Tim Boswell's London Marathon Blog by tnmboswell

I slept better than expected, but was still pretty much awake by the time the alarm went off at 5.30am.  I was banking on eating by 6am, ready to leave the hotel by 7.30am.  This all went to plan – and the hotel staff were as good as their word in serving porridge for breakfast.  Ideal !  (if not the tastiest brand of the lot ..!).  It’s amazing how quickly the time went after breakfast ... the hour or more available was spent packing my kit bag, pinning on the race number onto my vest and checking, double checking and triple checking I’d not forgotten anything.

I met Winchy outside the hotel just before 7.30am and we took the short walk to Charing Cross together before heading for our individual trains as we were starting from different points.  It was a great recommendation of Martin’s to get a train from Charing Cross as I got a seat on the train without any bother at all – that would have been a far, far different story had we got on at the first stop – Waterloo East - which was rammed with people.  Once out of Charing Cross station you cross the river straight away, and I watched with a small amount of horror as we headed further and further away from the city centre landmarks, and then further and further away from more ‘far flung’ landmarks such as Canary Wharf.  I think that’s when the distance ahead first struck me. 

We lost most passengers at Greenwich station and then headed onwards to Maze Hill station, for the green start.  Once there, a pleasant surprise awaited in the form of a ¾ mile walk from the station to the start itself.  To further add to the surprise, Maze Hill is actually quite a steep one !  Still, there were some great views back towards Canary Wharf and a real sense of excitement growing as we nearer the start line.  I went straight in to the runners-only area, got my bearings and grabbed a drink, by which point it was about 8.15am.  The morning was fairly cool and cloudy, and there was certainly no sign of the threatened day of unbroken sunshine and high temperatures.  Within the green start compound were the trucks to leave your kit bags, toilets, drinks stands, a big screen and an information point.  Also there was the celebrity area, where Sue Barker began anchoring the BBC One TV coverage at 8.30am.  Thanks to a rather crafty lurk behind the railings, I managed to wave to the audience watching at home.  I’m sure that made their day !  Have a look at the picture below.  Spot the guy on the phone, smiling.  Think of it as a sort of ‘Where’s Wally?’ (without the bobble hat)

 I decided to have a sit down at this point, gather my thoughts and calmly begin the final preparations (or ‘faffing’ as I’ve called it in previous posts !).  It was still quite cool, and I was wearing jogging trousers and a jumper over my kit.  Given the weather forecast was so good, I’d nearly not bothered packing the poncho-type waterproof that Macmillan had provided but by 9am I was counting my lucky stars that I had.  I decided to put it on as a drop or two of rain began to fall.  These drops turned into drizzle, then into a light shower and then into heavy rain.  It then basically chucked it down until around 9.30am.  In the meantime, the PA announcers were making ever-more desperate appeal s for people to put their kit bags onto the trucks.  So, in the middle of this rain storm, there was I in a flurry of jelly babies, Vaseline, clothes and energy drink - trying to get everything into my bag and keep as dry as possible in the meantime.  I failed, and ended up with pretty much everything – myself included – getting soaking wet. 

I’d said goodbye to my nice warm clothes by about 9.20am – leaving me wearing shoes, socks, shorts, running vest and green poncho.  And boy it was cold.  There was nothing for it – I was going to have to run to try and get a bit of body warmth going.  Still, I thought as I looked at a blanket of grey cloud over Greenwich Park, it’s one way of doing those pre-race stretches.  As I’ve mentioned, the rain stopped at around 9.30am and it didn’t feel too long before it was time to line up in pen 8 ready for the start.  It was easy to tell just by looking at the start area that I wouldn’t be taking too long to get over the start line ... and I was about to find out just how long that would be. 

There was a real sense of excitement as the countdown to 9.45am got underway.  Sure, there were a few nerves knocking around, but people just seemed to be wanting to get on with it.  As the starting hooter sounded, and the clock began to tick, I held my fingers over my nose and hands over my mouth.  “This is it”, I thought “I’m about to run the London Marathon”.