Well I ache this morning but I’m pretty happy. I’m going to start at the beginning....... which was waking up at 5.30am, getting into my
kit and forcing my muesli down. Paul
(Deirdre’s husband) gave us and his brother Ian a lift to the station, where
we met Stacey and Oliver, and we got the train to Waterloo. We walked over to Waterloo East and got the
train to Blackheath. From there we
walked to the start. We got there at
about 8.45-ish and we queued for the loo (twice), put our bags on the lorries
and lined up in our start pen. We were
in pen 9 – the back! I probably shouldn't, but I have to tell you that Deirdre tried out the female urinals. She regretted not trying the she-pee the last time and was determined to. I didn't! I didn't want to start the race with a wet leg or worse a soggy shoe but she did it and ticked it off of her bucket list (brave lady) and no, she didn't have a soggy shoe or wet leg!
It took us about 15 minutes to cross the start line but it
was amazing from the start. There were
loads of people, bands, music and runners.
It was hot, hot, hot from the word go.
Some parts along the route got a little bit quiet – like between 8 and
10 miles and the going got a bit tough.
It was a nice relief seeing Deirdre’s sisters and their family at about
11.5 miles and it was a great feeling crossing Tower Bridge. It was even better after half way as we got
into a bit of shade going into docklands and it clouded over a bit. That was a good job as I was totally
overheating.
One of the rubbish lasting effects of my clots is that they permanently
damaged my lungs. The receptors in my
lungs were damaged and so although I can breathe and there is air in my lungs the
receptors don’t tell my brain that. My
brain thinks I need more air which leads to something that feels a bit like a
panic attack. This gets worse when I’m
hot. I have learnt to control it but it
isn’t very nice and it hurts because I get chest pains at the same time. I felt like this between about miles 9 and 13
so I can’t tell you what a relief it was when we hit a bit of shade. I walked through every shower and fireman’s
hose to cool down. They were so cold
they took my breath away for real!
We saw Deirdre’s kids and their friends at about 14
miles. In some places around the 14 mile
mark there the crowds were so packed that it was hard to get through. There were lots of people walking and
sometimes it was like hitting a wall and we struggled to get through. Around Docklands we saw Simon and Deborah,
Nikki and then Maggie, Allyson and Deirdre’s work colleagues. The children in Deirdre's class had made a banner with messages from every single one writen on their hand prints! The drums under the underpass (I’m not sure
where we were) gave me goose bumps! We
saw Lyndsey then Deirdre’s kids again at about 20 and then Maggie and Allyson
again, my family and Graham at 21 and 22 and Sharon.
We saw the lovely Carol on the Embankment (with her bad back) who nearly made us cry! Both of our watches has gone wrong by Docklands so I have no idea on how
far we actually ran – which was loads more than 26.2 due to the weaving around
the walls of walkers.
The last 4 miles were really tough but we just kept
run/walking and although we didn’t make the pace we’d hoped for it didn’t
really matter, we finished! (And we were
quicker than Amy Childs by 3 minutes!!) Stacey finished in 5.21. This is probably the nearest I will ever get to being a rock star as hundreds of people shouted my name which was totally AMAZING!
I was a bit premature yesterday when I posted my summary:
Tuesday: 4 miles
Saturday: 3.1 miles parkrun
Sunday: 26.2 miles
Total miles this week 33.3
Total marathon miles to date: 369.95
Only 4 weeks and 4 days until Edinburgh!!
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