Jimmy, the London Marathon and a whole load of pain

Well it was slightly overcast which was a nice surprise, with a small shower just before the start but still a pretty humid day. Dave and I wished each other the best and we set of to our start zones.

Passing under the start line a wall of men having a wee against the gorse bushes was my main view for about the first mile then we went settled into a good pace and headed into large cheering crowds straight away.

It was amazing to have so much support and already felt like it made a difference with kids and grannies all cheering along, people having bbq’s, live music and bands on the roadside etc.. Even got flashed by some chick on a balcony at about mile 6, awesome!. I was looking out for Anna, Dan, Sarah and others over at mile 12 and when running up to tower bridge it was an awesome feeling as massive crowds and lots of cheers and a real lift to see mates out supporting us. Pushing on to halfway I saw the elite athletes heading back on the other side of the road already at mile 22, it was unbelievable to see them and how quick they pace was at around 5 min miles (mental!).

Reaching 15miles I saw Nay and other mates, parents etc. Great feeling again and knowing that in only 3m I would see them again over at canary wharf. They were well positioned on a corner so I could break out the crowd to do a quick flyby with lots of cheering.

19miles, now I started hurting!. Not the pains I had had in training and maybe in hindsight a signal to hydrate and eat. My quads felt like they were about to explode and I pushed on through it until about 22m where I felt like I had a second wind. I felt light and energised and started to change gear and speed up thinking I could make up some time, maybe a little too quick!. When I hit 25m my fingers went tingly and numb & I was starting to drift left and right a bit as running completely on empty. I slowed to try to recover but ended up stopping to be ill. At that point I felt like I had been on a 12hr drinking session and felt so drunk I could hardly walk or balance very well. Two marshals gave me a seat and made me rest where as I wanted to finish asap as 6oom from the line. I missed out on my target time of 3hr 50min due to this and ended up taking about 25mins to do those last 600m which I was gutted about but at least I finished and got the medal!! I eventually wobbled over in 4hr 13min. Amazing event and very enjoyable in a weird way!!

Jimmy

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