Gill's final post in her diary, which has seen her diaries her training schedule over the weeks leading up to April 25th, see's her last day pre-race and the big day itself.
Saturday 24th April
- 10.30am – catch train to London with my sister, Jenny
- 12.30pm – get to London and need to get to expo centre to collect my number – feeling very nervous now – being a country bumpkin – the tubes scare me!
- 3.00pm – finally get to the hotel after spending money at the expo centre on a Virgin London Marathon fleece – as a memento
- 5.00pm – joined a talk from the experts (I went with WRP tours which included hotel, meal, breakfast, bus to start line etc). Oh crumbs what I am doing!
- 6.30pm – Pasta tea and early night
Sunday 25th April
Didn’t get much sleep as you can imagine! Forget about breakfast I will probably throw it back up!
- 7.00am – on the bus ready to the start line
- 9.00am – get soaked as there is a downpour – but it is so muggy – not good weather conditions. I am in pen 9 – right at the back with the fancy dress people!
- 9.45am – the gun goes and we are off – okay so its a slow 10 minute walk before we cross the start line – but as soon as we cross the start line we are off.
Race
- Mile 1 – I need a wee…..
- Mile 2 – decide to stop for a wee – but it’s probably all in my head it takes ten minutes to have a wee – damn queues
- Mile 3 – 6 feeling good, all on target. (Pass a running apple, rhino and someone dragging a brick wall)
- Mile 7-13 – oh yuck it’s all going wrong. Run/walk/run/walk – oh well I am not going to get my time so I will just enjoy the experience. Loving the people shouting ‘go beanie’. The VLM is so well organised water at each station, regular gel stations, regular port-a-loos (although I only go once).
- Mile 14 – whoop past the half way line
- Mile 15 - ? (Not sure what happened – didn’t see this marker!)
- Mile 16 – start to get emotional and decide to text my sister who is waiting to cheer me on at mile 24
- Mile 17 - ? (Not sure what happened – didn’t see this marker!) Damn I missed the runners world supporter stand – they had some wine gums for me!
- Mile 18 -20 (just a bit of a blurr) but I know I am getting to the end so pick up a bit.
- Mile 21 – stop at St John Ambulance, my right calf is really tight and needs a massage (another 10 mins added to my time!)
- Mile 22-23 – again a blurr but looking forward to seeing my sister
- Mile 24 – I desperately search the crowds for Jenny, there she is screaming my name I stop for a well deserved hug and cry
- Mile 25-26.2 – I can do this and will do this – whoop!
- Mile 26.2 – cross the line – remember to smile at the camera!
Medal round my neck, final photo, collect my goody bar (yummy a marathon bar), phone my husband who makes me cry saying how proud is of me and met my sister.
After this it was a bit blurry, Jenny just transferred me on and off tubes, we collected our belongings from the hotel and got a MacDonald’s before the train home! The train home was interesting my legs stiffened up and was walking very funny towards the end of the day.
I did it – I have run a marathon! And have raised £2773.00 for RNLI
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