What a fantastic day!

After being petrified and only just able to force some toast down for breakfast in the morning it turned out to be a brilliant day and a fantastic experience.

We had loads of text message from friends and family in the morning that started a few watery eyes but gave us just the encouragement we needed.

Once we were in the park along with the thousands of other runners it was fine. We just couldn’t believe how well organised it all was. We lined up at the very back of the the start in Zone 9! so we didn’t even hear the start gun and in fact it took us about 20 minutes to get to the start line.

The crowds along the way were amazing – we had had our names put on our charity vest so people cheered for you all the way round. The water stations and lucozade stations were perfectly spaced and seems to be there whenever you’re thirsty – like magic. At mile 4 or 5 you reach the first lucozade station which you know about without seeing the lucozade as your feet start sticking to the road!

The rain was a little challenging. At mile 6 we were drenched and then dried off (apart from the feet) by mile 10. Luckily neither of us suffer with blisters as I’m sure the people that do suffered quite a bit with the added soggy feet. It rained again at mile 21-23 and the cold set in but by mile 24 we were too excited about the finish line. We hit the wall at mile 21 and was a hard slog to get to our supporters at 22 but we made it and then only a few more miles until our next support at mile 25.

We ran along side all sorts of different runners, rhinos, mr men, a flowerpot man, a big samaritans phone, numerous men in thongs and mankinis, the big wellchild nurse and a sausage dog!

Seeing the finish line was amazing and such a great feeling. I was very excited about the official foil wrap at the end as much as the medal.

Thank you to all our supporters – my mum and dad, Greg and Nat, Dawn and Heather, Alison and Denise and Jonathan who stood in the pouring rain and cold weather to cheer us on. And thanks to all the people who sent us messages that weekend and on the morning of the race – just what we needed

We raised over £3500 for our charity BAAF and thank you to everyone who sponsored. You can still sponsor few a few more more weeks and here is the link: JustGiving

Here are a few pictures that Jonathan took of us on the day: