Running Report

The London Marathon (22-Apr-07).

JJ – 4 hours 49 min 28 secs

Guest 5 – 6 hours 39 min 37 secs

Positions

Split Times:

With Guest 5 working in the morning and JJ following up his morning's race watching Fulham somehow eke out an undeserved draw against Blackburn (thanks for nothing Sanchez), we met up at base camp (Tim's house) and began to prepare for the Marathon the next day. Tim cooked us a great pasta meal for a last minute carbo-boost and we had a good night's sleep. We awoke to find that I had been dumped on yet again weather-wise and it was a stinky hot sunny day. At least the thought of the cool showers outside the Oporto kept us positive as we headed to our respective starts. I hid under a tractor as excited people buzzed around and queued for the bogs for a couple of hours or so each. Eventually I headed to the start and joined the throng of people slowly getting to the start line in bursts of runs and walks as is usual in a big race. It was about 0.00001 miles into the race proper that I realised my hopes of a fast time were misplaced and the heat would again slow me down. So I settled down into a pace around 10 minute miles and kept that up until roughly around mile 14/15 where the heat finally hit me big time and I started to slow down. Unfortunately around this time, I also missed seeing some of my supporters so I was feeling a little down until I saw my fellow MD legend at Canary Wharf and that gave me a good boost to keep going. A sighting of Guest 13 gave an extra boost and I finished the run along the Embankment in good pace and form, albeit not in as good a time as I had hoped for. Notable mentions go to a Jack Sparrow. Sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow, and a couple of lime thonged Borats, who raised a smile for everyone.

Meanwhile, Guest 5 was making her merry way around the course in the now-familiar metronome style, not really slowing or speeding up throughout the duration. A blister had kicked in at mile 5 (why? no blisters over 18 in training, so why after 5 miles now?!?) and so she was hurting a little there, but it wasn't effecting the pace. What did have an effect though was the disgrace which was the lack of water after 18 miles for any of the slower runners. The organisers might have got extra water in, but it wasn't enough and it had been obvious even to me running some way ahead that the water wouldn't last, so why didn't they do something about it? Worse still was their refusal to admit afterwards they had made a mistake. The Marathon has very good organisation normally, but this was unforgivable. Anyway, the positive was that this really brought out the best in the Londoners. Kids made up full bottles from the discarded empties, people were filling bottles from their taps and pubs filled bottles from hoses. This, for me, really brings home the spirit of the Marathon and makes it all worthwhile.

Of course, completing the marathon was Guest 5's main aim and the fact she went from no exercise to running a marathon in under 5 months is something I find amazing (although perhaps not as amazing as Tim's unfeasible recent success with the ladies). The side aim was raising money for the British Heart Foundation, and over £2400 smackeroonies are on their way to the charity, so thanks to all who donated.

Next up for team MD is a join assault on the Edinburgh marathon. Will JJ recover in time after London? Will Tim's "definition" work in the gym have a detrimental effect on his running or will he power on to higher and higher success? All to be answered in the next few weeks...!

Sun, sun go away!!

Not Tim..... yet

  
It's supposed to be hard, stop enjoying it!!!

  
Hmm.. medals!

Ouch, that's a sore foot

Heh heh, those little bad boys didn't last very long! Yum Yum!

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