First time London Marathon runner - eek! by greenwelly

I know this is the moment you've all been waiting for...... my account of the 2010 London Marathon. Its going to be a massively long blog so you'd better grab yourself a comfy seat!

Marathon weekend started on Saturday, dropped dog off at kennels, the boyfriend and myself then drove to London. Straight into Excel, registered (hardly any queues which was great), grabbed some pace writsbands from the lucozade stand and that was it. Didn't want to wander around wearing myself out to be honest. Back in the car and drove round the nightmare south circular towards Wimbledon to meet my friend (who very kindly let us leave the car at their place). Had some lovely late lunch with her and then train into London, and meet one of my sisters at our hotel just near Trafalgar Square (great location for the marathon, highly recommended). Two other sisters arrived later that evening and we had a quiet meal at Prezzo (yes you guessed it: I'm now sick of pasta too, just like the rest of you!).

Went off to bed at about 10.30pm, but knew it was going to be a bad night. The room was hot and having the window open was just ridiculously noisy so had to put up with the heat instead. Eventually went off to sleep sometime after midnight and woke again at 5.50am and knew that was it, wide awake and might as well get up, felt very excited and I think I was shaking a bit at that stage!

Had brekkie of porridge and banana and glass of lucozade. Then pinned the number onto my vest, checked that the chip was nice and tight on my shoe, threw my bag over my shoulder, said an emotional goodbye to all my sisters and then the boyfriend and I left for Blackheath. As soon as I walked out of the hotel door I knew I was feeling teary, you could see people appearing from every street, all converging on Charing Cross with their red virgin bags and the enormity of the day suddenly started to get to me. Managed to hold it together, straight on a train to Blackheath, all very easy and a nice walk up to the common for the Blue Start.

Must mention at this point how pleased I was with the last minute turn around in the weather, it was grey and cloudy and cool, thank GOD!

So wandered up to the start (needed to pee already) said goodbye to the boyfriend and headed off into the Blue start area, suddenly feeling very alone. Went straight to the loos (queues not too bad actually and was impressed with the cleanliness of the toilets (these things matter to me you know) and then wandered over to the baggage lorries to drop off my bag. Put some sun cream on my arms and some vaseline under my arms (for fear of the vest rubbing a bit) and almost as soon as I said goodbye to my fleece and my bag, the heavens opened! And what was the ONE thing I forgot?????? MY cancer research bin liner thingy, nightmare! So there I was in my vest and leggings wandering around in the rain, what fun (not). I headed over to the lucozade stand thing and walked around it but couldn't spot anyone from realbuzz. Don't know if the rain had made you all move away or it I just didn't look properly, but it was a shame because I could've done with some company, was feeling pretty scared at this stage. So instead I went to the loos again and then sheltered in one of the changing tents until 9.25.

(Must just quickly add here..... female urinals, what's that all about? I saw the sign and was too scared to go and find out, I am very shy about my personal things so I figured whatever they were, it wasn't going to be for me, so I stuck with the portaloos thank you very much. But I am intrigued, if anyone can tell me what they are, please do!)

The rain stopped and off I went to the start. I was in pen 8 and the man on the tannoy kept going on about not promoting yourself further up, but when I got to pen 8 there was hardly anyone there, it was the back of the queue and pen 9 was empty! So I shuffled along a bit and then saw a pacemaker with a board saying "Run/walk" in FRONT OF ME...... so I figured I had to move forwards and finally found the 10min/mile pacemaker and stood a little way behind him. So I really don't think the start pens thing worked properly there. Everyone around me had pen 8 or 9 on their numbers anyway!

Anyway, finally we started and I was so pleased to spot some of my supporters about 5 mins in to the race, a great start. I found those first few miles quite odd, very quiet, not masses of supporters and all I could hear at times was everyone's feet on the ground. I also started to worry about needing the loo, I think its because I kept seeing all these men nipping off for a wee, it made me need to go too.

Pace-wise I'd gone for the 4.30 wristband, first mile 10.42 so already behind, but there was some bunching up and walking a couple of times which was a bit frustrating, but I picked up speed in the next few miles and I think probably ran the first 3 or 4 miles too fast as I was nearly a minute ahead of 4.30 pace at one point. It got really muggy at times during those first few miles after the rain when the sun came out but thankfully that didn't last too long. Also found that I missed some drinks stations, missed a water one and a lucozade one, so not sure if there were enough signs really... first I knew was when I saw the bottles littering the road and someone else said "Oh well, I guess that was the lucozade station was it?". Bit annoyed about that as my fuelling plan went a bit off course.

Somwhere between 5 and 6 miles one of the marshalls shouted out "you're all being beaten by Richard Branson at the moment", and sure enough after a few minutes I saw his Virgin 'caterpillar' and then his butterly wings ahead of me. I must admit it was actually rather hard work to get past them as the caterpillar made it rather hard going and of course the world and his wife wanted to run along with them and the celebs! But I got past somewhere before Cutty Sark, phew. Saw some of my family just after Cutty Sark, and headed off towards Rotherhite. Found that stretch quite tough as no real landmarks and couldn't really place where I was at times. Spent most of the time worrying about the loo, saw a few of the portaloos but all had queues and I knew I didn't have enough time 'in the bank' to stop and queue and still finish on 4.30 pace, so I decided I'd see how far I could get before I got desperate. (In the end I got all the way round without wee-ing, so god knows what happened!)

Finally made it to Bermondsey, saw some of my friends again there and then Tower Bridge suddenly appeared. That was lovely and I felt a bit emotional there, and the road is lovely and wide so plenty of space to run. Saw some poor woman take a tumble there though, she tripped on the timing mats there and went flat on her face, poor woman we all really felt for her, I hope she was ok.

After Tower Bridge I felt that everyone seemed to suddenly start walking and it started to really annoy me (something which was to continue for the whole second half of the race). I was still on course for 4.30 but over the next 2 miles with everyone walking and getting in the way (and I think with me getting distracted by the super-speedy guys on the other side and the gel station which was really sticky and yet slippery at the same time), I managed to lose a minute and a half.... could feel my 4.30 dreams sliding away. Physically I felt ok, my breathing was fine, my knees were starting to ache a little bit, but otherwise ok at that stage.

Off into Isle of Dogs and Docklands, a tough part of the race for me. Started to feel more tired and found it hard running with some quite narrow stretches which made progress slower. Good support though and heard my name being called so many times which was fab. Finally reached Canary Wharf which was great. Saw my boyfiend and pals again there which was a real boost and all the music and crowds were great, then... Then BANG back to reality as you head out past Billingsgate market... found myself desperately thinking, "Surely we must be turning back towards central London by now?", anyway of course eventually we did and I was starting to find it hard going now, the hip flexors were starting to complain and the knees were getting more and more painful. So I just focussed on my arms and pumped them as hard as I could and kept telling myself to keep my stride long and keep my head and shoulders up. Saw more family and friends at about 19-20miles and for me then I knew I could do it. Having done 20 just made me think, "Well, this is now the furthest I've ever run, so there's no way I'm stopping before the end."

Pace-wise, I was still about a minute and half behind the 4.30 mark and I knew that I was going to be really miffed if I missed it by a minute, so I decided I just had to really push it. Heading back along the highway seeing the guys sweeping the streets behind the back markers (how demoralising is that?), and finally made it to the embankment and 23 miles. But.... HOW long is the embankment? MY God it seemed to go on forever. All the time along there I was watching the time creeping up on my watch and was still behind 4.30 pace at every mile marker! I kept focussing on pumping my arms and just kept pushing harder and harder. Went through the tunnel which was awful because it was sooo muggy, just no air in there at all, think everyone found that hard.....anyway.......With less than 3 miles to go I figured I could really go for it and I'm ashamed to admit I bumped elbows with a few people who were in my way. (Sorry folks if that was you, but it would be helpful if you moved to the side to walk!) I think I missed the last mile marker and suddenly saw the sign saying 800m to go! Looked at my stopwatch, it showed almost 4.28... got to go for it. I actually started talking out loud to myself, "Come on, come on, COME ON!" 600m to go, 400m to go, rounded the corner onto The Mall, "Jerusalem" was blaring out, emotions starting to get to me, this is IT Tina, you've got to sprint, don't look at the watch anymore, just SPRINT FOR IT..... my legs were saying there was nothing left but my brain won over and I went for it...... and remember to keep your head up across the line for the photo and then stop the watch and breathe............

Now, I've never had asthma, but I honestly thought I was going to have an asthma attack after I'd crossed the line, just couldn't get any air in, I'd worked so hard for those last few miles.... and I knew I had to look at the watch and I almost fainted.....

4.29.59. That's NO JOKE, that's honestly what it said! WWOOOOPPPPPPPEEEEEE!

Then the emotions won over, I had done it! The tears came, some guys said well done to me and a nice marshall asked if I was ok. And then the pain started to kick in in my legs.

Went through the finish area production line in a bit of a daze, found my friends and family and hugged them all so tight. Back to hotel into cold bath (very lovely actually!), then warm shower, change of clothes and out to meet my friends for some celebrations. I was just buzzing the whole afternoon. They bought me some champagne which was lovely and we had a nice meal and then I finally fell into bed with my lovely boyfriend at 9.30 and slept like a baby.

So, a few reflections on the whole experience, the positives first:

Great thing to have done, massive sense of achievement as I actually managed to reach my goal of 4.30 which I really thought was beyond me after injuries etc.

Great support, from everyone along the course, but especially to all my friends and family who between them managed to see me 8 or 9 times on the course, a massive boost for me and every time I cheered and waved like a maniac!

Great atmosphere all day in London with all the music and the crowds and just having all the roads closed etc, a really special day in the calendar.

and now the negatives:

It was REALLY HARD, didn't really enjoy any of the running, didn't feel great at any point. Worrying about needing a pee dominated the first half and then my tummy felt a bit dodgy for the 2nd half.

I thought it was bad that they ran out of lucozade gels and drinks towards the end. I needed that last gel and didn't have enough of my own, I was relying on that station and then none of the drinks either, not good. Its not like I was near the back or anything either!

I have to say I felt quite lonely at times. I know that sounds weird but no-one really spoke to me apart from a couple of weird people(!) and I didn't really speak to anyone either and never fell into pace with anyone (I found that you couldn't really because the crowds were too thick).

So, all in all, I would sum it up by saying it was a fab experience and I have achieved what  I dreamed of and it can now be ticked off the 'list of things to do before you die'. BUT I'm not sure that I'd do it again as I think maybe I prefer the smaller races with less crowds. But give me a few days and I might change my mind!

I do feel very pleased with how it went though, considering I'd never done a marathon before, I feel pleased that it pretty much went to plan and feel really pleased with the fact that I was able to push it so much at the end too.

Today I'm really suffering, the quads especially and I really am not walking very well. But its a small price to pay for that medal and being able to say forever that I've run the London marathon!Oh and the official time????......... 4.29.56. Hoorah again!

Really happy and can't wait to read more of your accounts of the day...... hope you all had a good time. And don't worry I'll be hanging around here on Real Buzz, I'm not planning on stopping running anytime soon, I've officially got the bug!

Well done everyone!

Tina x