Anyone can run a marathon

The London Marathon is in a few weeks.. I ran the London Marathon.... it is too long ago now for me to talk about too much and this is the only time of year I get the chance.

Training for and running a marathon is an ordeal, it takes dedication, motivation, courage and stamina, you do not have to be an athlete, but if you have those other things, the running just comes. I was certainly never a runner. I just wanted to do it, and in doing it I realised that PEOPLE can do anything they set their minds to if they really want to.

The thing that surprised me most about the Marathon was how much I DIDN'T know walking into it. I had read the books, stuck to the training schedule and considered myself prepared. HA, there are so many things that you do not know and could not know in advance unless you actually do it. The route and set up changes from time to time and my perspective is based on the fact that I was not built for speed and had estimated that my time would be about four and a half hours. Here is what I found out on the day.

It take 30 minutes just to cross the START line
You more or less run the whole race with the same PEOPLE
If you are slow you get to run the race with PEOPLE in costumes
The most important PEOPLE in the race are the spectators
If you wear your name on your shirt PEOPLE shout encouragement as if they know you
You wear a chip on your shoe so that you can't cheat and so that if you get injured or lost, the organisers can locate you
The route takes you through housing estates and past pubs where street parties go on
At mile 9 there is a little green in the middle of an estate where there are a team of PEOPLE offering massages, you just stop, lie down and they give you rub!
At mile 12, the PEOPLE on the other side of the road are on mile 22 - nearly finished
Beefeaters at the Tower of London cheer you on
You can get the chance to sweat with a celebrity
You experience humility when you run beside someone over 90
At mile 19, just when you hit 'the wall' (when your body has run out of fuel and your legs turn to jelly) there is a deathly silence because there are no spectators

This was the worst part of the race for me, Canary Wharf, suddenly it went quiete, PEOPLE were crying, legs were buckling and there was an air of despair. That mile and a half was the most challenging of the whole race (ha, did I just call it a race?). PEOPLE who had ran it before were encouraging the first timers to just keep moving, get over the wall and you are almost there...most of us did.

Soon you start to hear the faint sound of cheering and you know that you are about to find the crowd again. Before you do, you leave the quiete place behind and go under a long dark tunnel, you can hear the cheers at the other end, PEOPLE started laughing in that tunnel almost as though they couldn't believe they had got through 'the wall' and those who had resorted to walking picked up their pace. It was the most natural high I am ever likely to feel. At this point, I was running alongside someone who was dressed as Charlie Chaplin. I had the Wombles behind me, I would be forgiven for thinking oh dear, I am as slow as the Wombles. It was at this moment though that I realised what this was all about. PEOPLE who were willing not only to run but to run in costumes that weighed more than them. Some PEOPLE are just better than me.

When you come out of the tunnel there are literally 1000's of PEOPLE clapping and cheering above your head to the right and to the left. As we emerged from the tunnel I realised I couldn't have had better companions. The crowd started singing.... Remember your a womble CLAP Remember your a womble CLAP Remembermembermember what a womble womble womble you are. We were dancing, running, laughing and crying. It was an amazing experience and I would suggest that if the thought has ever entered your head to do it, GO FOR IT!