London Marathon 2019

I decided to share a few words about my experience on Sunday taking part alongside over 42,000 other participants in the 2019 London Marathon.

Everyone taking part I'm sure had there own reasons for doing so, to beat a previous time, to honour a loved one or perhaps to help raise money for a local charity.

My reasons were:

1. To prove that I could do it, after having a few issues with my knees over the last 12 months it didn't look like I would ever be able to run any kind of distance again but thanks to the wonders of aloe and some good old fashioned determination I did it!
2. To raise some much needed funds for The Whitechapel Centre. The Whitechapel Centre is the leading homeless and housing charity for the Liverpool region. They work with people who are sleeping rough, living in hostels or struggling to manage their accommodation.  They are committed to helping people find and maintain a home and learn the life skills essential for independent living.

So far with the help of all of my friends and contacts I have been able to raise just over £1,400 for the charity which is huge, there is still time to donate though and the link to do so is here and below

My London Marathon experience started at the London Marathon Show on Saturday where I collected my race number. It was the first year that the event organisers had issued final race instructions electronically with numbers being collected at the show, this was one of many measures to help make the marathon more sustainable from an environmental perspective.

After a good meal on the evening before the race of the obligatory pasta and a breakfast of porridge and fruit I joined the rest of the people at the Red Start Line.

The atmosphere at the start was amazing and the support from the crowd all the way around the course was fantastic as usual too!

After setting off I felt good and was enjoying the day as you can see from the image to the left taken by a friend that was waiting to urge me on just after the start.

The weather was ideal for me as it was not too hot and dry. I had my music, my fitness tracker (well 2 actually!) and a bag full of gels to keep me going too.

After running for around 12 mile you are greeted by one of the best sites on the course which is Tower Bridge - the image at the top of the page is a picture that another runner took of me as I approached the bridge......I think he felt sorry for me as I was trying (badly) to take a selfie without too much success. This is just evidence of the togetherness felt and shown to every runner by the crowd, the marshalls, the first aiders and the other runners themselves too - as I said at the start everyone is there for their own reasons but more importantly there is a real sense of helping and supporting one another that you don't always see or feel at other times......great to be a part of something like that.

As I approached 16 miles I got the biggest of boosts when my awesome wife Tracy came to encourage me, she'd been tracking my progress on the app and had seen me at mile 6 but I hadn't seen her there, so she was more determined than ever to make sure I saw her the next time and it was a great pick me up, we walked together for a little while whilst Tracy told me I'd been on the television (fame at last!) and how she'd seen me at mile 6 by the Cutty Sark but I'd not seen her. We parted ways shortly before the 17 mile marker and I set off to finish the marathon feeling good at this stage but that was soon to change.

Just after the 17 mile marker I stopped to check my shoes as it felt as though my socks had shifted, I adjusted my sock and tightened my shoe and set off again.

I continued along the course amazed by the level of support even for the slower runners like myself, it is a great lift to have people cheering you on who don't know you but do seem to genuinely want you to succeed.

It was at mile 21 that I decided that I needed to speak to one of the team from St John's Ambulance (who did an amazing job) as I thought I had a blister on my left foot - as it turns out I was told I had 2! A couple of plasters later and I was back on my way to get to the end.

Being one of the slower runners as I was nearing the end the roads were starting to be re-opened so me along with a lot of other runners still trying to finish had to alternate from running on the course to the pavements and vice versa......this was one of the lowest points of the marathon as whilst I understand the desire to get the roads open again in a major city it doesn't help those runners that may be injured or just a little slower than the rest to get to the end - I always feel like it is the charity runners like myself that need more support at the end than some of the other runners but that's just my opinion :-)

By mile 23 I could feel a blister on my right foot......this was going to be a long last 3.2 miles!

One thing that I did like at mile 23 though was the Lucozade Sport Oohos seaweed edible and biodegradable capsules that they were trialing at this event - this was just one of the measures being taken by the event organisers to make the event more sustainable - other measures that they took can be found here

Finally, after 7 hours and 27 minutes and 24 seconds, I crossed the line. It definitely was a marathon rather than a sprint for me and whilst the time won't worry Sir Mo (yet!) it was a huge achievement for me to get to the finish.

Blister on my left foot at the end.....

and my right foot too!

Overall my experience at the 2019 London Marathon was another positive one and whilst I am not sure if I will be doing another one I created more memories from this one.

Finally, I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to the amazing team at Capitalise who as well as sponsoring me also provided me with a t-shirt and fleece for the event - thank you very much guys, your support and encouragement truly did mean a lot.