WMWMarathon

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

Lance Armstrong

With that in mind, it was time to get on with it! Months of training, changes to diet and lifestyle, all coming to a head on a very wet Sunday morning. Very, very wet.

6am found me trying to convince my digestive system that eating a jam covered bagel was a good idea, while it was having a wee panic attack to itself and sending me off to the bathroom more often than I would have liked After pottering around checking and re-checking my gear, 7am rolled round and Suz tried to make sense of why she was awake so early on a Sunday!

Not long later we were heading to Princes Street in the pi**ing rain. Christ, the weather was rubbish. Rather surprisingly, considering we live in Edinburgh, I had hardly trained in the rain! I hadn’t been avoiding it, it just never seemed to be raining when I headed out. So suddenly, on the day of the Marathon I’m having to wear more clothing than I did during the winter training!! Bloody rain.

Looking really happy at the start!

After hanging around listening to the world’s most annoying commentary, it was time to start running - after we dodged the puddle of pee (see Ed’s blog!). About a hundred meters in, we hit our first support crew - Suz, Louise, Lesley and Jo. Very impressed to see them all there at 9am on a very wet Sunday morning - so before I go any further I’ve got to say CHEERS!.

Myself and Ed (to the left) just starting.

So off we went heading up the hill of more pee (not kidding here, I wasn’t dodging the puddles to keep my feet dry - I was just worried about what was in there!) before skirting down passed Parliament, running side by side with a big fairy. No, I’m not slagging Ed, there was a 6ft bloke running dressed as a fairy!

Not long after this Ed started playing the ‘how many people we know’ game (hang on, I reckon there might be a link to the fairy here…) with me quickly establishing the lead at 4 - 0. Ed soon started to level the score, with a random spotting of Johnny (does it count if they’re not actually there to see you - just passing?) and then starting calling out random people’s names… I reckon the first guy just waved to shut him up…and then Ed tried to count his dog too!!! As for the family that I scared the crap out of - well, in my defence, Ed had been waving at random old couples standing at their living room windows!

Anyway, after a bus full of waving folks (at least they were by the time we passed them) we were heading for the Prom and more familiar running ground. Part-way along came our next support crew, with big Ed supplying the Mars bars and the rest of the Henderson gang providing both a drop off point for unwanted gear, and a chance for me to pull a very odd face, as shown in Ed’s piccys.

In my mind I had broken down most of the race into slightly less daunting sections - so from here it was onwards to Musselburgh. Just after we left the prom Ed started to pick up the pace a bit, which I figured might happen, and started to pull ahead. The way I looked at it was that Ed would probably take off at pace for a while, and I was quite happy sticking to my usual pace. As it was, my knees started to ache by the time we were coming round to the race course.

More support crew spotting - this time Craig, Gail and Kaia (the dog) all helping to keep the motivation levels up!

Round about now things got a bit confusing, as loads of people started sprinting past me…which was a bit de-motivating…until I realised they were the fresh batch from the relay race! Then two woman with balloons attached caught up - balloons saying 4hrs 15 mins - pace setters! Cool, I figured I’d just keep up with them for a while and that would save me thinking about my pace.

And it worked pretty well, as I stayed with them all the way through Prestonpans, Port Seton and part of the way down the long lonely stretch in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, the route started to throw some small, but deadly hills at me. By the time I got to the turnaround point, I was back at the point of having to walk up the hills and run flats or down hill sections. While being bloody sore, I figure I could handle this.

Like Ed, I also had to endure the crap random up-hill bit around 19 miles, and to be honest I would have walked it if I hadn’t heard the combined shouts from the Henderson / Green support crew By now I was done with my running pack (drank it all and was using my knee support), so I left that with said support crew. Feeling somewhat lighter, and energy levels topped up again thanks to Big Ed’s Mars bars, I set off for what was starting to feel like the final push.

The 19 mile gear drop!

This is where the real battle began. You’re probably thinking I mean a battle of mind over body, willpower and other such meaningful things. Nope, I’m talking about my battle with the deadliest nemesis known to man. A clown. That’s right, for the next 6 miles my main motivation was to avoid the embarrassment of being beaten over the finish line by a man dressed as a clown. I’d overtake him, then get to a hill, walk up it and find him overtaking me. Evil clown…

My Nemesis!

On a slightly more serious note, by the time I got to about 24 miles I was really suffering. I don’t think I ever thought about stopping, but I was really conscious of just how much damage I was doing to my body. Round about now I really started to think about why I was doing this, and was surprised to find myself crying! Yep, grown man, running a marathon, crying. Quite funny really! I guess it was the first time I’d had no way of changing the subject or doing something else when I started thinking about being in a coma and the effect it had on me, and to be honest, I’m glad. It felt good to just deal with it for a change.

The last Dash

Then we come to the end. After the last slight uphill, it was a flat run to the line. By now, my running style was more Forrest Gump than Linford Christie, so the last mile was bloody agony. But coming into the race course and hearing the crowd, and especially the Big Support Crew (Hendersons + Suz, Louise, Lesley, Jo, Dave and Mum & Dad up in the stand) cheering me on made a last push possible. Like Ed, I reckon I did a sprint finish, which means I was probably moving slightly faster than a lamp, and crossed the line with a cheer, arms in the air.

Yep, definitely looks like a sprint finish!

2 days on, there’s a couple of things I can say for definite.

• Running a Marathon bloody hurts.
• Training was definitely worth it, but on the day it’s all about willpower.
• Having your loved ones around makes a huge difference!
• And running a Marathon really bloody hurts!

So here we are at the end of what has been a huge event in both our lives. I have to say a huge thanks to Ed for not only setting up and running the fantastic website, but for stepping up and putting himself through the hell of the training and the actual Marathon. He gets to choose the next challenge…which scares me a lot…..

Seriously, cheers Ed.

Cheers!

All in, I’m really glad I did the Marathon. I never thought we would raise this much money - thanks to everyone for sponsoring us. It’s a lot of money to any charity! For me, it’s provided some closure on the whole Meningitis thing. I feel like I’ve completed a recovery that has taken 10 years, both mentally and physically. And it feels pretty good, if a little sore

And I beat the clown.

Filed under: photos, thank you, quit, meningitis, tired, result, nerves, weather, sponsorship, edinburgh marathon, injury, training, fundraising, sore feet, sore, knackered, equipment