).
I have quite a few promises of money to collect still, so should make my target of £10,000 which will include a contribution from my company (probably at the expense of my long awaited bonus - but what the heck).
Many many thanks
Jo
