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My brother came on to cheer me on at last year’s Loch Ness marathon. And found the whole camaraderie, and the event itself, quite inspiring. So he decided to do the London Marathon this year. Roles were reversed, as this time I was going to be the spectator.
The first place I made my way to was Greenwich, just round the corner from the Cutty Sark. Now sunny weather might be nice for a day out with your friends. But it doesn’t make for a nice time whilst you’re running. I wasn’t to quite realise at the time, just how bad conditions were. According to one of my fellow runners at my local running club, it was the worst conditions she had run in the London Marathon….and this was her 20th on the trot!
In Greenwich I saw the elite women running past, then the wheelchair racers (which looked incredibly tough), then the elite men. How they all keep up their pace whilst covering just over 26 miles is truly extraordinary. And not something I will ever hope to do.
The main body of runners then came through, including many people wearing fancy dress; I saw fancy dress rhinos, a guy kicking a football around, a guy juggling and 2 nutters carrying a fancy dress bus on their shoulders. I didn’t realise just how long it would take for my brother to cross the start line (40 mins!), so I made my way to the next viewing point, not having seen him. I went to Canary Wharf which was noisy and really buzzing. The bit I was stood by was after 19 miles, where many runners would have hit ‘the wall’ and start to struggle. But I was truly impressed on how many kept on going.
The final point I went to was round the corner from Westminster, at the 25 mile point. Again, I was truly impressed by the number of runners who kept going, in boiling hot conditions. I finally got to see my brother at this point and especially as this was his first marathon, was delighted to see him run past. Like everyone else, his race time predictions had gone out the window, and the objective was just to get round. It was just hot watching them run past. So well done to him and to everyone else who completed the run. Not sure I’ll be entering for next years!
