I woke up Saturday morning with butterflies in my stomach. I then explored the anxiety and the feeling came from not running the marathon but the travelling to Manchester, the potential lack of sleep and bad nutrition. I got 26 kisses from Lucas and nearly the same from Molly and I left for Victoria coach station. I arrived at 10pm, grossly miss under estimated my journey time. So I killed some time on Chelsea bridge before arriving at the coach station and finding a seat. The coach pulled up and the drivers were friendly and helpful. I found my seat and tried to sleep. I manged 3 hours broken, in the 6 hour journey.
I arrived at Manchester feeling worse than I left. I shall skip getting to the athletes village and the 5 times I went to the toilet and drank coffee etc. I visited the bag drop and attempted to ready my self and settle my nerves. I kept thinking that I was goin to let everyone down, Nicole, Lucas, my Mum, my coach Vin. All that had sponsored me. I walked to the start line with the other 1500 people in my section (Pink C). Set up my watch, and waited, I was shaking with nerves. Then I heard ‘We’re off’ I started my garmin and started running.
5km went past and I felt good, 10km went past and I felt strong, 15km went past and I thought ‘I’ve got this, I might be able to run the whole distance non stop’. 20km and half way went past and I still felt strong. All the way up to 20 miles, I felt I could totally do this. I slowed my pace down, in the back of my mind I knew I started off too fast and maintained that speed. I reached 23.80 miles and my body said ‘you are now walking for a bit’. So I did. For the last section, I walked, ran, walked , ran, until I saw the finish line in sight about 1km away and I could hear people shouting at me ‘YOU’VE GOT THIS, JUST ONE MORE KILOMETRE! So I picked myself up and ran through a painful stitch to reach 26.2 miles and completed a journey that has taken a decade of self improvement. I have to say loved it. Here’s to the next one. Thank you for reading.