The London Marathon goes with 50 yards of my house (twice!) along The Highway, so it’d have been rude not to pop along & take a few photos. I chose the 2nd pass-by, at 22 miles, as I thought the photos would be more interesting later in the race. It was a really busy spot, with a friendly encouraging crowd, & even a choir of Gamesmakers from the Olympics singing the runners along their journey.
Some of the outfits were incredible, it’s hard to believe that people can run 26 miles in the first place, let alone dressed as a womble! I also saw a 7 foot fire extinguisher, an 8 foot shark, various fruit & vegetables, a honey monster, an FA Cup, several superheroes, 2 camels (someone ran 26 miles as the back end of a camel!) , some rhinos, hundreds of fairies and many many more.
I didn’t realise that the runners mostly wore their name on their chest. This meant that when the crowd were cheering them on, they could call them out by name, which really gave them a boost. This was amazingly uplifting to watch & be part of, I got really emotional. It’s hard to appreciate just how difficult it is until you see the race close up & the pain etched on the faces of the runners.
I got a shot of one guy smiling at hearing his name being shouted, & it turned out we had a mutual friend who tagged him in the photo on Facebook, resulting in a lovely message from the guy in question. He’d been on his last legs at 22 miles, & hearing his name made a big difference, so by sheer fluke I captured a pivotal moment in his race. Getting that message made the whole day out worthwhile.
Needless to say I was motivated into getting my trainers on this morning, & managed a not-quite marathon standard 20 minutes before collapsing, but if I could increase that by just 5 minutes a week over the next year I’d be at slow marathon pace….. can’t see it happening though, I really really hate running, plus my earphones keep falling out, so I’ll probably stick with the Wii Fit.
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