No Sleep til London by REAO69

Hello again.

So finally got to the start. Feeling good. Very nervous. Very hot and sweaty after running a mile to get there. Sympathy for those poor runners who had to do the 3 miles!

So started finally (albeit 35 mins ish after the start gun).

Both my brother and I (both carrying injuries) had decided to run the full course together and just get around no matter what.

So we set off. after the first mile or two everything felt fine and we were running 10 minute miles (a little fast for him but he felt good). Lots of support from the spectators.

I agree with every other blogger in that the support/supporters are unbelievable. I read on somebody else's blog that it had restored their belief in human nature and I agree. I had heard that the support was good but you cannot understand how good until you run (more on this later).

So after we had passed the running trees, a person dancing, a spaceman in bare feet and a couple of wombles we had settled in to a good running stide. Quick check over the body and everything is fine. Felt the calf for the first 2 miles but it seemed to settle into a little niggle. All good.

At this point it was just good to be in the race and basically a novel way of seeing parts of London we would never have seen. Although, the heat was getting quite intense.

We are both not small runners by any stretch of the imagination. I'm 16 stone and he is probably 17 (not bad as he was probably over 19 when he started training!).

Then things started to go Pete Tong again...

We got to about 9 miles and had decided to take another gel (took one at the start). When we got to where the water station should be there was no offer of any water. This was were my sense of disbelief kicked in again!

No water in this heat. Surely we are mistaked and this isn't a water station. Nope all the bottles strewn out in front on us confirm that it definitely was a water station!

O MY GOD...it is swealtering and we aren't going to get any water because we started late (mind games at mile 9 not good!!). Gels got put back into belt and we carried on although feeling rough now.

Got to mile 10 and my calf pain kicked in and coincidentally my brothers knee started hurting. Was this the mind due to the lack of water or was it real pain.

Anyway it felt like pain...

We carried on at the same pace. I'm not sure looking back if this was the part of the race were there was no water at 10 miles and we had to go past another water station without getting any water.

Anyway, the stategy of taking gels at certain time had gone out of the window completely. Due to the fact that this is impossible without water on a normal day but even more so in that heat.

When we got to Tower bridge my brother said he had to walk and wanted to stop to put his knee suppost on. I made him run across the bridge. Couldn't have him walking/stopping in front of all those brilliant supporters!

We got across the bridge and then he had to stop as he was in so much pain with his knee. He put his support on and off we went again.

After this point it all gets a bit bleary with regard to where we managed to get water and where we didn't but I think that Vittel totally underestimated the requirements! There were lots of people behind us even though we were well to the back, who must've really been struggling with no water. (BIG SHOUT OF THANKS TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WERE ACTUALLY FILLING BOTTLES FROM THEIR HOUSES. AGAIN UNBELIEVABLE!!).

Will pick it up at mile 14 later...