Here's the Proof!

Blackheath, a dreary Sunday morning, crowds assembled in running gear, costumes, plastic macks, applying Vaseline to parts other beers couldn’t reach – why? – the Flora London Marathon of course!!  At about 9.40, we shambled off in the direction the starting gate with comments like “Have we started yet?”, “Is this your first marathon?”, “What is your projected time” – “Today”, or “Before the end of the month”, or “Before the animals!” 

Suddenly, we found ourselves going through the gate, and we were ‘in the London marathon…..’  There followed 26.2 miles of partying, both on and off the route – I don’t think the spectators realised just how important their support was, with our aches (in places we didn’t know we had), our blisters, etc – they were all fantastic, and getting soaked in the process.

The only responsibility we had was to get ourselves to the end, and make sure we didn’t dehydrate, so we just followed the crowd, which meant that later on there were questions like “Where are we?”, “Are we south or north of the river? – “No idea!!”  The whole thing was a blast, and if anyone has any doubts about doing it, I’d encourage them – the feeling at the end, as I sprinted (yes, sprinted!) to the finishing gate was like a combination of passing exams, my driving test, falling in love, looking at my newborn twins, singing Verdi Requiem/Carmina Burana, all rolled into one. 

At the time of writing I’ve raised approximately £2,200 for the National Society for Epilepsy and feel absolutely terrific, no aches or pains and the blister has all but disappeared.  Thank you everyone who encouraged me both mentally and financially, it really was one of the best days of my life!  The only disappointment was being beaten by one of the rhinos…… but he was very fit!!!!

Liza Grant