Anyway, it is the 29th April which means that I have ONLY BLOODY DONE IT!! Below is the review of my race. Hard work, but loved it!
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| Trying out the outfit! |
Well I did it and I
still can't believe it! It was a fantastic weekend in London with Mike, from
heading to the Expo in the morning to register, to getting tea at 23 miles,
then obviously the race. I am not going to lie, it was not easy! I was at a
disadvantage as I kept injuring myself so couldn't do as much long distance
training as I would wanted to, and that was clear on the run.
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| Collecting my number at the Exp |
We woke up early, to
a very soggy and chilly morning, gathered ourselves together and set off towards
the Cutty Sark. We travelled with some other runners(Liz, who I left at
Lewisham, and the very lovely and massively supportive Jo who I 'picked up' at
Lewisham!) and their families and it all felt pretty good. I had to leave Mike at
the edge of the start enclosure and I headed off to find the charity and the
'Too Fat to Run' girls that I was looking forward to running with. I found them
at the bandstand, just before they were due to meet with the Beeb - why do I
always have to speak!! Helen Skelton chatted to us all prior to the interview and I
had to put my two pennies worth in and ended up being on the telebox, twice!!
Very funny! Result - lots of messages!!
It was all starting to feel very
real now, and I was a little nervous but so excited! At about 9.45 and after a
loo stop, we headed together to the pens. I have to admit we did cheat and
climb over the fences but don't tell anyone! We didn't wait too long in the
pens and the excited buzz really got going now. Every so often there was a big
cheer that travelled down the lines, brilliant!
And we were off!!
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| Mike - I can see you!!! |
It was good running with the new
friends I had made, I felt comfortable and happy. Unfortunately I did loose Jo
and Julie after the first couple of miles, but is sounds like they had a good
race together. I felt amazing for the first half, running consistently at or
faster than the 5 hour pacer. I couldn't get over the amazing support that the
crowd gave throughout the whole race. I spent 26 miles thanking people for
cheering!! It was pretty busy and I was concentrating on what I was doing so
didn't really notice too much what was going on around me, or where I was. I
rounded a corner and there was Tower Bridge! Oh gosh, what I sight. It was
fabulous. I knew Mike was waiting for me on the other side of Tower Bridge and
I desperately wanted to see him. It was starting to get tough and I needed a
big hug and an emotional boost! This meant that I had to keep calming myself
down as I was getting teary with the expectation. I was across the bridge, now
I really started scanning the crowds. Then I saw him, waving madly with the
sign that he made at the Expo. I burst into tears!! It was so good to see him!
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| Cutty Sark |
So after a big cuddle
and lots of kisses I carried on my way. Between 15 and 20 miles, it was really
hard. A battle that is for sure. I was not giving up but the doubts started flowing. My Garmin was
playing up and so I was trying to work out how long I had before I would not be
given a medal, trying to guess my pace, trying to work out where I was and how
much further I had still to go. I was still thanking people but not as
enthusiastically as I was just not able to! Peoples call outs were a little
more like 'keep going!' rather that 'Yey, Go Sam! Hey I saw you on the telly!!'
. I did use the crowds to keep me going though, engaging with them and getting
them to send out a roaring cheer, which got the Goosebumps going! At one point
as I was coming back on myself around the Isle of Dogs I saw the machine that
was removing the blue line - the cut off!! Thankfully though I was sensible
enough to know that it was a good 8 miles behind me, but it was still a shock!
I'm not sure when this was but
after not very long I was totally sick of refined sugar and I didn't want anything
else at all, but then 2 brilliant things happened, a chap with oranges appeared
- wonderful, and then a lady with a box of tiny picnic type sausages was there
- oh my gosh I never thought that I would enjoy one of those so much!! This
started to cheer me up as I was starting to get a bit concerned about fuel
intake. No more sausages appeared but I took advantage of the oranges from then
on.
At various points on the course I
saw some Run Mummy Run people and some Bliss people so had a little chat. To be
honest I was only able to concentrate on my own run so I couldn't afford to
spend much time talking to others, but it was nice to see them, especially the
RMR cheering point at mile 19!! The few messages that I got during the race
were also a big boost. My wonderful friend Helen must have known that I had
just stopped in the queue for the loo for example, her perfectly timed message
meant that I got on my way without worry!
I was very grateful to have got
to mile 20; They were starting to take a long time by then! This was ground
breaking for me as I had never gone that far before, but it was also a great
time for countdown. I was still finding it incredibly hard but I knew I was
nearly there, and I was bloody well going to finish. I was able to run for
longer now albeit a loose version of 'running'! I still had it in my head that
I was possibly going to miss out on a medal which was silly really - I had
prepared my most assertive augment ready for the person that was going to deny me my medal though!! I had started noticing places again,
especially as Mike and I had walked much of this area on the Saturday. For some
time I thought I had come through 24 miles, only to come up to the 24 mile
marker - doh!!
25 miles, 25 miles, there is it
come on....!!!
I got to the end of the road and
there was Big Ben! Impressive building, but also getting close to the end of
the race. I started welling up again and I had to work hard not to start hyperventilating
as I had a t the last Great North Run, which had lead to a panic attack!
Amazingly I managed to keep control as I was heading up Horse Guards Parade.
Nearly there now, I've done it, I've done it!! I was looking around for someone
to hold hands with but people were a little sparse by now!
Through the finish line - I can't
believe it - I did it! I heard the tinkle of medals and headed to a lady who
put the medal around my next. I was in floods by this point and she gave me a
big cuddle.
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| Finished!! |
I can't the people enough that
have supported me in the training, dealing with injuries, and with the
fundraising. Without you I could not have done it. Will I do it again? I would
do it tomorrow :-)
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| Fish and chips please :-) |
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