Running Finale!!

First of all I would like to say sorry for the delay of the final running blog, lambing waits for neither man nor beast!

I would also like to say thank you so much for everyone who has sponsored me and supported me throughout the cause, thanks to your generosity the grand total so far for Children with Cancer UK over £900 which will make such a difference to so many peoples life’s so thank you for making this possible!!!

 

Right now for the running bit, well my 15 miler that I was taking about in the last blog went well which was really positive as I needed a boost after the bad week I had before. The taper probably wasn’t the most relaxing one that you could have imagined as lambing went full throttle and in that scenario it’s every man on deck! But I kept going and finished my training without missing a run. So it was off to London, we went on the Saturday in order to sign up for the race, to collect race number, kit bags and running timing chip. I was getting a bit nervous now, as the amount of runners and people about made it hard to get from A to B and the atmosphere was quite tense.  That soon eased off when I went for the meet and greet with the Children with Cancer support team. They were brilliant, and it made you realise the real reason why you had put all the hard work in to get you to this point.

So I am ready for the big day, regardless of the countless times that I kept checking my trainers were in my bag! The only point of concern was what will the weather do? As we all know that when it’s sunny in London it’s a lot more humid than sunny Rosedale so do I wear shorts or long leggings?

Marathon Day! Early start, kit bag packed running gear on wearing shorts at a last minute desicion and trainers complete with timing chip on! We went from Richmond area of London as we had stayed with family, brilliant support! However with not many people in running gear about and no with marathon kit bags apparent I was starting to worry if I got the right day. But as we came closer to Greenwich the start of the marathon, there were so many runners it was crazy. The amount of runners became more apparent when getting on the trains started to become difficult.

So on to the Marathon, kit bag on lorry, bananas eaten and getting nervous. The atmosphere was amazing, first timers, and PB hunters and ‘please just get me around in one piece runners’ everywhere. I have never been to an event this big, to get to my start area I needed a map!! The atmosphere in the waiting area was fantastic runners everywhere, every shape and size and the brighter the running outfits the better. To get to the start line of the marathon took 25 minutes which tells you how many runners set off (around 50000). The support was fantastic right from the word go, cheers, screams, music, it was like been in a noise tunnel. The music changed every mile and even little pubs and cafés were booming out music. The music was fantastic, from reggae to jazz to blues to electro, classical music and even a massive gospel choir. The support was fantastic, sweets, drinks and even London pride beer was on offer. The miles whizzed passed as there was so many distractions, the people in fancy dress made me laugh. I have to take my hat off to the rhino runners, running relay in full rhino costumes, complete with rhino noises, making me jump every time they came past!! I was doing a good pace, I had passed the 11 minute mile pace runner and feeling good. My target was under 5 hrs, at half way (13.1 miles) I was on track at 2 hrs 30 minutes. Running well and feeling pretty fresh I kept on the pace! However at 14 miles I started to get really bad stomach cramps, which was strange as I don’t usually suffer from stomach problems while running. At 20 miles I was feeling really quite ill, and was sick a couple of times. Not good timing as it happened in front of a St Johns volunteer, trained to stop runners from keeping going as many will really deterioate after this point. However sneakily there was some bright coloured bibs coming past in the same colours as my bib, Volunteer distracted I slipped back into the masses.  Surprisingly I started to feel better and kept going, as my running pace started to steadily improve I started to feel more confident. The final 3 miles of the marathon was the most spectacular, running past the London eye and the river Thames was brilliant. Big Ben was a really good boost as it was beautiful to see and exhilerating to run past. The last mile, with the mileage clocking down and the amazing Buckingham Palace in sight,  I looked for the Queen however she must have been quite tired by the time I came past and gone for afternoon tea!! Running past Buckingham palace and past the Victoria Memorial was a real highlight. On to the finish, wow the London marathon complete. I went over the line at just over 6 hours, which is over an hour to what I expected but a marathon is a special distance primly because you never know what will happen. It was an amazing experience and quite humbling to know that it’s not really about you but about raising money for Children with Cancer UK.

I could tell it had really taken it out of me after the marathon as it took me 7 attempts to retrieve my kit bag as I was struggling to read my number on my vest!! Friends and family were not allowed in this area so I went to meet mum and Jo Bell, good to see their faces again! They had managed to see me four times on the route and boy did I need it in that middle section.We all went to the after party hosted by Children with Cancer UK held in  Banqueting Hall just near St James park. It was an amazing place, however just as we were leaving Jo said “Jade what do you think to the ceiling”.  I had realised that I had never looked up, the ceiling was all sectioned up into massive panels with a Leonardo Davinci themed painting on each square ha-ha priceless!! All in all a fantastic day, ups and downs but altogether amazing.

 

Thank you so much to everyone for supporting and sponsoring me throughout the whole event! A big thank you to all the people that came to support me at the charity cream tea fundraiser, raising £100 all together! Your generosity has been fantastic, making a real difference to Children with Cancer and all that are affected by this terrible disease. I feel like the whole of Rosedale was behind me with this. The encouraging remarks kept me going when the running got really tough. The total raised keeps increasingly daily so I will keep you posted on the final amount raised!

 

A special thank you  also to Kate Gillies for all the hard work she has done throughout the event! She really has been invaluable through posting the blog and updates and her support. Also a big thank you to Paddy Chambers for the wonderful photos and help with the blog.

 

Thank you

Jade Barraclough xx