I completed the London Marathon on Sunday April 14th.
My finishing time was 2:58:10. This put me in 1,017th position out of about 32,000.
The weather was ideal, fairly cool, no rain, not much wind. I was able to start fairly near the front, so the large field didn't cause me too many problems. I did struggle a bit towards the end but that is only to be expected (I should have done more training).
I had not run in the London Marathon before so I did not know what to expect. The race was very well organised especially the start (race starts are often shambollic affairs with slow runners starting at the front and getting in the way). There was plenty of entertainment around the course like jazz bands, discos and Pearly Kings and Queens. The course passes lots of London landmarks like the Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, The Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. There were huge crowds around the course. along some stretches (like Tower Bridge) the noise was deafening.
Other finishers:
Richard Dunwoody (ex-champion NH jockey). 2,086th in 3:10:21
Gee Armytage (ex-jockey). 3,488th in 3:21:50
Greg
Searle (Olympic rower). 4,337th in 3:29:07
Gavin
Hastings (ex-rugby union international). 10,430th in 3:54:20
Alan Daley (Flat jockey). 13,738th in 4:07:18
Marcus Armytage (ex-jockey). 14,655th in 4:11:10
Charlie
Dimmock (from Ground Force on TV) . 16,516th in
4:18:45
Gordon Ramsay (TV chef). 18,793rd in 4:27:06
Frank
Bruno (ex-boxer). 23,839th in 4:47:16
John Gregory (Derby County FC Manager).
26,601st in 5:02:18
All of the results can be found at:
This is me at about the 7 mile mark. It all looks quite easy here.
This is about the 23 mile mark (3 miles from the end). Clearly it was becoming a bit of a struggle.
This is just after the
finish. I was quite pleased to finish in under 3 hours.
This is about an hour later. My brother also ran in the marathon. His time was 3:37:17 (6,156th position).
This is me at about the 22 mile mark in the 2001 Manchester Marathon.
