The marathon itself!

Well I have been mostly getting over the stiffness from running that marathon.

On the day, a couple of workmates came down with me and we made our way to the start. I got there about 15 minutes after the start but of course I had to get myself properly equipped and put everything that I didn't need in storage. I took my time about this as I wanted to start as late as possible. I started about 10:15am.
The intention was to walk with my workmates to 3 miles but after about 400m, I could see they were not keeping up and I lost them. (I phoned up later to find out where they went). So I walked on as I had planned to meet some more people at Woolwich at 11am. When I got there, I dumped my windjacket and other odds and sods.

The one thing absolutely key to marathon running is all the support you get from supporters on the route. Now I had my name printed on my vest. So there were a lot of shouts for my name. Also the mere fact I was carrying an inflatable guitar with me, enticed remarks like "play us a song/tune?" After a number of attempts, I finally warbled out "Valerie" that shut a few people up!

The race for me really began at Woolwich. But the heavens really opened when I got to Greenwich (6 miles) and I splashed my left shoe and got that a little soaked. When I got to around 10 miles, my legs started to feel a bit heavy. My carbs have disappeared? The only explanation I can figure out was the day before travelling around London picking up my marathon registration and taking photos of key places had tired me out. Out came the fruit pastilles, which helped a bit.

New problem came at 12 miles, when I felt like a pee. I got a bit anxious thinking where was it. When I got there, there was a long queue for about 10-12 portable loos. I had to wait another 10-12 minutes there. Continued onwards to Westferry station where I stopped to see my housemates. I went on but my stride was shortening. I was actually surprised I managed to keep going for another few miles at such a slow pace. I had to stop again for another potty break at 19 miles. Now I was really going slowly after that.

Then smack! my legs hit the wall just after 21 miles. It looked to me as if I would be walking the final 5 miles.
22 miles seemed to take forever. This was going to take too long. From somewhere, I managed to raise a gallop. I was geeing myself up but slapping my guitar as if I was a jockey whipping a racehorse. I was also pumping my fist trying to get the adrenaline flowing. You know what it actually worked and this got me to about 600m from the finish, where my legs really turned jelly and I noticed that was running as fast as people were walking. Housemate phones me up as I crossed the line and I gave him a running commentary as a rhino galloped past much to my annoyance!

After gathering my things, I went to meet my parents. By this time, cramp really kicked in and I popped in to see the people at St John's Ambulance. Top people, the girl there gave a nice thigh massage, which helped for about 30 minutes (they stiffened up again). After that, we went to a chinese restaurant. I later heard that Gordon Ramsey wanted a fry-up after his marathon run. Nothing like greasy food after a long hard run!

So there you have it, my first marathon! It turns out I did in 5 hours and 42 minutes. But during the run, it became clear the task was survival, which was never really in question.
In hindsight, I had a troubled training regime and the fact I didn't know I was running in it until two months did not help neither, so I guess I should be thankful I made it.

The lesson here is my training regime next time would be to have a 4-6 month plan.
In the meantime, I am going to be running shorter runs for forseeable future. That said I have applied for next year's marathon, which sod's law will say I will get in as I don't really want to do it next year;)