My first marathon here I come by squa25

Where do I start? Had a pretty decent night’s sleep, early night but woke at 1am and it still wasn't time but the fell back into another deep sleep. When the radio came on, there was no reluctance to get up. Changed and porridge eaten and off I went.

Overnight more marathon prep had taken place. The virgin banners and mile markers could now be seen!! I could see mile 9.

Met Becca in canary wharf where we made use of loos then headed off on DLR for Greenwich. Train was packed with runners and as more and more got on I had nothing to hold on to and was swishing about between the runners. It was quite funny...thank you people for propping me up!

It seemed most people were going to the blue start as hardly anyone budged at cutty sark, where we wanted to descend so there goes me: 'this is my stop, i want to get off here please' so everyone moved out of the way and people started getting confused and asking what colour start we were.

I know Greenwich park really well but never seen it like that before. Amazing!!

Entry into red zone - runners only! I was already starting to feel like a member of the elite marathon running club. First stop - toilet.  Queue was non existant. Second- top up on sunscreen. 3rd - scoff some last minute carbs,

4th - toilet, 5th- baggage drop, 6th- toilet. Can you see a theme here? Admittedly the toilet queue moved extremely quickly even with a stream of people. Was very impressed, which eased the nerves a little.  By now the rain had started. I hadn't ordered it for the start... This wasn't planned.

Finally I was ready to stand under a tree to get out of the rain (which had come a tad early) until we entered the pen, and rain had stopped. This was so exciting!! There was so much space I didn't know where to position myself so hovered round the back of my pen with Becca. It started to fill up and as the gun went we all moved forward so I got chatting to fellow scope runners as we approached the start.  Wishing everyone luck. I was very excitable as I'm sure you can imagine.

The start line was soon in sight, it was all very unbelievable. I believe I repeated 'I can't believe we're doing this ' several times over and over!

The crowds were amazing right from the start, totally unbelievable! Everyone seemed to be in some huge hurry, like they were in a rush to get somewhere?? flying past us so we had to work extremely hard to slow the pace. Never  got it down to 10:45 which is what I was aiming for for the first 2 miles. 10:30 it'd have to remain as we hit the first mile. How did we get to mile one so quickly?

The first 6 miles were so much fun. We were having a whale of a time, chatting to other scope and WaterAid runners (Becca was running for Wateraid). The best part was when we merged with the blue runners at about mile 3. It was completely weird to see so many more runners and exciting!! That is till we got in a bottleneck and couldn't move. This happened quite frequently during the first 6 miles. 

The crowds were out in force, it really was like a carnival, music, bands, radios, pirates - loads of them outside a pub, BBQs, singing dogs; it really was a party atmosphere.

Started to heat up considerably by mile 7. Conditions I've not trained in and was really not prepared for. I started to worry as I really don't get on too well with being too active in the heat as I'm very prone to dehydration so kept the water intake up and starting pouring water over myself. 

Goal was to aim for target pace of about 10:30 give or take upto mile 20 and then take whatever our legs gave us for the last 6.

Miles 7 to 11 were pretty good still but Rotherhithe (my home) was much quieter than expected. Last year there were lots more people out, this year very few. Disappointingly lucozade had run out by the time we got there. Shocking!! Still, it improved along Jamaica Road (Bermondsey) apart from when we got caught up in a massive NCT chain of people. Not only were they deafeningly loud, they took up a lot of space and we were stuck to the right side of them.  Had some trouble getting out of it as there were literally loads of them all connected together! Ended up on the pavement to get past them.

Was really looking forward to the next few miles as knew we would be seeing our supporters out. Tower bridge is pretty special but more so because NDCS ex colleagues were there so got a big cheer from them at the end of the bridge.  Turning off the bridge I had friends at mile 13. I pretty much knew where they were so kept my eyes peeled. Thankfully saw them and high fived them as I ran past! Was so nice to see Alison and Stephen; thanks guys! You provided a nice little boost!         

Next Cheering point for us was WaterAid and Becca's friends and family. They were fab and I'm sure gave Becca the boost she needed.

As we headed into the isle of dogs I realised why we could never work out where to go on our runs round there, it's because it was an underpass with no pavements!!! Mystery solved!!

We were running to target pace up until mile 16, where I have to admit, things started to feel hard, much harder than in the training. My recent cold, together with the humidity really began to affect my performance. We started to slow from 16 onwards. Really didn't prepare for this as had been fine on the 20 miler training runs. Anyway better to finish slowly than not at all.

We had more cheerers out along the course over the next few miles in the isle of dogs, my sister and BIL were near mile 17, where I briefly stopped for photos.

Becca's squad and my Scope colleagues were next.  And it really helped to know they were coming up as things were beginning to get tough.

Perked up just before I got to the scope cheering point at mile 18; had to put a good show on.  High fived them as I went past!  Stopped for photos which apparently just have hands in my face now as I was too busy high fiving everyone.  Oops!

The next few miles for me were about just getting through it. I wasn't feeling the best. Headache was setting in but regular drinking was easing it along with the enroute showers and water over the head. Must have looked a right state.

We were passing people throwing up at the side and ambulance sirens, this was not what I wanted for myself. Hadn’t come that far to not finish so we allowed ourselves a very short walk break before we started running again.

Got to about 21 and felt really sick and dizzy. Thought I was going to pass out so stopped again and took on some jelly babies. They helped but the nausea never went away. An 11.30 pace was all I was able to manage. Any faster and I feared throwing up. 

Miles 21- 24 were beyond hard. The sick feeling was truly hideous. I stopped enjoying the marathon. I was unable to focus on anything apart from getting to the end. Just keep running was what I had in my head and that's what I did, just ran and ran, no more walking stops.  People were shouting my name but I couldn't even turn to look at them anymore, I just gave them the thumbs up, that is till I heard my name really being shouted at me. I turned to see who it was. It was Peter, one of my staff! I did a double take! That gave me a boot up the backside. Today he said I very much had a look of determination about me so he knew he had to really yell to get my attention. And that he did!  Success!

At that point we still hadn't hit embankment, it seemed to be going on forever.  My garmin was well out of synch with the mile markers by now.  Everytime I got a mile bleep, we were so far from the actual marker we couldn't even see it. But as soon as we did hit Embankment and I could see Big Ben, my spirits lifted! My sister spotted me at around mile 25 but I didn't see her so she got some pics of us going past.

The home straight, well what can I say, turning the corner and seeing the finish line. I was completely utterly filled with jubilation. I've never been so happy to see a finish line. It just opened up and all the cameras! No chance I wasn't going to get some good pics so made sure the cameras got me at every given opportunity. Hands in air, big smile, well to be honest I didn't have to try. I was at the finish line!! I'd made it!! I couldn't believe we'd actually done it.

We crossed the finish line in 4hrs 54mins exactly! Official time!! I'm so pleased it was under 5 hours as for a moment I didn't think we were going to do it.  I would have burst into tears but I was so dehydrated I didn’t have any tears.  Having the medal put round my neck was the best feeling ever!  It was well earned. I deserved it!   We deserved them!

I was stumbling around after that so had to take a seat on the floor gazing at my medal before getting up to collect my kit bag.  I did it!  I ran the London marathon.  I am a marathon runner!!!  I am!  I am!!   

It was an amazing day!! I really really enjoyed the first half, it was so much fun. The crowds were amazing all along the course but the last third of the race was severely hard going.  All throughout though, not even during the hard points did ever question my ability to do it. I always knew I could and would, it just might take a bit longer than hoped. I did something amazing yesterday! I completed the London Marathon!!!  Whoop! whoop! 

So what now?  Well, I'm definitely going to do another one because I don't think I did it justice yesterday. I know I can do it now but I know I can do it better. I haven't fully recovered from my cold, I was coughing en route and it's come back with a vengeance today, including the snotty nose and lack of voice! The humidity was a new running experience and it affected me immensely.  It took many hours before I felt human again. I was drinking electrolytes after the run and they are fab, but my lack of appetite till about 3am this morning said it all really. I woke with a desire for a bacon and egg baguette.  I finally got it at lunch time! So commeth my weird food cravings for junk food!  lol 

I was back at work today, proud of my achievement, but I’ve slowly got more tired and more crippled as the hours have passed.  Just been for my sports massage which was quite painful but worth every second.  I didn’t come out feeling like new but I know it will help my recovery.  

So this is an end of an era.  This is the end of my blog – my first marathon – mission accomplished!  I’d like to thank every single one of you who has supported me on my mission to raise funds for Scope and in my training.  I couldn’t have done it without any of you.  And thank you to everyone who has been following my blog, even if you don’t leave comments.  I was touched by the messages I received before the marathon as I never even knew you were there.  I hope you have been inspired and that you will go on to achieve great things too.  If I can do it, so can you!  Just remember that!! We can achieve anything we set out to do; with a little bit of determination, you can do it!

I haven’t read anyone’s blogs yet but will try to catch up with you all before I go on holiday.  I leave on weds morning till the end of May – a much deserved long holiday, so it doesn’t leave me much time, so some may have to wait till I get back.  I will get round to all my regulars though – you know who you are.  Sorry I didn't catch any bloggers over the weekend.  It was all a bit crazy on my end and I went past the luco stand twice yesterday but saw no one who looked familiar.  Will have to try again another time.

This will be my last post under this title, but until I decide what my next title will be, you’ll have to just watch this space.  As Arnie says:  I will be back!

Congrats to everyone who ran the Virgin London Marathon 2010. We are all a part of history now!   Well done! Now enjoy the rest!