Today was London Marathon Day! Several people I knew were participating either in the actual event, or the so called virtual event. I think that’s a bit of a misnomer – you still have to cover the distance, and you haven’t even got the crowds cheering you on, or the aid stations along the way.
It’s a cliche to say that everyone has their own marathon story, but it is really true. Each of the people I know taking part has a story of their journey to get there, each as inspiring as the others, and all different.
My neighbour Tim is taking part in the virtual event, having been quite unwell for a while, and not having run for a few months! He is an amazing person who has run marathons and half marathons for many years, sometimes flying in the face of sense! He was one of my supporters when I ran London in 2016, cheering me on at a few different sites with a banner complete with my name! A total star, he was there at the end bringing me pints of tea and plates of sandwiches in the cafe. Tim started at 6.30am and is still going as I write this 10 hours later. *edit – Tim finished in just under 12 hours! What an achievement!
Another inspiring person is Isabelle, who has tried to reach the start line 4 times before and has been thwarted by injury, illness or lockdown until this year! Even this year it was touch and go as an old knee injury resurfaced and she was training on a static bike and an elliptical trainer for weeks – only getting out on the pavement again a couple of weeks ago. Isabelle completed the 26.2 miles in under 5 hours!
Gurdeep, my fellow runner in Rome, is also running London today, just a few weeks later. I cannot imagine doing that distance again so soon. At least the weather forecast has been wrong – we all thought it would rain all day, but in fact it has turned out fine. Gurdeep told me that she hates running in the rain, and avoids it at all costs in training runs!
Talking of consecutive races – David ran a personal best in Manchester just 7 days ago. He has today beat even that time (2:51:39) by 7 seconds! I can hardly believe it! (But will he be able to walk tomorrow?😉)
Well done Quit the Gym friends Dale and Lynne too. I know Dale has had a bit of an epic journey to get here too, including a nasty experience at the Ealing Half marathon which nevertheless did not put him off, as it might have done to many.
These are just some of the 40,000+ stories of the marathon today, and why it is such an amazing event.
To celebrate my friends’ fantastic success I made some banana chocolate chip muffins! This is the recipe I used from a website called BakingMad. (Great name!) Of course I tweaked it a bit. I used a mixture of light brown and granulated sugar, and milk chocolate chips instead of dark. I also substituted 25g of flour for cocoa powder, for more chocolate flavour. And because my bananas were not so big I used 3, instead of 2.
They look good! They smell good! I haven’t tasted them because they are not for me. But that’s ok.
So many people, and so many reasons why people run a marathon. But London is special, and I have had to stop myself entering the ballot – just in case I ended up with a place 🤣.
Eat Cake And Run 