London Marathon 2017 weekend was very important this year not just the fact that it was only my second time and Sarah’s twenty first time at running it but the fact that it was my birthday (Never ran a marathon on my birthday) and we were able to run it together 🙂 We were also helping to raise money for Rachel Turner who has terminal cancer. If you would like to donate on Just Giving please click on this link: Rachel Turner Just Giving

Myself, Sarah, Les and Sue went on an organised coach trip for the weekend, its far easier and less stressful than travelling down to the big smoke either by train or car. We travelled down on Saturday morning arriving at the Excel in London to pick up our race numbers. Sarah was Green Start 27070, I was Blue Start 22733. The exhibition was busy with lots of people looking at running gear for me it was an opportunity to sample energy food, ohhh I do love Chia Charge 🙂 Sarah bought one top and I dribbled over the Garmin Fenix 5, what a crazy price for a watch though. Once we picked up our numbers and had a look around the expo we headed for our hotel to relax, unwind and have our evening buffet.

The evening buffet was yummy although in my opinion buffet should come with a health warning, lol. I do like a good buffet! There was lots of choice for meat, fish and vegetarians eaters and there was lots of fab desserts too 🙂

Time for a chilling evening although there was a small matter of Sarah sorting her race kit

Race Day

We woke up on Sunday morning with a good nights sleep, I had crashed out 🙂 We had a good breakfast having scrambled egg on toast, beans and a hash brown to go along with our juice and coffee before we set out to the centre of London.

Like I said Sarah was on the green start and I was on the blue start but after explaining to the stewards that Sarah was my carer (only joking) and it was my birthday they let us start together, rather than trying to find each other on the course which would have been a nightmare.

We were crammed like sardines at the start but the atmosphere was electric. The race started at 10am and it only took us a few minutes to get over the start line. It was super busy on the course ducking and diving between different runners keeping together. The atmosphere was amazing on the course chatting as always and hi fiving every spectator who dared to put their hand out, I even got a Cliff Richard Power Boost along with Power Rangers and Pekachu. As well as dodging other runners we spent alot of time dodging water or lucozade bottles which lined the side of the streets at the water stations as runners discarded them. I came a cropper at mile four on a water bottle going over on my ankle but I have strong ankles and all was good. We had a toilet break at mile 9 plus Sarah wanted to remove her t shirt and just run in her vest as it was getting a bit warm. There are many amazing sites at the London Marathon, we got to run passed the Cutty Sark, see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben but by far my favourite is when we run over tower bridge. Runners in the marathon wear all sorts of outfits; we saw batman, robin, spiderman to name but a few. The runners who wear the heavy costumes always amaze me not just the fact of how heavy their costumes are but how hot they are getting inside them.

Our race was going well, we were running 8:30 min/mile all round the course, ducking and a diving, hi fiving, taking water on and having the odd sweet. We also saw many friends running the marathon on the course as well as support from people we knew in the crowds and apparently we were being stalked on TV by our Crazy ChaseLife Gang. We went through all the stages of the race feeling comfortable especially considering we had only ran up to approximately fourteen miles in training but we run every day so we knew we had the miles in the legs. We saw Les and Sue at twenty five mile, I went over to give them a hug and then ran to catch up with Sarah. The last kilometre was a struggle for me but we ran for the finish line holding hands and yes we kissed at the finish line as always 🙂

The support on course by the runners, spectators and marshals was epic. It truly was an amazing experience running the London Marathon with my amazing Fiancee Sarah and to do it on my birthday was a bonus. I have now ran London Marathon twice, no need for me to do it again as this one could not be beaten. If you asked me which marathon should you do, I would say any which is well organised and is 26.2 miles but you will be hard pressed to beat the atmosphere at London. To check out the results from the London Marathon you can click the London Marathon Results.

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