Coronary heart disease is now seen to be the 's biggest killer and Action Heart are dedicated to the primary and secondary prevention of this condition. I am now personally involved with Action Heart through their running facilities and see first hand the dedication of their team of workers and volunteers.   

Do please help me to support them and make my tribute to my Dads memory a proud one.  Please dig deep, rather than spend your money on a few extra pints or that pair of shoes you don't really need please find it in your heart to donate, there is nothing more important than ensuring we all have more time on this earth with our loved ones.
  

A big big thankyou for reading my page and supporting me with this tribute to a wonderful loving man.

Kerrie

x

I DID IT!!!!!!!  big huge smile

I completed the 30th London Marathon on Sunday in a time of 4 hours 13 minutes and I'm chuffed to bits.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and kind and generous sponsorship, I will update this site within the next few days with photos and details of the day.  Whenever I had a tough moment (and there were lots!), then I thought of Dad and pictured him cheering me on, I also thought of my Mom and sis and wonderful family and friends who were there supporting me, and of course Nigel who was there encouraging me at every point possible along the journey from training to finish line.

Well what can I say –except what an experience!!!

A rollercoaster of emotions…..apprehension, exhilaration, pain, doubt, complete and utter exhaustion, then joy however above all the deepest emotion was pride.

The day started with glorious sunshine, my position at the start of the race was at the Red start, its not widely known however there are three starting points, the TV cameras are carefully positioned so that it looks as though you all start together, however there are three starts.

There is the green start for the celebs – which includes marquees – no doubt they are all having their pre-race massages!  The Blue start for the Elite, the club runners and those who have managed to secure a ballot place (so basically that’s the start for those who attempt to run a good time) and then there is the Red start.

I was in the Red start, that’s the start for those of us who have been lucky enough to gain a charity place – so basically it’s the start for the camels, the rhinos, the giraffes etc more like a zoo than the start of a race!  But I was very very happy to be there.

By the time the start came it was raining, the absolute perfect weather for me, if I could pick the best weather for running it would be drizzle, I was very emotional at that point as I felt that my Dad had sorted the weather just for me. 

When I lined up in my starting pen I didn’t know another soul, I was surrounded by lots of very nervous but smiley faces, all bobbing up and down on the spot trying to keep warm with the rain and looking on with anticipation of the siren going off, the guy to the right of me could obviously see how nervous I was and he asked me if it was my first!  I had been told that a marathon was the closest emotion there is to childbirth and at that point I was just about to go into labour!  It was just what I needed having someone to chat to for a couple of minutes to allay my nerves and make me feel like I wasn’t alone, I then heard the siren and we were off!!!!!!.

I’m sure you all spotted me on the TV when I crossed the start line didn’t you?   I wasn’t that difficult to spot, there were only about 37,000 runners and only a few thousand in bright luminous yellow vest tops – so I’m sure you all managed to pick me out!

It was a fabulous experience, lots of colour, lots of charity vests with very poignant messages on them, lots of cheers from the runners and I can’t explain the emotion.

So off we went, I turned the first corner and there was Nige, never to let me down, he was there the first friendly face of the race and he was cheering and shouting, emotion at that point is indescribable – you know you are running but you don’t really feel your legs touching the floor – I could have been running on a cloud.  For the first 8 miles I was loving it, the pace was good, the crowds were fantastic, lots of music and cheers I was looking around and enjoying the buzz.  The London crowds were amazing, the kids were high-fiving, there were old and young lining the streets, giving out sweets, pieces of fruit and holding up huge banners – it was more like a carnival than a running race it was incredible.  I remember vividly passing by a pub with what seemed to be about 30 people all dressed as pirates!  They looked fantastic and were cheering very loudly whilst holding up their tankards of beer, I think that may have been around the Cutty Sark area however it’s bizarre because I can honestly say I missed most of the landmarks!   I don’t remember running past the cutty sark (albeit it was boarded over, so I might let myself off that one!), I don’t remember seeing the gherkin or canary wharf or the London eye, something tells me I might have been concentrating on my feet!  Or was I just fixed on the leprechaun who seemed to be running the side of me for at least half of the race, I think it’s when the leprechaun left me that I started to feel it! What vividly sticks in my mind is I remembered being told that when I cross then that would be an absolute highlight, it would be so emotional and I would be overjoyed, I would know I was almost at the halfway point.

……… Well I do remember albeit my memory of it is a little different, it was at that point I started to hurt, I remember thinking I hate this bloody bridge and I can’t wait to get to the other side and finish this race!  If any TV cameras interview me then I will tell them to bugger off and please don’t anyone spot me at this point cos I look and feel awful!  And of course that’s where the first of my supporters were! 

Bless them Kerry and Bev, they were the other side of tower bridge and despite the huge and very loud cheers of strangers, wonderful well wishers shouting “come on Kerrie” I heard Bev – if it was possible for someone to shout the loudest then that was Bev!  It was the boost I needed at the time and with big smiles and a more positive attitude I ran on.

I started to hurt quite early on, which was not what I’d expected as all of my long training runs had gone really well and as I’d built up my mileage I hadn’t really got fatigued until in the last couple of miles of my long runs.   I don’t think however, that any amount of training can prepare you for the experience.  I’d hardly slept the two nights prior to the marathon and I think the whole mental drain of the experience was something that no amount of training can prepare you for.  I felt physically sick at one point and just had in my mind no way am I going to quit, I’m doing this for my Dad, my mom and sister had made the journey and were in the crowd and so many people had supported me that dropping out was never going to be an option. 

The miles seemed to start to just pass by, I have no idea what I was thinking or where I was as I seemed to drift into some sort of nothing, all I can remember is feeling so very very tired.

I still had the feeling of sickness, I don’t know if that was physical or mental, I had seen quite a few people passed out by the side of the road and had decided to lower my pace a little, disappointing for me as I knew I wasn’t as fast as in training but I just couldn’t explain how I felt or understand it, my legs felt very very heavy and I was fighting with myself mentally, once again I had a moment of uplift, John who was a fellow Action heart club runner passed me at that point, he is our clubs fastest runner and he started to run beside me, checking how I felt, he offered to run with me which as I know he was aiming for a good time I thought was a wonderful sacrifice for him to offer to make – “no you go for it John” I remember saying and he was off, once again though it lifted me for a while.  I think then I just dug in and started to look out for the drink stations – the sun had come out and the humidity was making the drinks stations seem like oasis’s!  It seemed so very hot, the buildings were high holding the heat in and when you are running next to lots of hot and sweaty bodies then that water is a wonderful sight! 

I can remember thinking how parched I was and yet at the same time I had been given numerous warnings about not drinking too much – apparently it is more dangerous to drink too much than it is drink to drink too little!  Sometimes I think a little knowledge is dangerous and your mind plays tricks on you, ‘should I drink, or shouldn’t I drink, little worries start creeping in and you start to doubt your actions’.

Once again I seem to have either blurred out the next part of the run but I remember reaching the 20 mile point and knowing that somewhere between 20 and 26 would be looking out for me in the crowd my Mom, my sister and my very good friend Juliet.  My concentration at that point was looking for them in the crowd, I had told them prior to the run that I wouldn’t be able to look for them but I would just be concentrating on my running but at that point I so badly wanted to see a smiley friendly face and also it gave me something other than how I was feeling to focus on.   I had gotten a little tired of everyone shouting Kerrie, I know that sounds so very ungrateful and so very strange but I kept thinking you don’t know me, I want someone who knows and cares about me shouting my name!   Rational thoughts when you are running that sort of distance are just not a feature! 

I would like now to say thank you for all of the supporters who did shout my name, albeit I had times whereby I hated it, there were other moments towards the end whereby it helped me immensely and to each and every member of the crowd who stood there for hours on end and who had prepared fruit, drinks and sweets for the marathon runners then I would like to say a huge big thanks…it’s the goodwill of all those people that help to make the London marathon the best marathon experience in the world.

It was at about mile 22/23 that I saw my Mom, sis and Juliet, all I could hear in a mega excited shriek was “Kerrie, Kerrie, Kerrie, Kerrie, Kerrie, Kerrie”!!!  It was my name over and over again in the same voice and I so very knew that voice!!!  I had lived with that voice and had known it for 37 years!   Jenny was shouting and jumping up and down, apparently she had been driving Mom bonkers for the previous 10 minutes saying “where is she, she should be here by now, we haven’t missed her, is she ok, she should be here now, what’s the time”!!!  I was jumping up and down myself skipping and waving and cheering back, My Mom was beaming, my sister was beaming, Juliet was beaming and I was beaming! 

Apparently they had all commented how great I looked, “fresh as a daisy” my sister said, little did they realised that underneath I felt like pants, I had been continually tipping water over myself and prior to seeing them I had been pulling the most awful face of agony!

So that was mile 22/23, then came mile 24 and there was Nigel again, just where I needed him, he’d been at the start and he was almost at the end.  He was there with the rest of the action heart supporters and it was perfect timing, I had no idea how long was left, I had somehow not spotted all of the mile markers and with the crowd being so loud the beeps on my watch were being lost in the noise.

I had counted down every mile in my training but the marathon miles just seemed to blur, well If I’d missed spotting the gherkin and the London eye there was no way I was gonna spot a marker across the top of the road!

Towards the last few miles of the marathon I remember going through a tunnel, gosh that was such a life saver!  It was closed to everyone except marathon runners, there were no supporters allowed in it and it was like a little oasis!  It was cool, it was dark and it was fantastic!  There were so many runners having a breather, stretching out on the sides and walking!  The pressure and the noise just seemed to disappear for a few hundred metres and it was bliss!   It allowed us all time to re-focus, re-think and re-vitalise those batteries before the sun shone through and we were out there again.

Once out of the tunnel the next part I remember is seeing Big Ben and then I remember a very long straight road which seemed to have no end, that would have been Birdcage Walk, the road leading up to Buckingham Palace, I’d dreamt of this moment and I knew at that point that I was nearly there, I remember slowing down considerably and someone in the crowd saying come on Kerrie – don’t give up now.  Bless them, giving up was the farthest thing from my mind at that point and I think I was physically having a breather and preparing myself for that point when I turned the corner into the mall and saw the finish line.

I had been told that the last few hundred metres was the longest and they were right!  I turned into the mall and remember the tannoy system shouting for the celebrity  Russell Howard, I had no idea who he was however I remember thinking if only I could run a little faster then I could finish next to him!  My mind was willing but my legs were going Kerrie pace!  Remember the tortoise and hare story?  Well I was definitely the tortoise!

I remember then pushing Russell Howard out of my mind and seeing that finish, gosh it was a glorious sight, red and big and wonderful!  I filled up but held it back, all of those months and months of training and stressing were at an end and there I was, I crossed the line, legs were like jelly but still moving and the medal was placed over my head, a lovely lady looked into my eyes and said with a huge smile “well done”!  She had obviously said that to so many others that day and would say it again to so many more but for that split second it was me she was congratulating, little old me, who would have though I could have achieved it and I was so so proud – I did do it, and I was proud!

I was proud to be there in my Dads memory, achieving what I considered to be a momentous occasion in my life, proud to have my Mom and my sister cheering me on screaming at the top of their voices, proud to have Nigel seeing me through following his support during my training and his face when I met up with him at the end and held up my medal.

I would like to say once again thanks all for supporting me, encouraging me, parting with your money, the wonderful wishes I have had and the cards and messages of support.

Above all though I would like to thank my Dad, the belief he’d always had in me enabled me to do this, there were moments throughout the run that I so longed for him to be there, I so missed his support and I felt so very lonely without him, throughout my life he had always been there cheering me on,  losing a parent is so very difficult to come to terms with but I hold onto the thought that a part of him lives on in me, in my determination to succeed and on Sunday the 25 of April 2010 I ran the London Marathon, I am proud and I did succeed.

Thanks Dad