My 60th Birthday Marathon Challenge by idhorne

The day finally arrived as I lined up in pen 9 at 0915 on a wet Sunday morning in Greenwich. All those hours of training in cold, wet, icy, snowy, muddy conditions were behind me. My body had recovered from all those niggling aches and pains - shin splint, runners knee, ITB pain. I was ready for the off as were 36,000 plus fellow runners of all shapes, sizes, nationalities - some just for fun and to raise money for charity and/or attain their PB; others for the Guiness Book of Records for the biggest, silliest, fastest costume-clad runner to finish. I felt a sense of excitement and anticipation as I stood amongst this crowd of fellow humans as we were about to put our bodies through tremendous stress fo 26.2 miles.

My wife, Jane, my younger son Wayne and friends Dieter and Scott, were at the start to see me off, and to my surprise were there to cheer me on at 6 different points on the route (Dieter had run it 3 times and spectated many times so knew the area intimately). Their presence throughout the run really kept me going!

The rain stopped and we were off - it took 10-15 minutes to get to the start and difficult to get going behind so many bunched up runners, but after a couple of miles I was at my 10 minute mile pace and cruising along, complete with my 8 gel packs.

The crowds and the Sense cheerers along the route were fantastic - cheering,encouraging, playing music, offering sweets, fruit, high 5's......absolutely brilliant and helped me to keep going all the way.

At the halfway point I knew I was doing well - the time clock showed 2:30, so I knew I had improved my 4 year half-marathon time by over 20 minutes - I was on cloud nine!

The gels were going down every 4 miles with water and legs feeling tired but still plenty of power. I was hardly breaking into a sweat and breathing was normal - this was becoming just like a training run.....mmmm a bit premature.

At 20 miles I could feel some blisters forming on both feet - something that had never happened in training - so why now? Shortly  after the pain was becoming intense and I felt like stopping at a first aid point to get them attended to, but thought otherwise in case I seized up! I'm glad I didn't - I walked for a little longer as I took on gels and water, and the crowd kept up their encouraging shouts "Come on Ian just a few more miles" , "Looking good Ian - keep on going". Little did they know how I felt.

At 24 miles I could sense that the end was near - I'm finishing this even if I have to crawl over the finish line!

The noise from the crowd was tremendous, I picked up the pace again and kept on running all the way to the finish line, raising my arms and screaming in triumph - I did it!

My time was a respectable 5:18:53, which was just over my target of 5 hours, but I'm pleased to have finished (ahead of thousands of younger runners ).

After picking up my medal and goody bag, having photo taken and congratulating some of my fellow runners (particularly "Evil Kenievel" as we were always passing each other at various points), I headed straight for the first aid tent for treatment to my blisters - ouch!

I and my cheering party then attended the Sense post-run reception, where I was treated to a welcome massage and a(nother) pasta meal, plus thanks from Sense boss and staff for all our efforts, which raised approximately £1,000,000 - amazing!

Today I'm resting, stretching, refuelling, hydrating and catching up on Realbuzz marathoners' tales of VLM. Well done to all who undertook this massive physical and mental challenge - whatever time you took - it was your race! The pain is temporary - but the pride will last forever.

Will I do it again? Probably not.

Will I run again? Eventually but I'll stick to shorter distances - 10K or half-marathon - after all I'm fitter now than in all my 60 years!

Thank you to all my RB friends for sharing your lives with me and providing encouragement and advice. Good luck to you all in your future running careers.

Keep on shuffling!

Ian