London Marathon – Sarah and Jenny’s race

Race Reports

As we hopped on the bus from central London at 7.30am to Blackheath the temperature was already 20 degrees and our nerves were rising too! Jenny started in the Red village and myself the blue so we went our separate ways and spent the next two hours rejoining the back of the toilet queue in our respective villages! I could tell you about the women’s urinals but I fear that’s more info that you’d like to hear!!!! Kelly spotted my pink top from a mile away and we had a quick race briefing before Kelly set off for her epic run!

We started in our zones at 10.40 along with the masses and then merged with the other village starts after 3 miles. It took until mile 14 for Jenny and I to find each other and what a relief that was! Jenny scooped me up and after a brief ‘hitting the wall’ at 14 miles we soldiered on! As we had trained in snow, wind, rain and freezing temps our training hadn’t quite prepared us for the 24.5 degree air temp (near 30 degrees coming off the tarmac); we slowed and the 4.45 pace maker happily ran by and then the 5 hour pacemaker disappeared over the horizon….. we regrouped and stayed positive and decided finishing together and happy was now more important than our time. Around us fellow runners were collapsing and being sick- this made us focus on drink, douse, drain, drop- the advice given to us at the expo!

Family support along the route at mile 9 and 23 kept us going and knowing our running buddies were following our blips shuffling along the map on the app was never far from our thoughts! The support along the route was overwhelming and having our names printed on our tops was the best advise we had! Never underestimate the power of complete strangers calling your name! I could have kissed the family that gave us an ice popsicle at mile 18.

 

As we left my family at mile 23 the end was in sight and as we rounded the bend onto The Mall and saw the ‘385 yrds to go’ sign the smiles returned to our faces and we crossed the finish line together – Jenny 5.37 and myself 5.42. We then sank a well deserved beer and Dioralyte!

We were raising money for Megan Baker House and by the time this goes to print we should be just over £4500. We thank all those who have supported us.

A day to be remembered but not repeated!

2 thoughts on “London Marathon – Sarah and Jenny’s race

  1. well done, both, not an easy task to start with and the heat would be no friend to you either, but you both finished, well done again.

  2. Well done to you both. A great achievement and brilliant result. Hope you have recovered well xxx

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