Well, the day dawned overcast (I had said it would rain – so far each year the weather has alternated and it wasn’t going to let me down!). We set off from the hotel, Phil not feeling great – bit of a tum, but still up for the challenge. We had to say our farewells at Charing Cross as I was starting from the Blue start and Phil was at the Red. The train was packed – not surprising – with everybody heading for the same thing – Greenwich. Nerves started kicking in as we got off the train and walked the 15 minute walk to the park. And there it was – the Blue start – my favourite! Knowing where everything was, I headed for the loos’ as my first port of call! Then having been, made my way over to the changing tent, just as it started to rain – see, I told you! It then tipped it down. Phil called me to discuss what we were going to wear. I said that I was going to put on my wet weather gear, as I had no intention of getting wet, and showers had been forecast for later (but those didn’t happen, luckily). He did the same. I then went, with Tesco’s bags tied round my trainers – didn’t want wet feet either! – to deposit my bag on the baggage truck. That done, I then headed back to the loo’s near to the start line. With numerous marathons under my belt, I have learnt that the last thing you do is listen to the tannoy telling you to get to your allocated start pen – DER that’s when the queue for the loo’s goes to a big fat ‘O’ and you can go as many times as you want. You then trot down to the thousands of people surging forward to the start gantry – someone has always opened up the barrier somewhere – and join the throng! I took off my Tesco’s bags and walked up to the start gantry whilst on the phone to Phil. He then called me back to say that he had just gone over the start, so I commenced walking! Easy! Yes, that was the easy bit – there was 26.2 miles ahead of me! Not daunted, I set off at a good pace, walking with another lady, Jude. Whilst we chatted, Phil and I kept in contact via phone to let each other know at what point we were. I reached our agreed 4 mile water station meeting point first, said goodbye to Jude, and waited for Phil, plus our friend Julie, to meet me, which they did very shortly afterwards. We then headed off – only 22 miles now! We kept a good pace, picked up strangers along the route who by the end had become firm friends – Julie and Phil had acquired Liz from their start, and then we collected ‘The Pink Lady’ – also known as Kirsten, who works for Parliament and walks London each year in a bright pink lycra leotard and leggings. She is a grandmother (although you would never believe it) and both she and Liz kept us highly entertained throughout. En route, I saw Russell Howard running at about 22 miles (we were on the other side of the ‘East West Highway’, then I saw Dave Bateman (very smiley), from our running club, then came Peter Morgan who was also raising money for STEPS – he actually leapt in the air when he saw me, as he had been working out that he would possibly see us on that particular stretch – and there we were! Phil then saw a very good friend of ours, Martin Perry, at 16 miles – we hadn’t thought we would see him as we presumed he would probably have gone home by then (his charity runners being much faster than us, obviously!). Trundling on, keeping our pace – didn’t even stop to pee (most unusual as on our training walks I was peeing every three miles or so!). Phil then started, around the 22 mile marker, to feel a bit sick. It had got quite warm by this point, and obviously we were in our wet weather gear – jackets tied round waists, but still too hot! He was really struggling to keep going – really having to focus. I started to think that it could be dehydration, but knew that there was no point saying anything about stopping as we were so close to the end – I knew he wouldn’t give up unless he just collapsed. It was a case of just watching and making sure he was still talking (albeit one word answers) and getting him to the finish line. At 24 miles I saw a great friend of mine who was supporting the Chase charity runners – that was a real boost and spurred me on to the finish. Our children, Jenna, James and Karinna had positioned themselves just as you turn to come into The Mall – it was just so wonderful to see them there – beaming faces – I think proud faces too, that we had just about done it. And then we were there – THE FINISH – such a wonderful feeling, we had made it. Phil was able to then do what he had wanted to do for the last four miles, which was stop – he was seen to by the St John’s Ambulance guys who were wonderful. Dehydration – and an hour and a half later he was back in the land of the living. It meant so much to me to have him by my side throughout the whole thing – I don’t think he will ever realise what it meant to me, and I don’t think he will ever know how worried I was when he collapsed at the end. But HE AND I BOTH DID IT and we have managed to raise, so far, £2, 193.00 for STEPS Charity, which I am delighted about.
Goals are achieveable – there were times when I thought that the hips wouldn’t keep it up, but they did. Right hip just 3 days shy of 6 months post-0p was brilliant. Left hip just over 11 months post-op is having problems – could just be muscle from having taken on rather a lot over the last few months, but could be joint – brain says joint at the moment, but time will tell.
Phil and I visited Mr Witt on the morning after the marathon, and he was delighted with our achievement. I will be seeing him for my check-up on 4th June, so will discuss left hip with him then. Meantime, I have started to go for little runs – jog a minute, walk a minute for about half an hour, so far so good. Left hip is fine with that, it’s just like now, when I am sitting I have pain – weird! Ah well, time will tell.
But if you have a goal, reach for it, you might not get it but you will get close and that’s got to be worth reaching for! Reach for the stars, and you might get the moon! So true! I never give up once I have set my mind to something, life is too short not to try!
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