Flora London Marathon 2007
Sunday
dawned sunny and bright, and we headed of to Blackheath shortly after 6:30
and arriving by 9 am. All the activity and atmosphere at Blackheath finally
focussed my sleep deprived brain on the fact this was
indeed real, we were about
to set out to run 26.2 miles. After an apprehension induced call of nature,
some warm up and stretches, we headed for the blue start area. 9:45 came and
went without much fanfare just a discernable lift in the tension as
we slowly edged forward towards the start line, we were off. At about 1 mile
the green starting celebs merged onto the main route, followed at 3 miles by
the mass red start. The
masses merging from the left were left in no doubt where there place was by
all the light hearted booing
and jeering which seemed to ease the tension a bit. We seemed to be pretty
much sticking to our pre planned 10-11 minute mile schedule as Pete let me
know as we passed each mile marker in turn. By 8 miles the sun was beating
down, and water took on a whole
new significance. As we approached 10 miles we took advantage of showers
provided by the London fire brigade, but the relief was short lived.
Close to the halfway point and Tower bridge the crowds that had been large
to this point, were huge and very vocal,
a big lift, left off the bridge and out into docklands. At various points I
think both of us had gone through “bad patches” of varying degrees, but at
18 miles every fibre of my body was screaming at me to stop this madness,
right on cue I heard a woman behind me say through gritted teeth “I haven’t
come this far to quit now”, and somehow the legs kept turning. From that
point things seemed to change from a small community on the run, to
thousands of individuals fighting personal battles for survival.23 miles and
at last we found the “unofficial guide dogs support team” another much
needed lift, and another subtle change. Runners now seemed not only
determined to get themselves to the finish but those struggling around them
also. Four hundred metres to go and plans for a grandstand finish were
hatched, sprint the last 200 and a high five over the line.
What a day…….
Why run 26.2 miles ?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-8XSit8XyeM
Richards FLM 2007 gallery
Keep up to date with my progress by visiting
My Real
Buzz training blog
Back to top
British 10k London race.
The 2006 British
10K London Run has been won by Kenyan runner Patrick Makau, in a time of 29
mins 52 secs! The first female was Catherine Mutwa, also from Kenya, in a
time of 34 mins 19 secs. The winners are pictured receiving their winners
medals from Kate Hoey MP.
The race was run by almost 20,000 runners in sweltering July heat, raising
money for over 350 charities and making the 6th British 10K London Run a
resounding success! Event Founder and Director Mike O'Reilly would like to
thank the many people who contributed to the organisation and smooth running
of the race.
Sunday July 2nd and even hotter than the Hyde park
race Pete and I finished our tour of the sights of London in 1:02;11
knocking forty seconds off our previous PB time. We'll have to wait for the
official photos to be published as the newly formed Guide dog running team
support posse' got so excited the forgot to take any.
Once again a BIG
THANK YOU to all the sponsors and particular thanks to Christine for
organising the fundraising, and Pete for guide running.
Image gallery
BUPA Capital 10k Training progress
At last the training seems to be paying off. In May I've
run nearly 135 kilometres with close to 65 kilometres
of cross training to break up the boredom. The endurance ability is
definitely improved, possibly at the expense of speed, but at least that
means I stand a reasonable chance of staying the
course.
Pete 1:02:51 2116 Kevin 1:02:51 2117
The official Sportcam photos are now
available
here
race numbers are 5408, 7927.
Thank you to
Pete
for getting me through the "rough patches", all the sponsors and the support team "nuts"
who roasted by the roadside.
Richard's Capital 10K image gallery
