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Trailing Clouds of Glory - the build up
Sorry, have been really slack in getting our marathon report in but here is the intro.
Saturday, no. 1 son gave us a lift to the station to catch the London bound train, my stomach was already in knots with the anticipation. Train arrived on time – wow! Then began the trek from Euston to the Expo. Very impressed with the speed at which we were processed through, thought we would be there for ages when we saw the queues. Bought a marathon mug – well, I thought I deserved a cup just for getting this far. Picked up a couple of rain cape freebies from the Nike stall and bought a very fetching vest with London A-Z map on it. Outside for a coffee - saw the people who had set next to us on the train on the way down from Manchester – weird.
Back on the DLR and tube to Hyde Park to book in to hotel. Assured that breakfast was at 7am – good, would allow us just the right amount of time to get to the train station to pick up the train to Greenwich.
Wandered over the road to the park and sat around for the rest of the afternoon in the hot sunshine – what, hot sunshine? But we have done all our training in freezing and/or rainy conditions. Quick trip to Boots to buy sun block just in case.
Saturday evening, very agreeable pasta party meeting the Running Commentary forumites ( and M!) - lots of good advice and a promise of some support at mile 22 from SF Plodder and Sweder at the JDRF camp if we were to get that far. And So To Bed, after applying industrial foam ear plugs and setting hotel supplied alarm clock, both mobile phone alarms and ordering an early morning call from hotel reception – having come this far I didn’t want to be late.
Did manage a little sleep, woke up with various bells ringing from all over the place. Anxiety hit big time as I took a shower, but decided to ignore it as much as possible and go in search of breakfast. Ahh, bit of a hiccup at this point. The breakfast we had been assured started at 7am actually only kicked off at 8 am on Sundays – just great, but at lest we had had a cup of tea in our room. If only they had told us this yesterday we could have had room service, so a big boo for the Mostyn Hotel, Marble Arch. Cut our losses and headed for the nearest McDonalds and a promise of porridge – forget it, they were closed too, only one thing to do, head for the station. The good news – Bliss, it was actually raining!!!
Duly arrived a Charing Cross following lots of other nervous looking individuals clutching FLM baggage sacks. Charing Cross was absolutely heaving, but we paused long enough to pick up 2 flapjack bars before heading for the train- well at least I reasoned they were porridge oat based.
Immensely long train but also immensely full. Pounded down the far end of the platform and managed to get seats, although not together. Munched flapjack and sipped water on the way to Greenwich. Felt so sorry for the runners stranded on platforms as we didn’t stop at the stations in the later stages on the journey. I would have been in a blind panic at that point.
It seems a little bizarre to start the day you are due to run a marathon by walking for 20 minutes to reach the start, are the organisers some kind of masochists? Mr SW was actually due to start at blue start, but we decided he would infiltrate himself into the red start assigned to me by Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation who I was running for as we wanted to run this together (ahh!) We reasoned if he kept a sweatshirt on at the start and we didn’t try to enter a pen but just lined up at the back it would be OK and so it proved.
15 minute queue for the loos so I refused to be rushed once I had claimed a cubicle;-) Wandered the umpteen yards back to the back of the start line – Weird, saw the people who had set next to us on the train down from Manchester again – what were the chances of seeing them twice in amongst so many people?
Nothing felt real at this point. Mr SW decided he needed the loo again so wandered off, needless to say as soon as he was out of site the hooter went to signal the start – typical, I was left stranded right at the back not having a clue what to do, so I wondered about a bit and eventually he re-appeared, we both made our way down to the start cast off our rain capes and sweatshirts (hope Oxfam or someone picks up the discarded clothes?) and duly peeped our way over the timing mat alongside 2 rhinos, Rupert Bear, Chewbacca a couple of Wombles, a fairy or two and another bloke from the same charity who was also a marathon virgin and was hoping to do it in under 4 hours, (he didn’t !)
This was It, no going back now. Only 26 miles and 285 yards to go.
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Trailing Clouds of Glory - the build up
