Today was the London Marathon and Mr T after all his hard work was finally going to get the opportunity to prove himself against the course. He set-off on time leaving me and the kids to get to our first rendezvous point to cheer him on. We had made careful plans with times and contingency times if things weren’t going to plan, so naturally things our end went out of control.
We made our first point @ approximately 9 miles in plenty of time. We even had to time to take pictures of the newly named Buxton Water station signs. We found a good spot and were able to get some wifi to track the progress of Mr T. We saw the men come past and Paula Radcliffe and Jensen Button (although we didn’t realise it was him at the time, only when we saw the BBC coverage afterwards -oops!)
Then we waited for Mr T, we looked at the sea of runners and completely failed and by the time we realised we had missed him we were too late to make our second rendezvous point @ 11 miles. Of course by now we couldn’t re-cross the road so we had to walk for a mile to get to Surrey Quays shopping centre where Imp insisted he had to go to the toilet. Ten minutes later we were on our way to Surrey Quays station. Unfortunately it was closed due to overcrowding so we walked back to Canada Water and queued to get in getting off at Canary Wharf to see Mr T on the Isle of Dogs.
Unfortunately (for us!) Mr T was running quicker than predicted so we missed him again! This time we decided to try and see him on Canary Wharf as we could see he was on the road. Unfortunately (for us again!) this didn’t work out either so it was back to the tube to Blackfriars. A short walk got us to the top of the Blackfriars underpass where after about 10 minutes we saw Mr T emerge, still looking strong and shouted at the top of our lungs at his oblivious back marching onwards!
So it was back to the tube to shuffle with the crowds at Westminster, as we emerged from the station my phone pinged with a message to congratulate Mr T on his time. We made it to an internet spot and discovered he had finished in 3.54.10. To say we were proud is an understatement, especially as he had to defer last year due to injury and has been battling a cold and sore throat this week.
The running conditions today were good, cool and cloudy and a little drizzle of rain every now and again! The kids enjoyed the experience of seeing some great costumes, Tardis, Olaf, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger to name but a few as well as cheering on all those with names on their bibs! It was quite stressful spectating, trying to see one person in thousands but the atmosphere and music around the course were great. Having said that I would rather run it again rather than spectate as we all felt we were letting mr T down missing him but at the same time we tried! We were pleased to see him even if he was unaware, the kids felt immense pride at the hard work he had put in paying off, as did I.
The marathon is a challenge and if you do ever do it and manage to complete it there is a huge amount of pride involved, it is an emotional day. You hear lots of stories why people are running, and the causes they all support so a huge well done to everyone that completed it whatever the time, you are all great! Despite all the stress it was worth it, and now I am going to help celebrate Mr T’s success by helping him drink some bubbly!
