Marathon day is a great experience for those who take part, for some the greatest experience of their lives in athletic terms, and sometimes emotionally.
Nothing beats that feeling at the start line, for me it was the London marathon, and the excitement, the nervousness because you do not really know what to expect, the scale of the challenge ahead, and you can sense all of these emotions in each of the competitors.
You may also be running with someone, and these nerves are very apparent just before the race and everything you have done over the last 9 months, indeed all your life in running terms comes down to one long race that will define who you are in around four hours time!
You find more about yourself in one marathon than you can usually do in a year’s running. Marathons have mythical status ranging from the ancient greek who first run that distance officially and then promptly dropped dead, to great Olympic athletes who have broken records in this distance for hundreds of years.
The first few miles are run usually on adrenalin and its amazing how light on your feet you feel after 6 miles even, knowing the hardships are yet to come and 20 miles left still feels like an awful long way.
I ended up carrying a 2 stone pie from lewis pies to promote obesity intervention, the string around my shoulders that was holding it on broke at the exact 6 mile point, I thought of leaving it behind with the st john ambulance, but they couldn’t promise that they would deliver it to the finishing line, and I didn’t want to let down lewis pies who sponsored me, so I will tell you tomorrow how I made I the extra 20 miles with a huge fake pie in my hand that was weighing me down, and was more than a little awkward!!!
