And now a short message for my sponsors – thank you very much! I hit my £1,500 target with £500 from Credit Suisse, £184 from a cake sale (thanks, bakers!), more from a work jeans day, and around £800 on the justgiving sites. In return I burnt 4,700 calories, lost 2cm in height, and ran 40,000 strides on the day, and around 150 miles in training for you!
The final preparation went perfectly – plenty of pasta, rest and fluids. The day started well and it was a beautiful day. I was pretty hopeful for my target of 4h 10m – 4h 20m. At 9:45 the gun went, and I crossed the start around ten minutes later. Everything was going well, my first mile was bang on time around 9m 30s, and I was still confident. But five minutes later all my hopes were dashed when I was overtaken by a bright yellow sperm.
Slightly disheartened, I pressed on nevertheless, and the first twelve miles flew by. Music all along the route (reggae in Deptford, trance in Woolwich, jazz in Greenwich, Korean temple drummers under the A2) and Morris dancers outside Surrey Quays MacDonalds) and people giving me jelly babies everywhere. I got annointed with Holy Water by priests and vicars as I ran past their churches (it didn’t help, confirming my suspicions), and saw Pip & Laurie by our house.
Jamaica Road was the best stretch, with amazing support. Getting to Canary Wharf and I was starting to feel my legs, but I led an Oggy Oggy Oggy in the underground roundabout at Westferry to get my juices flowing. The Isle of Dogs was the hardest, around miles 14-19, and I slipped my times as I slowed down and got overtaken by the ten-minute-miling pacer. The crowds were the thinnest here and the end seemed a long long way away.
Back through Canary Wharf and the twenty mile marker was a huge boost. The long final straight from Poplar all the way down to the Embankment and Westminster was pretty easy and I got faster and faster along here. I saw Pip again, and the crowds were getting thicker and louder all the way. A lady running next to me was sick on my leg but neither of us stopped. By now I was several minutes off 4h 20m, but was determined to come in under 4h 30m. Unfortunately I was running amongst a lot of walkers by now, and people were literally collapsing around me, so even with a real sprint for the last mile I couldn’t quite beat the clock. My final time was 4h 31m 35s, which is disappointingly close to the 4h 37m in which I did the much hillier (but quieter and cooler) Loch Ness Marathon.
When I finally found the SIA reception after at least a mile of very stiff walking, I got a round of applause, then straight into the massage room where three osteopaths went to town on me for 40 minutes.
Then on to the pub to end my week of abstinence, and the next day I felt fine, so I cycled in to work!
Luckily the ballot for the 2010 London Marathon is already closed I hear!