That time I ran a Marathon
Run a marathon they said....
So, you may have noticed that Brighton Marathon was 9 days ago, so obviously this is the perfect time to write about my 1st marathon experience (yeah I know, I'll be writing about the half marathons I did in March soon). In other words, don't always expect this blog to be totally on the ball with write ups etc.
I signed up for Brighton marathon in a flurry of excitement when two of my favourite people on UKRunChat, @Digdeepdolly and @Jofwise announced they were signing up for their 1st marathons and seemingly were getting loads of people, myself included, to also join them for Brighton marathon. In truth all it took was a tweet from @digdeepdolly which basically said "goooooooo oooooooon doooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiitttttttt', which, looking back shows I didn't actually take much persuasion or somehow she's very persuasive by adding lots of vowels to words.
As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, it all seemed very far away, then I got injured and it all seemed very close. I wasn't able to start running, running no more than 3 minutes, until January and even then the ankle couldn't take more than running twice a week.
ANYWAY, I digress, I managed to somehow manage a 21 mile run 3 weeks before Brighton. So that was me ready then, I suppose....
It's all about the planning.
3 weeks before Brighton marathon and I decide I'm going to run it. I live in London so getting to Brighton is pretty easy, even early that morning, BUT I am a very light sleeper and tend to stay awake 'incase I miss the alarm' when I have to get up for certain reasons, like running my 1st marathon. So then I'm panicking with about 10 days to the marathon as I'd like to stay in Brighton overnight, I'll be heading down on the Saturday anyway for the expo and the UKRunchat meet up, but obviously trying to find accommodation, let alone affordable, with less than 2 weeks before the marathon isn't a great idea. Luckily, for me, not for her, I find out a friend, Jana, who can't run Brighton for various reasons had also booked a hotel room. A few emails later and all is good with the world as I have somewhere to stay the night before the marathon, result.
So on the Saturday morning, I leave the flat and head to Brighton, ready as I'll ever be for the marathon.
Except I left the Garmin on the table, and forgot the phone charger. Luckily I realised this as I was going through my backpack for the 3rd time on the train platform in London, so I was able to shuffle back and pick up everything. Lesson learnt, MAKE LISTS AND ACTUALLY USE THEM!
Meeting people off the internet
What do 'they' say, never arrange to meet people you speak to online? Well that's probably true but over the last 18 months I have met a few people from the UKRunchat community and in general they have all been good eggs, so after dropping off my stuff at the Jurys inn , which was great and the staff were helpful at actually telling me where everything marathon related was, I headed to the expo to pick up my race pack and make my way to the arranged UKRunchat meet up. In general the expo was really well organised, managed to hear Jo Pavey speak at a Q&A and tried a few energy bars/gels from a few brands that had stands.
We'd arranged to meet at the Aftershokz stand at 16:30 but unsurprisingly not everyone looks like their tiny avatar picture on twitter so it took us a while and few 'Are you..... ?' before the several smaller groups merged together, there is a nice picture of us all together, somewhere, just not on here as I can't find it. We all popped along to the seafront had a non alcoholic drink had a good chin wag, pretended we weren't bricking it and then headed off in various directions. It was good to finally meet and speak to people that I get on well with online, not everyone online is a nutter. I headed off to the MacMillan pasta party (as exciting as it sounds), met up with other runners who were running for the charity that means so much to us and swapped stories about our marathon journey.
Fully carbed I made my way back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before the big day....
AT LAST HE'S GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE BLOODY MARATHON
That is a picture of me running a marathon, me, running a marathon, just over 4 months after being not being to run at all. I still wear the ankle brace/support which you can see in the pic, probably mainly as a psychological thing, but I think it helped.
But anyway, lets go back a few hours to waking up to a phone full of messages of support from friends and family, and relative strangers via twitter. I'll admit it sent me a bit over the edge, especially being in contact with the family members linked to why I run for Macmillan. Not the best start in an effort to maintain a calm head before the start but it meant a lot to know I was in their thoughts. Breakfast was a boil in the cup porridge along with the usual guff I add extra, such as milled flax seed and Omega sprinkle from Holland & Barrett.
Then, because I'd gotten up far too early there was a lot of fannying about in my room until i was ready to go, reattaching the race number about 14 times (with the great Ukrunchat bib tags, no more pins!), deciding how many layers to wear (it was freezing but predicted to warm slightly during the race), eating more carbs for the sake of eating more carbs and then finally, checking out of the hotel and making my way to Preston park for the start, bag drop etc.
I must have left the hotel at around the same time as everyone else running the marathon as there was a constant stream of people heading towards Preston park, I spoke to a few people, nearly all of them running a marathon for the first time. One guy trotted past in head to toe compression gear and he was built as if was the type of guy that ran a marathon most weekends, then in total contrast to that I noticed just ahead of me was a woman chugging down a bottle of Lucozade sport and also smoking. In the space of time it took to get to Preston park she had another 2 cigarettes and another bottle of Lucozade sport. For all I know she might have got an amazing time but part of me did think that might not have been the best prep for 26.2 miles, but what did I know, I was about to run one for the first time....
Always, always, always have a PRP (Pre Race Poo), I can't give much advice to other runners but one piece I can give is that. Admittedly you'll probably have more than 1, but always do it.
Soooooooo anyway, once at Preston park I bumped into Mike who I'd met at the twitter meet up the day before and also found Kirsty (aka @digdeepdolly) and her husband Matt, who is probably the fastest person I actually know and who was aiming for a sub 3(!!), and Matt who used to be on twitter, and together they are some of the first runners I conversed with regularly on twitter and have become friends away from a computer screen. I also managed to see Fiona who is part of the Horsham joggers and who I met at Bewl 15 last year when I ran with Kirstie (and where I did my ankle).
Cue lots of false bravado and over application of vaseline, backslapping, good lucks and overall bricking it, we then went our separate ways despite most of us starting in the same pen, wanting to be alone to fester in our own bundles of nerves and self doubt.
It was pretty damn cold and I had even made the decision to wear gloves, a base layer, a top and then the Macmillan vest, unlike pretty much everyone else around me who seemed to be wearing running vests and nowt else. The gloves were off before we even started and I would later throw one of the layers at my poor wife who was there to support me at various points around the course.
Like others I'm sure, the wait for the start at big races seems to go on forever, a few people, blokes mainly kept dashing off back to the portaloos to empty bladders before we headed off, the pen before Pink has emptied and we shuffled off towards the start with Jo Pavey high fiving loads of people, then with hands ready to start watches, iPods and whatever else we crossed the line and we were off....
Slowly
(I am not in this picture, used from the Crawley news site, photos by Ian Stratton)
Now obviously when so many people set off at the same time it's hard to find your pace as the sheer volume of people means you can't worm your way through straight away, my 1st km (I measure in km not miles) was well off my targeted pace but space was starting to open up, mainly due to the number of blokes who were running off to pee in trees as we passed, AT 1KM, people already making 'emergency' toilet breaks, I chuckled to myself then suddenly felt the need to wee....
As the first few km ticked by and I started to find a pace I was comfortable with and it was easier to maintain the pace with just the odd bottleneck slowing the pace for a bit, I was averaging a few seconds over my dream pace, you know, the one I set myself what was quicker than all my training just because I'd ran 3 half marathons a bit quicker the previous month, you know, trying something new on race day, the thing they recommend you DON"T DO AT ANY COST. Still I was feeling ok, I was hardly looking at my watch and running by feel and we were starting to leave Brighton and head out towards Ovingdean, the sun was now out and the clouds were disappearing, it was starting to get a bit warm.
On the way towards Ovingdean I passed Simon and Mike, from UKRunchat, who were heading the other way, having already passed where I was heading. At Ovingdean I passed friends Ollie and Tracey who live there and who had come out to show support, it was good to see some friendly faces and I met another one on the way out, I met another Kirsty, one of the twitter brigade, we ran together for a bit before I headed off with the words "you'll probably pass me as I'm struggling towards the end", how prophetic that was....
I think that around mile 12 that you head back into Brighton, my bladder was full and the sun was baking but I passed the loos and kept on the regular(ish) pace I was keeping. As you head back into Brighton you get the crowds again, especially at half way, and it's pretty obvious but they really do give you a lift, especially if you have your name on and if you respond to them they respond back even more, I tried to thank everyone that said my name or give them a thumbs up, it really did help. I also noticed that many Macmillan shirt wearers when encouraging each other as we passed, gave a great sense of being in a team. But without doubt the best support was from my wife Alison, she managed to get to 4 different spots along the course, always with a bottle of water if I needed it and ready to have items of clothing thrown at her with a smile on her face and some encouragement.
Now the sun was roasting and you could see some of the runners in fancy dress were starting to struggle, I was taking on minimal water and continuing the reduced gels strategy that had started in training, the pace felt steady and ahead were 2 really long roads where we'd run one way then head back the other way, Simon passed me again on the other side of the road and then later as I was going the other way, approaching 15k to go I heard 'Bourbon Ben!' and managed to see Jo aka @Jofwise as our paths crossed, she said something about Custard creams but I wasn't paying attention. With 15 to go I was still feeling ok, my stomach was feeling a bit weird but apart from that felt fine, I worked out in my head I was on course for just over a sub 4 (by just I think it would have been 4:04), way quicker than my 'C' target of 4:30 but a touch slower by my widely ambitious 'A' target of sub 4 (based on nothing but my half marathons had gone better than expected and some encouragement from a few on twitter I dared to tell), I had always planned to try and kick at 15k and the chance of getting close to a sub 4 spurred me on to try it, so I did, I kicked.....
And not much happened, over the space of the next couple of km I tried to kick on, it worked for a bit but then the legs wanted to slow a bit, I could feel the battle between head and body was starting to switch so I reverted to a comfortable pace, which I later found out was pretty close to what I had been running anyway. Sub 4 was wildly ambitious anyway, it was just about keeping it together for the rest of the race.
Industrial wasteland hell, wheels falling off and a grumpy man with cramp
(This isn't Brighton, it's Chernobyl but in my mind it looked/felt the same)
Just before I headed into the Industrial part of the race I saw Jeff aka @Ukruncat who I've seen once before at Great North Run when he was dressed as a cat and struggling in the heat, Jeff was supporting all the UKRunchat members, I managed to stop to shake his hand, he asked me how I felt, 'sore' was the only thing I could say before heading off. During the last few km I had noticed that my lower back was tightening up, it was noticeable but comfortable, as the km ticked on it was getting worse but I was still maintaining pace.
As we approached the industrial part there was a guy on a loudspeaker uttering the now memorable phrase '....Only 3 miles to go (fantastic I thought), but if you're just coming in there's 6 miles to go (bollocks)'. About 500m into this bleak, grim, desolate part of the race (dramatic effect, it's all in my head) the back got worse and i could feel my pace drop despite attempts to pick it up again. And so began the longest 10k of all time (but still only 10k, obviously), my back was getting worse and the road ahead seemed to go on forever before having to come back the other way, people were stopping at the side of the road with cramp, the fun and excitement had left a lot of peoples faces, luckily I saw my friend Anna as she came the other way, she gave me a smile and a wave and she looked like she was coping well, that spurred me on for another 500m....
Just before we turned back on ourselves there was a water station, I poured 2 cups over myself and kept another to sip, although I necked it in one. The heat was tough now, my pace was getting slower, people all around were starting to walk or cramp up and I considered walking for a bit, my back was killing but I carried on shuffling, being passed and passing others.
As we approached the guy with the loudspeaker, and therefore 'only' 3 miles to go I saw a bloke trying to get rid of cramp fall over so I stopped to try and help, now I appreciate when you have cramp at this stage of a marathon your mind might not be the full ticket but there I was, letting the time tick by, trying to help someone and this guy was 'you're doing it wrong, it's not helping', after a bit a paramedic ran over from the other side and took other, she said thanks. I left them to it.
It seemed the stop had freed up my back a bit and I almost felt ok again, that lasted for about 2k and then the heaviness returned again with the back seizing up, but luckily just after this crowds returned and their encouragement helped the shuffling, the crowd along the seafront were tightly packed and meant the path narrowed, but bizarrely in my head it felt like when the crowds are at the Tour de France in the mountains where they get out of the way at the last minute, now it wasn't really like that but it brought a smile to my face and took my mind off the battered body I was moving slowly forward.
As predicted Kirsty passed me with less than 2k to go, 'Come on, lets go' she said, I'd have liked to have crossed the line together but I shook my head, I felt as if there was nothing left , my left hip had also started to go and I could feel i was running/shuffling an uneven lope. I'm sure it didn't look that bad but my head was down and I felt like a hunchback.
(See, a hunchback, ok maybe not but I was hanging. Here I am at last 500m trying to 'gee up' the crowd)
The crowd was pretty large towards the finish line and their encouragement and back slaps seemed to be spurring me on, although it may have been because I could see the finish, but with about 1k to go I found a bit of energy from nowhere and managed to pick up the pace, the crowd were very vocal and for some reason I tried to 'gee them up', the shouts and cheering got louder and my pace quickened (to an accelerated shuffle), with less than 400m to go I was actually running, the back and hip seemingly cured by shouts of encouragement and the thought of crossing the sodding finish line, I saw Kirsty cross a few 100m ahead of me, I 'kicked' again raised my hands to the sky, found a smile and crossed the line.
I had just finished my first marathon.
So, you may have noticed that Brighton Marathon was 9 days ago, so obviously this is the perfect time to write about my 1st marathon experience (yeah I know, I'll be writing about the half marathons I did in March soon). In other words, don't always expect this blog to be totally on the ball with write ups etc.
I signed up for Brighton marathon in a flurry of excitement when two of my favourite people on UKRunChat, @Digdeepdolly and @Jofwise announced they were signing up for their 1st marathons and seemingly were getting loads of people, myself included, to also join them for Brighton marathon. In truth all it took was a tweet from @digdeepdolly which basically said "goooooooo oooooooon doooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiitttttttt', which, looking back shows I didn't actually take much persuasion or somehow she's very persuasive by adding lots of vowels to words.
As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, it all seemed very far away, then I got injured and it all seemed very close. I wasn't able to start running, running no more than 3 minutes, until January and even then the ankle couldn't take more than running twice a week.
ANYWAY, I digress, I managed to somehow manage a 21 mile run 3 weeks before Brighton. So that was me ready then, I suppose....
It's all about the planning.
3 weeks before Brighton marathon and I decide I'm going to run it. I live in London so getting to Brighton is pretty easy, even early that morning, BUT I am a very light sleeper and tend to stay awake 'incase I miss the alarm' when I have to get up for certain reasons, like running my 1st marathon. So then I'm panicking with about 10 days to the marathon as I'd like to stay in Brighton overnight, I'll be heading down on the Saturday anyway for the expo and the UKRunchat meet up, but obviously trying to find accommodation, let alone affordable, with less than 2 weeks before the marathon isn't a great idea. Luckily, for me, not for her, I find out a friend, Jana, who can't run Brighton for various reasons had also booked a hotel room. A few emails later and all is good with the world as I have somewhere to stay the night before the marathon, result.
So on the Saturday morning, I leave the flat and head to Brighton, ready as I'll ever be for the marathon.
Except I left the Garmin on the table, and forgot the phone charger. Luckily I realised this as I was going through my backpack for the 3rd time on the train platform in London, so I was able to shuffle back and pick up everything. Lesson learnt, MAKE LISTS AND ACTUALLY USE THEM!
Meeting people off the internet
What do 'they' say, never arrange to meet people you speak to online? Well that's probably true but over the last 18 months I have met a few people from the UKRunchat community and in general they have all been good eggs, so after dropping off my stuff at the Jurys inn , which was great and the staff were helpful at actually telling me where everything marathon related was, I headed to the expo to pick up my race pack and make my way to the arranged UKRunchat meet up. In general the expo was really well organised, managed to hear Jo Pavey speak at a Q&A and tried a few energy bars/gels from a few brands that had stands.
We'd arranged to meet at the Aftershokz stand at 16:30 but unsurprisingly not everyone looks like their tiny avatar picture on twitter so it took us a while and few 'Are you..... ?' before the several smaller groups merged together, there is a nice picture of us all together, somewhere, just not on here as I can't find it. We all popped along to the seafront had a non alcoholic drink had a good chin wag, pretended we weren't bricking it and then headed off in various directions. It was good to finally meet and speak to people that I get on well with online, not everyone online is a nutter. I headed off to the MacMillan pasta party (as exciting as it sounds), met up with other runners who were running for the charity that means so much to us and swapped stories about our marathon journey.
Fully carbed I made my way back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before the big day....
AT LAST HE'S GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE BLOODY MARATHON
That is a picture of me running a marathon, me, running a marathon, just over 4 months after being not being to run at all. I still wear the ankle brace/support which you can see in the pic, probably mainly as a psychological thing, but I think it helped.
But anyway, lets go back a few hours to waking up to a phone full of messages of support from friends and family, and relative strangers via twitter. I'll admit it sent me a bit over the edge, especially being in contact with the family members linked to why I run for Macmillan. Not the best start in an effort to maintain a calm head before the start but it meant a lot to know I was in their thoughts. Breakfast was a boil in the cup porridge along with the usual guff I add extra, such as milled flax seed and Omega sprinkle from Holland & Barrett.
Then, because I'd gotten up far too early there was a lot of fannying about in my room until i was ready to go, reattaching the race number about 14 times (with the great Ukrunchat bib tags, no more pins!), deciding how many layers to wear (it was freezing but predicted to warm slightly during the race), eating more carbs for the sake of eating more carbs and then finally, checking out of the hotel and making my way to Preston park for the start, bag drop etc.
I must have left the hotel at around the same time as everyone else running the marathon as there was a constant stream of people heading towards Preston park, I spoke to a few people, nearly all of them running a marathon for the first time. One guy trotted past in head to toe compression gear and he was built as if was the type of guy that ran a marathon most weekends, then in total contrast to that I noticed just ahead of me was a woman chugging down a bottle of Lucozade sport and also smoking. In the space of time it took to get to Preston park she had another 2 cigarettes and another bottle of Lucozade sport. For all I know she might have got an amazing time but part of me did think that might not have been the best prep for 26.2 miles, but what did I know, I was about to run one for the first time....
Always, always, always have a PRP (Pre Race Poo), I can't give much advice to other runners but one piece I can give is that. Admittedly you'll probably have more than 1, but always do it.
Soooooooo anyway, once at Preston park I bumped into Mike who I'd met at the twitter meet up the day before and also found Kirsty (aka @digdeepdolly) and her husband Matt, who is probably the fastest person I actually know and who was aiming for a sub 3(!!), and Matt who used to be on twitter, and together they are some of the first runners I conversed with regularly on twitter and have become friends away from a computer screen. I also managed to see Fiona who is part of the Horsham joggers and who I met at Bewl 15 last year when I ran with Kirstie (and where I did my ankle).
Cue lots of false bravado and over application of vaseline, backslapping, good lucks and overall bricking it, we then went our separate ways despite most of us starting in the same pen, wanting to be alone to fester in our own bundles of nerves and self doubt.
It was pretty damn cold and I had even made the decision to wear gloves, a base layer, a top and then the Macmillan vest, unlike pretty much everyone else around me who seemed to be wearing running vests and nowt else. The gloves were off before we even started and I would later throw one of the layers at my poor wife who was there to support me at various points around the course.
Like others I'm sure, the wait for the start at big races seems to go on forever, a few people, blokes mainly kept dashing off back to the portaloos to empty bladders before we headed off, the pen before Pink has emptied and we shuffled off towards the start with Jo Pavey high fiving loads of people, then with hands ready to start watches, iPods and whatever else we crossed the line and we were off....
Slowly
Now obviously when so many people set off at the same time it's hard to find your pace as the sheer volume of people means you can't worm your way through straight away, my 1st km (I measure in km not miles) was well off my targeted pace but space was starting to open up, mainly due to the number of blokes who were running off to pee in trees as we passed, AT 1KM, people already making 'emergency' toilet breaks, I chuckled to myself then suddenly felt the need to wee....
As the first few km ticked by and I started to find a pace I was comfortable with and it was easier to maintain the pace with just the odd bottleneck slowing the pace for a bit, I was averaging a few seconds over my dream pace, you know, the one I set myself what was quicker than all my training just because I'd ran 3 half marathons a bit quicker the previous month, you know, trying something new on race day, the thing they recommend you DON"T DO AT ANY COST. Still I was feeling ok, I was hardly looking at my watch and running by feel and we were starting to leave Brighton and head out towards Ovingdean, the sun was now out and the clouds were disappearing, it was starting to get a bit warm.
On the way towards Ovingdean I passed Simon and Mike, from UKRunchat, who were heading the other way, having already passed where I was heading. At Ovingdean I passed friends Ollie and Tracey who live there and who had come out to show support, it was good to see some friendly faces and I met another one on the way out, I met another Kirsty, one of the twitter brigade, we ran together for a bit before I headed off with the words "you'll probably pass me as I'm struggling towards the end", how prophetic that was....
I think that around mile 12 that you head back into Brighton, my bladder was full and the sun was baking but I passed the loos and kept on the regular(ish) pace I was keeping. As you head back into Brighton you get the crowds again, especially at half way, and it's pretty obvious but they really do give you a lift, especially if you have your name on and if you respond to them they respond back even more, I tried to thank everyone that said my name or give them a thumbs up, it really did help. I also noticed that many Macmillan shirt wearers when encouraging each other as we passed, gave a great sense of being in a team. But without doubt the best support was from my wife Alison, she managed to get to 4 different spots along the course, always with a bottle of water if I needed it and ready to have items of clothing thrown at her with a smile on her face and some encouragement.
Now the sun was roasting and you could see some of the runners in fancy dress were starting to struggle, I was taking on minimal water and continuing the reduced gels strategy that had started in training, the pace felt steady and ahead were 2 really long roads where we'd run one way then head back the other way, Simon passed me again on the other side of the road and then later as I was going the other way, approaching 15k to go I heard 'Bourbon Ben!' and managed to see Jo aka @Jofwise as our paths crossed, she said something about Custard creams but I wasn't paying attention. With 15 to go I was still feeling ok, my stomach was feeling a bit weird but apart from that felt fine, I worked out in my head I was on course for just over a sub 4 (by just I think it would have been 4:04), way quicker than my 'C' target of 4:30 but a touch slower by my widely ambitious 'A' target of sub 4 (based on nothing but my half marathons had gone better than expected and some encouragement from a few on twitter I dared to tell), I had always planned to try and kick at 15k and the chance of getting close to a sub 4 spurred me on to try it, so I did, I kicked.....
And not much happened, over the space of the next couple of km I tried to kick on, it worked for a bit but then the legs wanted to slow a bit, I could feel the battle between head and body was starting to switch so I reverted to a comfortable pace, which I later found out was pretty close to what I had been running anyway. Sub 4 was wildly ambitious anyway, it was just about keeping it together for the rest of the race.
Industrial wasteland hell, wheels falling off and a grumpy man with cramp
Just before I headed into the Industrial part of the race I saw Jeff aka @Ukruncat who I've seen once before at Great North Run when he was dressed as a cat and struggling in the heat, Jeff was supporting all the UKRunchat members, I managed to stop to shake his hand, he asked me how I felt, 'sore' was the only thing I could say before heading off. During the last few km I had noticed that my lower back was tightening up, it was noticeable but comfortable, as the km ticked on it was getting worse but I was still maintaining pace.
As we approached the industrial part there was a guy on a loudspeaker uttering the now memorable phrase '....Only 3 miles to go (fantastic I thought), but if you're just coming in there's 6 miles to go (bollocks)'. About 500m into this bleak, grim, desolate part of the race (dramatic effect, it's all in my head) the back got worse and i could feel my pace drop despite attempts to pick it up again. And so began the longest 10k of all time (but still only 10k, obviously), my back was getting worse and the road ahead seemed to go on forever before having to come back the other way, people were stopping at the side of the road with cramp, the fun and excitement had left a lot of peoples faces, luckily I saw my friend Anna as she came the other way, she gave me a smile and a wave and she looked like she was coping well, that spurred me on for another 500m....
Just before we turned back on ourselves there was a water station, I poured 2 cups over myself and kept another to sip, although I necked it in one. The heat was tough now, my pace was getting slower, people all around were starting to walk or cramp up and I considered walking for a bit, my back was killing but I carried on shuffling, being passed and passing others.
As we approached the guy with the loudspeaker, and therefore 'only' 3 miles to go I saw a bloke trying to get rid of cramp fall over so I stopped to try and help, now I appreciate when you have cramp at this stage of a marathon your mind might not be the full ticket but there I was, letting the time tick by, trying to help someone and this guy was 'you're doing it wrong, it's not helping', after a bit a paramedic ran over from the other side and took other, she said thanks. I left them to it.
It seemed the stop had freed up my back a bit and I almost felt ok again, that lasted for about 2k and then the heaviness returned again with the back seizing up, but luckily just after this crowds returned and their encouragement helped the shuffling, the crowd along the seafront were tightly packed and meant the path narrowed, but bizarrely in my head it felt like when the crowds are at the Tour de France in the mountains where they get out of the way at the last minute, now it wasn't really like that but it brought a smile to my face and took my mind off the battered body I was moving slowly forward.
As predicted Kirsty passed me with less than 2k to go, 'Come on, lets go' she said, I'd have liked to have crossed the line together but I shook my head, I felt as if there was nothing left , my left hip had also started to go and I could feel i was running/shuffling an uneven lope. I'm sure it didn't look that bad but my head was down and I felt like a hunchback.
The crowd was pretty large towards the finish line and their encouragement and back slaps seemed to be spurring me on, although it may have been because I could see the finish, but with about 1k to go I found a bit of energy from nowhere and managed to pick up the pace, the crowd were very vocal and for some reason I tried to 'gee them up', the shouts and cheering got louder and my pace quickened (to an accelerated shuffle), with less than 400m to go I was actually running, the back and hip seemingly cured by shouts of encouragement and the thought of crossing the sodding finish line, I saw Kirsty cross a few 100m ahead of me, I 'kicked' again raised my hands to the sky, found a smile and crossed the line.
I had just finished my first marathon.
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