What I talk about when I talk about running by Silmarillia

Sorry for the delay, I have been travelling and started writing the post and never finished it :-) Here we go:

Hello fellow runners, so here is my slightly tired account of Sunday's events. 

I got up at 7.30 am to a cup fo coffee and my favourite porridge with banana. I had had a very shaky night with not a lot of sleep due to nerves and FEAR and must say I was incredibly scared of running. I felt strangely unprepared and worried, despite a.) having run a marathon before and b.) having trained that much harder this year. 

I left my home in Brook Green by 8.15 am to pick up daddy from the hotel and then to trot on to Shepherd's Bush Central Line. 

It was a really difficult morning weather wise to decide what to wear. My dad was only wearing a T Shirt and clearly freezing initially whilst I opted for my rain jacket which proved invaluable for the first 15 minutes of the run and then got incredibly hot :-)

We took the Central Line to Bond Street and then the Jubilee Line to London Bridge where slowly more and more runners joined in. 

I had decided that I was going to sneak into the blue start so I could start with my father, despite being officially put into the red start...this proved easy and soon we had a few minutes to go until the start. We were all sllightly taken by the rain pouring down but luckily that eased before the start...

I pretty quickly parted with my dad as he is just a more seasoned and faster runner than me but it was the best feeling to start with him and that was what we wanted to do anyway.. 

I always find Greenwich quite tidious, there is just not that much to see or work towards apart from the half way point, so having a work colleague waiting at mile 11 was a real boost and made me start to enjoy the whole thing more..

Somehow I wasnt really getting into the swing of things and found the humidity quite tiring to be honest. It might just be me, but somehow it took more out of me than I thought and by Tower Bridge I was already quite exhausted untypically.. 

Running over Tower Bridge is one of the most amazing feelings and somehow that is where the race really begins. You get excited, you start recognizing landmarks and the crowd changes as well. I always get a slight grumble when jogging off to the right and seeing all the fast runners already at mile 22 and just in their final stretches. They must be all sub 4 hours and look so springy whilst the sub 6 hour field always is quite mixed with walking and jogging... it more reminds me of a battlefield...

Had my family stand at the 16 mile mark which was so nice, they had brought signs, wigs, t shirts and cheering packs from my charity. It made me so happy seeing all them standing at the side, cheering on, giving me status reports on my dad (he allegedly just commented that it is VERY HARD WORK whilst jogging past...)

I had a little slump or maybe a bigger slump at around 17/18 miles and adopted the walk one mile/ jog one mile technique from then on which helped me really well and actually saw me through for almost all of it...

The Docklands are quite a mix, on the one hand quite dull and grey and you feel you will never leave them again alive, on the other hand there is that sense that once you have accomplished these, it is almost done! 

And so.. I chatted to a few fellow runners , admired some dressed up crazy people and trotted along to Tower Bridge agai, now this is where the emotions start and the real final leg begins. I meet a fabulous lady called Dominique who was in a lot of pain and offered to walk a while with her. She had injuries in both her knees and was just about holding on. But we kept each other going...

The first moment I took a glimpse of the London Eye, I had to whipe away a few tears. It is such a moment, you can actually SEE the end somewhere there..  

I cried already approaching Big Ben and then seeing my family standing there at mile 25 was just such an emotional moment. 

I completeded jogging one minute slower than last year, so just at the 6 hour mark. Which is not what I wanted but more just wasnt in me on that day... My whole family was waiting with my dad who had finished well over an hour before me in the assembly area and we crawled home together enjoying an indian take away and a nice movie.

To be honest I dont know if I will run a marathon in the near future again or at all. I found the training (we were doing an sub 4 hour training schedule) tidious, didnt really seem to enjoy myself and with all my injuries it just turned into a minefield of negative emotions for me. I did enjoy the actual marathon though you always blend out how painful it actually is, or at least for me.

I would love to run a marathon one day in 4 hours,but I doubt I am made for such speed and maybe triathlon is more my way forward. I thoroughly enjoy versatility in sports and concentrating on running for 6 months a year is just too much for my liking for now..I think the only thing that kept me going through training in the harsh winter months this year has been the thought of running this with my dad... Now that that is ticked off, who knows whats to come.  

I am signed up to a triathlon in Eton in July and my happy 5 k run in Hyde Park in autumn. Here are some snapshots of sunday.