We arrived on Friday morning, pretty early and spent the day having a bit of a look around. I have to see my knee was already feeling 'a bit wrong' which didn't bode well, but I just ignored it...
On the Saturday we found our way out to the sports centre next to the Olypic arena where we had a bit of a look around the marathon expo and picked up my bib number, chip, map and free running shirt. It was absolutely rammed but seemed really well organised, I spent quite a bit of time scanning the crowd looking for people who I thought might be slower than me and really I struggled to find any.
Infact I didn't realise this was such a 'serious' event. There was a grand total of 2 people in fancy dress, one was batman and the other may well have just been (as Paul described) a bad tranny, we weren't sure.
I think I look a bit daft in my seal hat so passed it over to Paul before the start on the day.
(missguided confidence at the start)
So on the day itself Paul and I got up stupidly early for breakfast and paranoid it would take ages to get to the stadium set off on th emetro before it got light outside, we were there before they even opened and it was freezing!
I started in the final group (F) and I couldn't believe how many people were there, met some lovely ladies at the start line one of which told me about a marathon in France which sounds more up my street, you get wine instead of water every 5k, and food on the way around, oysters, mussles, cheeze and bread - AMAZING!
Anyway the speedy ones at the front set off at 9.30...
(the pros hadn't come out yet but these were the next best super speedy amateur types)
It took us at the back about 20 mins to get out of the stadium and then we were off around the park doing an 8k loop before moving further out of the city. Paul had spent the previous evening planning, over pasta, where he might see me if he fully utilised his travel card.
As we started to be abl eto run freely it felt like the whole world overtook me, so whenever I managed to overtake some one (very rarely) I felt a small victory inside.
I saw Paul first before I'd hit 10k then he managed to get back to the stadium to see the winner coming in, it would be another 3 and a half hours before I made it back there...
My knee started to go before 5 k and at about 16k I first thought of giving up, a minibus had come past me to pick up some poor wounded bloke and seeing me limping along they drove along side me and asked if I had a problem and needed to get in, I soooo wanted to get in but didn't, they followed me for 5 minutes like vultures waiting for their prey to die.
I started texting Paul, mostly words that I don't care to repeat on here but I knew that I'd see a friendly face again at 26k so though I might as well keep going till then, in the meantime there was some great entertainment along the way and some lovely families who had set up their own refreshment stalls on the route giving out home made lemonade and gingerbread men, not quite merlot and oysters but it was gratefully recieved.
It was around this time that a woman puked banana and energy gell right next to me and another chap swayed off the course into a hedge.
I got past the half way point literally 6 minutes before the gate cut off time and thought I'd have a little walk for 1k and see if it helped... it didn't but a nice lady (runner) gave me some codine (or at least I hope it was codine) and it actually took the edge off for a while. So anyway I carried on thinking just 1 more k then see how you feel, just 1 more k...
About 7k fron the end I was walking (limping) intermittantly and had been for a while but I saw mum, dad and Paul and Paul decided to run alongside me on the path by the route until the end, I think I would have given up if he hadn't. By this time the half marathon speedy ones were wooshing past me, and me and the fellow slow/ fat/ old/ injured marathon flaggers carried on amongst the crowd. It was easy for Paul for a while but as we got near the end it was really crowded and he had to keep taking detours through cafe bars, hurdling dogs and children and weaving through the crowds, I was pretty much crying by this point.
I had a brief moment of insanity at the last 500m mark and decided that I needed to beat someone so there was another marathon runner ahead of me that I'd been tailing for miles and I decided to sprint to the end.
I can't believe I made it but I'm so glad I didn't give up! Yes my knee is completely buggered (since coming home I've been to minor injuries and been diagnosed with a stress fracture which is why it hurt so much and why the injection didn't make it better, there is also potentially some carlidge damage)... but I don't care, it was worth it.
I can tick this marathon lark off the bucket list now, I think I'll keep running when my knee heals and might even have another go at some point to see what I could achieve without a fracture and a cold, but thats for another year, the next thing will have to be a bit more low impact.. suggestions on a postcard
xxx
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