Well 450 not out for fulls is the official score on what was a superb day even if a tad cool. I’ve done about 25 Londons and by far this was the noisiest, best attended and with the largest crowds I’ve ever seen anywhere. They were up to 5 deep on every yard of the route screaming and encouraging the 38,000 runners every inch of the way. And if you had your name on your vest as I did then around 250,000 well wishers screamed for 26.2 miles “come on Dave you can do it”.
What more can you ask for? Stop if you dared-the sheer noise and encouragement just drove you for ever onwards.
The coach journey down from Coventry was a bit dodgy as it took 7 hrs to get to the Clarendon Hotel on Blackheath Common because of a prang on the North Circular plus the driver kept missing the entrance to the Blackwall Tunnel plus many other places that a blind person could have followed (like M1, M25 etc). Plus the coach went from the Hill Top Hotel at Cov on the A45 via side streets in Coventry to get to the M6 by the Ricoh before joining the M!!!! That took nearly an hour so we were not too pleased with Mo the driver. Had we been held up much longer (or been more lost than we were) we would not have got to the Excel Centre in London by 1700 hrs to collect our numbers and they closed promptly then they told us. So get here on time or no number was the news we had.
However we just made it so all’s well that ends well I guess.
Then after marathon we had the party at the Thistle Hotel just off Trafalgar Square where the Brain and Spine Foundation met and that was great and most of the Massey mob met there. However Team Phillips ( Dave G, Anne-Marie, Rachael and Nathan Bignall and me) a sub team within the Daily Telegraph’s Brain and Spine Charity team handed over a cheque for £8,000 to our honorary captain Chris Ryan the GB Wheelchair Rugby vice captain. That was the high spot of the day and brings my total raised (along with Team P’s help of course) to £86,000 for the charity, so just £14k and 50 fulls to go. Just a stroll in the park as the founder of the charity told me. Thanks a lot Team P.
Then to top it all I went to see a client to do her tax return on Monday morning and she gave me a cheque for £1,000 for the charity.
So wow what a w/e. In fact I felt so good that I ran twice on Monday and did an aerobic class in the evening.
There will be a “nose bag” at the club very soon on a Wed after training to celebrate the 450 marathons.
Oh the race itself-great. Plus I think May 4th is when entries open for 2016 but check this out.
Massey time:
Dave Phillips 5 hrs 15 mins.
Race report by David Phillips