The London Marathon Race Day

This was to be my 2^nd London Marathon and somehow my heart wasn’t in it. I hadn’t done the winter training as well as I should have. I was also more concerned this year that Katy, my heavily pregnant wife only 2 weeks short of her due date, would be visiting the mat ernity ward of Ipswich hospital whilst I was half way round the London Marathon. I had visions of finishing the Marathon and running a further 10 miles to Liverpool Street Station and getting a train home sharpish!

A 5am wake up ensured that I had time for a quick shower and breakfast before catching the Stowmarket Striders Running Club coach from Needham Market. The atmosphere on the coach was tense with anticipation. The first challenge of the day was negotiating the coaches on-board toilet. It is very confined for a tall lanky lad like me!

The second challenge was quickly evident when we had to advise the coach driver the best route through London to Greenwich and the Marathon start. He dropped us runners off at the wrong start, leaving us to walk a mile up a big long hill to our correct start. The spectators were driven and dropped off at Tower Bridge.

The final challenge of the morning was to beat 30,000 other runners to the limited number of toilets around the start area. Visiting the toilets after many other nervous runners is certainly the less glamorous side of the Marathon!

After changing, dropping off our baggage at our designated trailer, it was time to wait at the start. Based upon your expected finish time you are given a pen number from 1 to 9. 1 being for the elite runners and 10 for the fun runners. I was in pen 3 and with my running partner, Bob, whom I was pacing. We crossed the start line after a minute from the gun being fired and began the 26.2 grueling miles.

The crowds were great and running the start is an uplifting experience. Aiming for an 8 minutes a mile pace, we settled in at a slightly faster than planned at 7 minute 50 seconds every mile. The crowds were buzzing around the Cutty Sark after 6 miles and the bands along the route were great.

A little over 12 miles and the famous Tower Bridge came into view. The noise from the crowds, 10 people deep, was incredible. Bob and I reached the half way point in 1 hour and 43 minutes. This was too fast for me, I was feeling tired and sent Bob on his way to beat his target time of 3 hours 30 minutes. I had done my pace making job and settled into a slower pace to get round the last half.

Heading into the docklands I was feeling worse and at 18 miles I hit that wall they all talk about on TV. My leg muscles cramped and physically was a wreck. It was a very hot day to run a marathon. I was forced to walk out the cramp so as not to cause myself injury. Once the cramp eased, I could hobble along at a slow jog. Soon other members of my club passed me, concerned for my well being. I wasn’t the only one suffering and saw many others receiving medical assistance.

A fellow Stowmarket Strider, Richard Fellingham, caught up with me and I managed to run along with him as far as St Catherine docks, but again was forced to walk due to cramp. A rather attractive St Johns Ambulance lady offered me a massage at the side of the road and was dismayed that I turned her down. I was simply focused on finishing and collecting my medal.

The crowds were great, shouting out encouragement for the runners to finish and I managed to jog a little more along the Embankment. With a little less than 2 miles left I was walking again when a TV lady asked if I would like to be interviewed by Roger Black. Meeting a great sporting personality was not an opportunity to be missed, besides I needed the rest, so I accepted. Although sadly not shown on television I had a brief interview with Roger before he wished me well. Course, this was a great pick-me-up and I was running again.

From nowhere, Richard caught me up again explaining that he’d stopped for the toilet, and thankfully ran with me the last leg past Big Ben, along Birdcage walk, round past Buckingham Palace and into the final 200 metres to the finish. A final time of 3 hours, 51 minutes. Slower than last year by 11 minutes but within my target time of 4 hours. My final placing was about 8000^th finisher out of an esti mat ed 32,000 finishers.

We got our photo taken together, walked up a little platform for the marshals to remove the computer chip from your laces that measures your time, picked up a very heavy bag of goodies and I immediately disappeared into the massage tent for a much needed leg massage.

Feeling a little better I slowly hobbled down the row of lorries to collect my belongings before getting changed into some clean fresh clothes. It was then onto the café by Cleopatra’s needle for feeding and watering.

Other club runners arrived at the café with their various war stories and by 5pm we were back on the bus going home, each of us with a glass of champagne to celebrate.

I would recommend anyone thinking of running the London Marathon to go for it. The atmosphere is amazing, the crowds carry you along, you’ll never experience anything like it being probably the worlds greatest Marathon. Yes there is pain at the end but the accomplishment is so rewarding. Also you should never worry about being last – there’s always that guy in the deep sea diving outfit who’ll be 3 days behind you!

Having now done the London Marathon twice, would I do it again? Yes – but maybe not next year as I will no doubt have other priorities being a new parent. However, I may yet change my mind!?

Richard Nash

Karen's Marathon Report

I couldn’t believe it had arrived, the 13^th April, the day I was going to run the London Marathon, a dream I have had for several years. I had to get a taxi to Haughley because my car wouldn’t start (thankfully I discovered this the day before), and arrived, with my Grandma, at 5:15am – it felt a bit surreal wandering the streets at that time of the morning, but with 30 minutes to wait for the bus, it was our only option. After a panic that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, because the bus was 30 seconds late, we were on our way.

We arrived at the start and with help from Richard’s Nash and Fellingham, me and my bag made it to our allocated spots (not before slapping on the sun cream due to the hot day that had been forecast). I took my place stood next to a couple of sunflowers – thinking if there was a camera around, I’d be able to pinpoint myself! …And we were moving! …then we weren’t, then we were off again, then we stopped, no surprises there then! The annoying bit was when we ended up in a bottle neck at Cutty Sark and had to walk, especially when there were only a few spectators on one side, and a huge space fenced off for them.

Around the corner were my first group of supporters – mum, dad, my brother Steve and friend Carl. In my head, I split the course up by where my friends and family were going to be, the next leg was to mile 9, where Sean and his brother should have been waiting. They got stuck in traffic! I then missed them at mile 11, but it was the fact that I expected to see them that kept me going.

I loved the music and DJs at the pubs, and the entertainment all round the course was wonderful. I now know that there’s no way to really feel the atmosphere without running the whole course. At Tower Bridge I was still having a good time, and the cheers of various Striders at this point certainly helped.

By this stage, after several weeks of planning, I only had about 2 miles to run, between seeing my family. They were absolutely brilliant, and had plenty of stories about their travels round the course – such as when mum pointed out the Millennium Dome and dad realised they were in the wrong place, because they shouldn’t have been able to see it from there!

Coming back from the Isle of Dogs I saw Grandma with my Aunt and 12 year old cousin (who, after initially being full of enthusiasm, had become very disappointed after missing me at 14 miles, he soon got back into the spirit of things as he handed me my supply of Jelly Babies).

It was starting to hurt now, not my muscles so much, but my ankles, knees and lower back. I blame it on the constant dodging of people and bottles. I started walking up the slope out of one of the ‘tunnels’, but my spirits were instantly raised by cheers from Tracy and Sue. I then saw Sean for the first time, followed by the rest of the Striders. The other thing which kept me going, was the sight of a man wearing his medal, it reminded me why I was there, why it was hurting so much, and why I had to get to the finish. After that I just kept going, with the knowledge that it was all going to be worth it!

And, I made it! It was a wonderful experience, but one that I don’t plan to repeat – although, I didn’t think I was going to want to run (except for the social side, and to keep fit), I thought it was going to feel like a chore that I no longer had to do… But, I enjoyed my first Tuesday back at the club and can’t wait to get back into it. I even wrote the dates of the forthcoming races in my diary this morning, something I didn’t expect to be interested in (I now have a new race strategy – imagine that person behind is a rhino – and they’re NOT going to overtake you again!).

Karen Goodwin

Results

Place (*) Name Time

486 Nick Stephens 2:53:40

3212 Bob Ratliffe 3:25:45

5574 Jo Naughton 3:42:41

7078 Richard Nash 3:51:29

7105 Richard Fellingham 3:51:36

9146 Andrew McIntyre 4:01:49

11729 Paul Goldman 4:16:51

13502 Ian Leedham 4:26:14

14863 Les Basham 4:34:02

18288 Trevor Abbott 4:55:39

4942 Karen Goodwin 4:58:44

(*) Placing is your finishing position in the men's or ladies race.