The Race - Part 1

1-6 miles.....
So how did I feel on crossing the start line? I'll be honest, I felt good, I felt calm, and I felt an enormous sense of wellbeing; one of those occasions when you know you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. I wasn't particularly 'agog'; just blissfully aware that all I had to do now was run. One foot on front of the other, both feet not touching the ground at the same time, and just....well.....keep doing that for a while.

That said, I confess to being a little nervous too. The quality and success of every previous training run could be accurately forecasted within its first half hour. If I was running well within myself, in control, thinking positively, or more importantly thinking very little at all; I knew I was in for a good one. However if I had eaten badly the night before/morning of, if I had not slept well, or if I just wasn't feeling 'right'; I was struggling from the outset. It was never going to be easy, but it was critical that there were no warning signs in those first few miles.

There weren't.

Okay, there was one; and boy did it make me laugh. It was quite literally, a sign. A whiteboard sign in actual fact, held by a spectator who bore no expression on his face, not so much as a smidgeon of smirk. He gazed blankly into the throng of athletes with the words written acting as the only outer indication of his thoughts.....

'You are all MAD'

SO funny on SO many levels. The expressionless, unmoving, face, the simply put yet direct message, and of course the fact that said message was quite accurate; we were all off our rockers, but so content to be so; all nutters together.

Somewhere around the 4 mile mark was where my first official family cheerpoint was meant to be located. Regardless of my positive and dare I say confident frame of mind, I was still straining my eyes towards the ravaging hoards of spectators for friends and family. Sure enough it didn't take long for eyes to focus on my sister-in-law who was jumping about pretty much in the direct path of the athletes so I didn't miss her (my brother was there, not jumping but cheering; I think that's a much better poem title than 'not waving, but drowning' don't you?). One of the downsides of running with headphones - my native American-Indian name - on, is that your nearest and dearest have to either scream themselves hoarse or virtually wrestle you to the ground in order to get your attention. Fortunately I noticed Martha before this final tactic was resorted to!

I can't tell you how exciting it was to think about the friends and family dotted around the course - many of them managing to dot themselves in more than one place en route - weird but exciting, and a little crazy. Knowing they would be there felt curiously like those simple plans you make to meet anyone.....'fancy meeting for a coffee?'.......'fancy hooking up for a bite to eat?'.. ......'hey; I'm in the area, let's catch up at the pub'......'great! it will be good to see you, see you at mile 4.5 of the London marathon; in case you've forgotten what I look like, I'll be the guy wearing tight cycle shorts and carrying a water bottle'. You've heard tell of the wonderful support lavished on us runners by the thousands of spectators, and it is absolutely true; nevertheless it is especially lovely to have people who know you, looking out for you as an individual, and cheering you as an individual.

AGE UK were already making themselves heard too; with cheering stations at mile numbers 3 and 5. They were quite simply a bunch of lunatics screaming and shouting whenever they saw someone wearing one of their charity shirts. That importantly made all the difference, as they were MY lunatics! I confess to being quite conservative on going past them. Played it real cool, gave them a polite wave, a wink, a thumbs up, and then continued on my journey. I absolutely did NOT career past them, screaming 'COME OOOOOOOON!!!!!' whilst pumping the fist of one hand and waving with the other like a man possessed.....honest.........

Did get a nice exclusion zone around where I was running for a while after that though.

One quarter down, and I was doing it; I was actually doing it!!! Not only that, I was fast approaching one of the landmarks I had seen marathon athletes pass year after year on TV; hoping but never expecting that one day.........