London Marathon (for the more statistically minded)

Evening Harriers,

Buckle in for another race report from yours truly…I’ll try not to rabble on too much.

So rewind to the traditional fish and chip night in December where the annual tea pot of doom takes to the stage. You’ll remember that it was me who shouted over to Rose to offer my place, we later had a lovely chat about it. HONESTLY I thought maybe 40+ harriers would have there names in that bloody tea pot, when I heard there were 6 names with three places I thought bloodyhell that’s a 1 in 3 chance haha (I joke, not even in that bad with letters)

Truth be told I didn’t have my eyes on a spring marathon with Valencia planned in December…but you can’t say no to LONDON.

Fast forward to January and month of average training following long working hours and commutes etc the niggles built up and as the months went on I questioned deferring especially after jumping over a banister at TW train station about 3/4 weeks before the big day. Whatever pain is caused in my moment of stupidity wasn’t an issue on Sunday.

So race day approaches and people ask if I’m coming up on the coach with the marshalling group, but I’m lucky that my best mate lives in Charlton village about a mile from the start, so I stayed local the night before took an emotional lonely walk to the start line down the insanely quiet closed road that I would be running back down in a couple of hours time desperately needing to relieve my bladder. All you could hear was the sound of the helicopter above filming the thousands of people already waiting.

A lot of you will have run London and know how busy it is. NOTHING could have prepared me to expect the masses I did, the first 10miles I was genuinely fighting myself to get up to some sort of race pace but with people walking inside the first mile it was such a challenge to navigate around so many people, I decided that I was never going to ‘catch up’ and so the real fun started, I decided to walk run and engage with as many people as possible.

Legendary harrier Cheeky came to the rescue when he was outside the ship and saved me with a swig of beer, other runners shared stories of why they running (made me appreciate even more that I could really enjoy myself)

From tower bridge onwards I decided to start photo bombing peoples photos mainly rhinos/drag queens and spidermen as well as offer words of encouragement to others it truly is an amazing day.

I was fortunate enough to see some supporting friends and family 4 times throughout the route which was fantastic, especially as they had t-shirts with my dopey face printed on them with the caption ‘Go Sam.’ Ed later questioned what gosam was.

To think my experience was a compete breeze would be wrong there’s always parts that you have to dig in and dig deep to send yourself to the trenches but it’s worth it when you reach Big Ben, having taken an orange slice from the crowd I was hopeful of a funny picture opportunity but I didn’t see a camera in time.

The entire day was utter class and I am so glad I took the pressure off myself and enjoyed it to the maximum. Once finished headed to the traditional lamb and flag for several pints of Guinness with fellow harriers enjoying each others company sharing stories and just having the best time!

I’d share results but we all know that every single harrier that took part put in an AMAZING performance regardless of what you thought on the day or the moments after finishing.

I’d like to thank the club for the opportunity to run in this incredible event and represent them in an overall lighthearted comical way.

George put my name down now for marshalling next year, I’m already there.

Enough typing from me. Well done everyone who took part and volunteered…truly are the best club in the country.

Couple of snaps attached for you to all have a laugh at…