Social & Information

Isn’t Gerry amusing!!!...our train journey on the Saturday, down to London consisted of a major photo shoot for Gerry’s glossy marathon ‘insert’ which she is concocting to be published alongside the famous Fryers Flyer.

Arriving in London was so exciting and what a wonderfully sunny hot day it was - not that that would bode well for me for running 26+ miles the next day!

I love London and staying at the Novotel Tower Hill holds many great memories. It’s such a magnificent setting with Tower Bridge looming above, knowingly holding almost the halfway mark on the marathon. The crowds here are breathtaking and bring a tear to the eye and an overwhelming feeling. Anyway, I digress…

Dene, Gerry, Helen, Geoff and I set off to collect our race numbers from the Xcel centre at the Docklands and enjoyed the blazing sunshine en route.

I was so excited, yet in the back of my mind I was hoping my heel would hold out as I’d been suffering from the return of my Plantar Fasciitis for the last fortnight and been treating this extensively on a daily basis…

Helen was great. Once she’d woken up from a late night at work the previous day, she was just so supportive and had a genuine interest and hope for everyone taking part. (especially her mum – Gerry). I truly think everyone’s excitement/nervousness rubbed off on her.

I’d decided I was going to use a different tactic this year, after trying to run sub 3 hours on various occasions prior to this. I certainly wasn’t going to make it onerous. In fact I felt I’d let my pals down more than myself if I didn’t achieve my goal ! My idea was to ‘enjoy’ the race – yes the whole damn thing – so I pretended I was on my own little open top sightseeing London tour bus and enjoyed the sights very much. Also I had decided I was running certain miles for different folk, so it was wonderful when I ran mile 13 for Helen (her birthday is 13th March) and then she was there in the crowd on Tower Bridge @ the 13 mile mark – now what a boost! I felt elated.

Geoff and I managed to bump into each other around the half marathon mark and have a mini chat before heading off into the unknown feeling of the 2nd half of the race…it was lovely to see him.

I even managed to enjoy my worst part of the race… The Isle of dogs and ran some difficult miles for my mum, which meant a lot.

Then came the calf cramps…from mile 18 on and off to the end – arrgh!...it’s nearly every marathon I get this!...and I take Magnesium daily and don my compression socks. What more can one do? I just never know at this point if my legs will carry me to the end – it’s weird!

I was so excited when I got to mile 23, which isn’t far past the hotel and Tower Bridge – knowing I was almost there and on target and also running this mile for Geoff, myself and my friend Rach.

I ran miles 5, 10 , 15 and 20 for Elizabeth (anything divisible by 5!) but I’m afraid mile 25 went out of the window as the cramps had taken over. Ouch!..but I knew if I plodded on past Westminster and along Birdcage Walk that I could still make it. I will never forget that feeling.

I felt fine though! – and then I saw a chappy racing in his wheelchair and I just had to run over and tell him how fantastic he was doing. This was even caught on camera (gosh I hope it didn’t look like I was going to put him off!)

…Then came the Mall and I could soon see the clock, though this part passed quite slowly as I had slowed down re the cramps, but I was completely taken over with Euphoria…the clock…the finish line…and 2.58.11. God…at long last….no time for tears…lots of folk to chat to and photos to be taken …and now…wondering how Geoff and everyone else had done…

I have to thank Helen for her support – she was definitely my mascot for the weekend…and er yes I did eventually shed a tear…and a wine or two was had and toasted…’To London’

Thanks all for your tremendous support.

See results on web site on Linda’s race report

Ps I won’t spoil Gerry’s story…I’ll let her tell you in her own words…. :-)