Overview

This is the last post on the blog before I do the marathon.  I’ve got all my gear and my carbohydrate gels together and I am trying to organise the children so that we are ready to leave for London in an hour or so.  We will stay up in London for the night and travel down to the start line very early.  Last time I did the marathon with my brother-in-law Tim, we got stuck on the DLR in Docklands.  We had to run and get to another station, to catch a train back up to London Bridge so that we could travel down to Greenwich.  Hopefully I’ll have a much less eventful Sunday morning.

Thank you to everyone who has given support through sponsorship, and I am sure that people will be cheering me on and praying for me.  May I also ask that people bear a thought for those who are suffering from ME and for my friend Melv, for wherever he is.

Ray

Tags: London Marathon

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Today I went up to collect my number for the marathon on Sunday.  It’s all very official, you need to bring your from which they have sent through the post with some photo ID to ensure that you are the person who will be running the marathon and not some ringer you’ve brought over from Kenya to get you a world class time.

I’ve got my chip so that I can have a real time from when I cross over the start line to the finish line.  There are points along the way which registers my progress along the course and you can follow this if you go to this rather long website:-

http://marathon.mhub3.net/uk/MDDA464C60DF34/LM_Home.aspx?src=s_m_m_run-uk

If you go to this site and put in my number which is 19829, you can get an approximation of where I am on the course.

I also did a last minute dash around the company for sponsorship and everyone was very generous, so thank you to everyone at Voith at Hayes for your sponsorship.

I got my name printed on to my running shirt while I was registering, and I had a 45 minute wait until I could collect it, so I had to wander around all the stands which were there selling all types of running gear.  I was very good, and I did not buy anything, not even an energy bar, though I was sorely tempted by a pair of running leggings.

Last update tomorrow before the marathon. 

Ray

Tags: London Marathon

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Sunday 14 March 2004 was the last time I saw Melv.  I had gone up to visit him in Darlington before I started a new job.  Clare and I had thought that we would go with the kids to the Olympics in Athens.  Melv had been the driving force to try and organise everything.  The cost had spiralled up so we pulled out and it was a good job too in the end since I lost my job at the end of 2003.  So I decided that before I started my new job I would go and visit Melv.  I drove up on the Friday and stopped off at Castleford to have a look round the outdoor shops at the outlet retail park there, can’t miss a bargain you see.  Followed Melv’s directions since it was my first time visiting and finally arrived at this large house.  It was huge.  My family of 5 have a smaller house.  Melv gave me a quick tour and as a good host he had made me a bed and provided me with a towel.  Far better than some of the B&B I’ve stayed at over the years.

We went out for a beer and something to eat.  It wasn’t very often that I meet up with Melv on my own.  Most of the time when I saw him I was with a group of friends from Uni, but there were times when the two of us just met up and had a chat.

When we met we didn’t really talk about the normal lads stuff, you know football, rugby, beer, woman and so on.  A lot of the time was spent talking about life.  I must correct myself in one respect, there were times when we would talk about rugby and quite passionately, which is fair enough.  It’s a very important topic.  The things I will remember are us just talking very honestly, no charade of trying to outdo one another; we were just ourselves, putting the world to right.

Melv suffered from ME.  He came down with the condition in the early 1990s and ME greatly affected his life.  Melv was unable to pursue the career he wanted/and deserved, his life style also had to adjust to allow him to cope with his condition.  During that visit Melv spoke frankly about living with ME, how his goals for a career had radically changed and what he needed to do to make himself more financially secure.  He planned to downsize to enable himself to pay off his mortgage and move to Manchester.  He wanted to be in a busy city since when he was unwell the only way to recover was to rest completely.  This would consist of long periods at home and he needed to have the opportunity to meet people during the day.  Where he was living was very quiet during the day, and he just wanted to have the opportunity to see people.  He also talked about how awkward it was to meet woman because of his restricted life style.  But overall he saw a way making everything work.  There were a lot of things to live for.

We did a short walk that weekend and I returned home on the Sunday.  I did have the opportunity of meeting up with Melv in July 2004 but that all fell through for me due to other commitments.

Melv was officially last seen leaving his hotel in Athens on the morning of 3 September 2004.  He was due to catch a flight back to the UK that evening; he never got onto that flight and has not been seen since.  So this story is unfinished, since I do not know what happened next, and I may never know.

Ray

Tags: Lndon Marathon

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If you ever catch site of me on a Sunday you may see me in matching orange top, waterproofs and even running shoes.  You may be forgiven for thinking that this chap is very vain having to make sure that everything matches.  You may even think ‘I bet he has orange pants as well’.  So why the orange kit?  Well it’s quite simple.  It is all the stuff that no-one buys and is always left in the sales.    In a clothes sale you’ll find things which are either tiny or XXL, or orange.  So this points to me being a cheap skate, even though everyone argues the opposite and thinks I buy lots which is not the case.  My problem is that I look after my kit too well, so it lasts for a long time.  But lasting a long time means that after a while they look a bit dated so you need to replace it with something a bit more modern.  But then I still use the older stuff since it is a waste to through it away if it is still useable.  So it is all a bit complicated and hope that orange doesn’t come into fashion and I can still get my gear cheap.

Ray

Tags:

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Today I did my last run before the marathon.  I had intended to do a 10k organized run in Dorking but I left it too late to enter. The rest of the family toyed with the idea of doing a 5k run which is also run at the same time.  But one by one the family dropped out from doing until it was jus me.  So after much phaffing, nothing happened, so Tess (our dog) and I did a run on our own.

Those who will have read my early blog will have noted that Tess has found it difficult to keep up with her master.  Tess kept up most of the time and only had one low point where she lagged behind while I was running along the North Downs Way ontop of Ranmore.  All was going well today and I was on my final decent back into Dorking when I stepped on a rock and turned my foot.  Now this did smart somewhat and I had a few choice words to share with this rock!  I had to limp my way home from there on.  So hopefully over the next few days this will heal and I’ll be all right on the day.  I thought that I had got away being injury free this time around.  It was very different the last time I did the marathon two years ago.  But I shall leave that story for my next entry.  So it is rest and eating for the next week for me.  Next installment will be about the advantage of wearing orange.  See you then.

Ray

Tags: Marathon, training, ME Association

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I thought that it would be fun to train with my dog Tess for the London Marathon.  By taking her with me on my runs would mean that it would be less work for the rest of the family in taking her on walks.  That was the plan.

I bought a lead which I could attach to a belt and this would leave my hands free while I was running.  The lead is elasticated, so this should have allowed some variation in movement between Tess and I.  This did not work, Tess hates running at a steady pace and she always goes around the opposite side of a post to me.  A number of Laurel and Hardy moments were had.  So we gave up the running through Dorking and concentrated on the long runs on the weekend.  All went well until we reached around 8 miles.  At this point Tess couldn’t keep up.  The first time I thought that she must of had done a lot the day before.  I had to drop her off at my sister-in-laws to allow me to continue with my run.  The next time I had to call Clare up to pick Tess up in the car.  So the long runs stopped.  It’s not as though I force her to go with me.  When I come down the stairs in my running kit, she wags her tail excitedly and starts her stretches.  She prepares for her runs far better than I do.  So she really loves doing it, but at the moment she’s not up to the big runs.

I’ve got mixed feeling with this.  It is a shame that she is not fit enough to do the runs and Tess really should be fit enough.   I don’t want a flabby dog.  On the other hand it makes me in her eyes ‘The Man’, ‘The Big Daddy’, ‘Alpha Male Supreme’.  But I shouldn’t think that way.  Well I’ll enjoy it as long as possible before Tess starts to leave me puffing and panting in her dust.

Tags: Training, Marathon

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