My Story

London Marathon 2011 - This is my story from the start of training through to the finish line and beyond.

The beginning...

It seems like a long time ago now but back during December 2010 I was off work looking after my daughter when the phone rang  - A strange mobile number I thought, "wonder who this is?" so answered it fully expecting to be sold some car insurance or a credit card. “Hello this is Virgin Money”, I thought here we go, ”Is James Turton in”, I just answered “yes”. “Congratulations James I am ringing to let you know you have won a VIP place in the Virgin London Marathon in April 2011.” To be honest I was a little overwhelmed. I always said I would like to do one marathon but to get a place in London was something special.

I spent the next few hours wondering about the competition I had entered and was so convinced it was a wind up I rang back to check!

I never use to run and only took it up about 3 years ago as I was over weight and unhealthy. I had built up to a level where is was running 3 times a week so I just needed to increase this a little bit for the training I thought!... I was so wrong the training plans kicked in straight away and straight after Christmas I was out in the snow and ice training – including 5 miles on Boxing Day, just to test the new Garmin 405cx running watch.

The Training...

The training plan I found was one on Runnersworld.co.uk. I was able to enter my current 10K running time which was 54 minutes and out popped a training plan. The plan basically involved a gradual build up of pace and distance on a weekly basis – Tuesday being a short recovery run of around 2 miles, Thursday a longer tempo or interval session and Sunday being a what is known as a long slow run.

I was determined to do every single session on the training plan and started to train properly on new year’s day when I dragged our new year’s guest our for a little 8 miler. I was surprised at the pace of the long slow run, it was almost a slow jog, but completed the run with no issues.

If you remember back in December and January we had some of the worst weather for a long time temperatures were below freezing for weeks and with the training plan demanding that you put the distance in I had to go out. I was dressed in leggings two pairs of socks, two running tops and a wind proof jacket, hat and gloves but was determined to get out. All I can say is I had some amazing runs around the local parks but came back often with sausage fingers and a frozen face.

Running alone is hard so turned to social networking site twitter. I hadn’t used twitter before so setup an account and searched for London Marathon. I found a few people that were using twitter putting the tag VLM (Virgin London Marathon.) in their messages so I started to follow them....

I have met many amazing people through twitter, all with long stories about previous races they have run, reasons for running the London marathon and advice on training, clothing, injury and eating.

During the past 16 weeks I have made over 100 new running friends all of which were tweeting their running targets and uploading details of the training runs for us all to look over. Some got injuries, some were fast and some were slow but we all had one common goal and that being to get round the London Marathon.

I too have been tweeting my progress, I have uploaded and shared my training data– all of which can be reviewed by anyone at [Garmin web site]

They estimate that 96% of the people that start the marathon complete the race, the challenge seems to be actually getting to the start. The intense training program puts your life on hold for 16 weeks and has a massive impact on your family.  Family life was totally on hold and without the tremendous support of my wife and kids throughout this experience I would not have made it to the start. Not wanting to play with the kids in case I got injured, or being so tired after long days at work and long runs at the weekend, all I did when I got spare time was sleep. Never under estimate the support have you needed to get through this.

 

Fundraising...

Places in the marathon are either via ballot where runners enter their names in a hat or through recognised charities, bond places. The charity places all require runners to raise funds which is usually around £1500. I was fortunate as I had won my place I didn’t need to raise funds but decided to support the MS trust – my fund raising page is here...
Fundraising is tough – never underestimate this, you have to work at it. During the first 2 months I only raised about £90 so with only 5 weeks to go I did a massive email campaign. I emailed around 400 people including all the contacts I have made through my own business, through work and even some people I didn’t know but knew they were interested or connected with MS in some way or another. Suddenly the funds started to roll in and within a couple of days I had reached the provisional target I set myself of £500 – I was delighted and with this pressure off I could now concentrate on training again.

Twitter...

I met some amazing people on twitter all going through the same as me with training and fundraising. I wanted to support them by sponsoring them. However I had over 100 friends on twitter and it took me ages to decide who to sponsor. I decided to sponsor the charities instead of the people so looked through my contacts and found people that were raising money for kids, cancer and diabetes. I then sponsored my first twitter friend as well as the marathon gorilla (how he got round in a gorilla suit I do not know!) and someone who I will mention later James Tansley who had such a moving story re his family and why he was running the marathon that I felt that I had to support him.

Next challenge... The hotel and train fares!

The trains were easy, I knew where to get them and which days, it just took a little time to get best prices – in the end I spent around £180 on train tickets for the expo and getting the family to the race.
It was hard work to find a hotel – Do you go near the start or near the finish, do you travel in for the day and back out again. I looked on several hotels and finding rooms suitable for families was quite hard as things were quite booked up despite this being 12 weeks before the race.

I looked on NHS discounts and found that we got a discount through simply breaks so searched the site and found a great hotel in Paddington 4* with great reviews and booked it (The girls wanted a swimming pool) This was quite near the finish so with any luck Sarah might be able to get to the end to see me run.

Now to the running...

Training memories...

I felt quite comfortable at first, the pace was slower than I was use to on the long runs and the distances were pretty manageable being 8, 10 or 12 miles then came the 14 – I have done a half marathon before in 2009 (Robin hood) but had never ran 14 – I sat down and planned the route which took me out of Ilkeston towards the M1 j26 and down through Wollaton to work where I planned on leaving the car the night before so I could get home.!

I set out on this 14 mile run and the first thing I noticed was the wind. I do not like running in the wind it saps your energy. I was ok though for the first 8 miles then I started to get tired. I turned up my ipod to distract me but the wind was getting worse and at one point I was running as hard as I could into the wind but actually running at normal walking pace. I remember shouting at the wind to stop at one particularly low point but managed to finish as planned. Running is a strange thing that does strange things to you. I noticed this after the half marathon when I was an emotional wreck when I crossed the line – again after this my longest run ever I was so pleased with what I had personally achieved that I was upset again. What is wrong with me! Nothing apparently twitter friends also suffer the same emotions at times, twitter was great for confirming that you were not going mad.

The slow long runs get longer and longer and faster and faster, I remember 1 weekend I had an 18 mile run planned, tweeted my course as normal and got a message from Sophie Raworth (BBC news) via Twitter asking how I was getting on and how far I was going. When I said 18m she decided to do the same. I remember this run very well, it started great, sun was out and I set off down the nutbrook trail from Ilkeston to stapleford. After a few miles it started to spit, and then it got colder and colder and wetter and wetter. By the time I had got to Long Eaton I was soaked through. The rain and the cold really affected me but I had planned 18 miles so trudged on through beeston into wollaton then back towards home. Unfortunately by now my legs were so cold, I couldn’t feel my fingers and my knees were really hurting – not sure if it was cold or some other injury, so I had to stop. I got my phone out of my camelbak rucksack which I used to keep my drinks in for my long runs but just couldn’t unlock it, my fingers didn’t work. After a couple of minutes trying I managed to get into the phone and was rescued after completing 16 miles.. I had to admit to Sophie Raworth what happened and made it onto her blog.

Training is tough, not only for the person doing the running but also on the family and friends around them. The support I have had from my family has been amazing and I couldn’t have done this without them. If you ever decide to do anything like this please do not underestimate the impact the training has on your family for the whole length of the training program.

The longest run I did as part of the training was 20 miles, I did this twice. Running this far is tough and I found I went through loads of different states of mind during the runs. One minute I would be happily listening to my music then I would be sad, then I would be dizzy, then I would be ok again, people you pass would ask you if you are OK! Other runners look at you wondering what you are doing, then you would get chased by a dog, step in a puddle then worry about getting blisters, thinking every niggle in your leg or back or arms is a major injury, seeing a bench and your mind is forcing you to stop and rest but you carry on shouting at yourself for even considering giving up. But the feeling you get for completing these long runs is amazing – you should try it sometime...

Part of the training involves doing a race of some sort. I chose the Ironbridge half marathon. The idea behind this is to practice everything you have been training for in a proper situation including pace.. This is me after setting a PB of 2:08 in the Iron Bridge half despite only setting out to do a 2:20.

Testing Testing Testing.

As part of the training you have to consider what you are going to run in. The London marathon being in April can be any type of weather so you need to test and test and test your running gear on your long runs. You need to be comfortable in every way and every combination of clothing, Shorts, Tops, Socks, Leggings and Trainers all have to be tested. A little rub after 5 miles can be a major injury after 26, bleeding nipples is common but I found a great product called BodyGlide which helped. Applying this liberally to all parts of my skin that could get rubbed before every long run. You also need to consider your trainers, I ended up buying two pairs as there is a good chance that one pair could be ruined during your training and you must not run a marathon in anything new! These aren’t cheap and mine came in at around £90 each. I will not go into trainers now other than to say get the right pair.

As part of the training I had to practice carbohydrate and water intake. Approximately every 4-5 miles I needed to train to take a carbohydrate gel which is a sticky sugary orange thing in a tube, but gives you around 300 calories to play with. Running and drinking is difficult but I needed to practice this too. After a while I worked out that I could take my first drink at around 3 miles then sip every mile after that, Take an energy gel in at 7miles then every 3-4 miles after that. One of the hardest things about this is how to carry the stuff with you and what to do with the rubbish when you have finished!

Two weeks with nothing to do.

Towards the end of training you enter the taper – I am now calling this the paranoia phase. This is meant to be a time when you slow down do less work in order to get ready for the big race. It’s normally 2 weeks before the race and whilst you still run it’s meant to be shorter and not anywhere near as intensive.

On the last Sunday before the taper I set out with a run target of only 12 miles, so thought I would do a route I used to do all the time which takes me out of Ilkeston into Shipley park towards derby and back home again. After about 8 miles I felt a strange pain in my foot right near my big toe. Often you get a niggle during training so carried on seeing if it got worse and it did!, by mile 10 I had to stop, I massaged my foot at the side of the road which seemed to sort it and set off again knowing that I was nearly home. I made it to mile 11 then had to ring Sarah again, but this time I decided I could walk home. I really hit a low point now, After 14 weeks of hard training, fund raising and bigging up all my achievements I go and get an injury. All I could do was rest, ice and take pain killers. I didn’t run until the Thursday when I deliberately went to the gym. I remember starting to run and feeling the pain again but carried on and managed to get 5 miles in. I then thought if I can run 5 miles and ignore the pain I may still be able to complete the race. I decided no more training and rested until the big day.

The Expo...

In the few days before the race you need to get your running number from the London marathon expo in London so I got on the train and ventured off the London. The exhibition was great, loads of things to tempt you to part with your money but to be honest I had already spent enough on gear! to get me through the next 3 years of running. I remember one of my Twitter friends saying to me they were going on the Thursday too and would be wondering around with two small children.. I checked twitter and saw they were at the expo so decided to go and see if I could find them... After a short period of time I met James Tansley and his kids – this was the first time we had met but we had spoken to each other on twitter for months. With kids getting bored we said goodbye and wished each other luck in the race.  I had a good day and my foot felt ok.

The pre race weekend....

Friday before the race things were bad again, I think all the walking around London the day before had made my foot worse and I was seriously considered pulling out of the race. This was a very low point for me. After several hours moaping around I decided to read the terms and condition of my place to see if I could defer for 12 months. Unfortunately as I had won my place I couldn’t defer and would lose the opportunity to take part if I pulled out. Reading on I realised that there is a large number of people that walk the marathon and I worked out that I would walk as fast as I could to complete the course and just enjoy the day. This would take me around 7 ½ hours but at least I wouldn’t let anyone down and I would get my finishers medal....

Saturday morning came and we all set off for London, Sarah, Sadie Olivia and I. When we got to London we found the hotel then decided to go and have a little look round. After making it to Westminster Abbey we had lunch and then the kids decided they wanted to go back to the hotel for a swim, this suited me as I needed to rest anyway. I spent the afternoon resting on the bed with my feet up tweeting away only to find out that there was a load of other runners staying in the same hotel. I tried to get a lift to the start but the coaches were full.

The Big Race

Got up at 5:30, the race didn’t start until 9:45 but I was advised to be there an hour before and also needed at least an hour to get from the hotel to Greenwich Park. I ventured down to breakfast to be met by loads of runners all eating bananas and putting running number of vests. I was guided to my table and emptied the bag of muesli I have brought with me into my breakfast bowl whist looking longingly at the full English being eaten by the person on the next table. After breakfast I got changed into my running gear packed up my running bag and headed off.

I got to Paddington station at 6:45 – tubes gates were shut – panic! There was hardly anyone around and no runners anywhere. I started to walk about then saw another red bag (we all had these bags to put out clothes into at the start) Phew. After a short chat we realised the tube didn’t open till 7:00. Bad planning.... More and more runners started to arrive and by 7 o clock there were loads of use. The gates opened and we walked down the stairs whilst some photographers were taking our pictures!

We had a 10 minute wait for the next tube train, by the time this arrives the platform was full and we were squashed into the carriage – worse than I ever remember. I had to get to charring cross and change to get to the start. At Charring cross there were 1000’s of runners all trying to get onto the train. Somehow we all did, although it was a little squashed. After around 30 minutes we arrived at Greenwich Park and we all got off.  I was at the green start and headed off to where I could see the large green balloon in the sky. I was slightly confused as on the Thursday before I had made an effort to suss out the start but I didn’t recognise anything. After a short walk I realised that I had got off at a different stop and was in fact the other side of the park and actually closer than I anticipated being.

Having won my place I was in the celebrity starting area, Green start, to be honest I found this quite difficult. This was quite a large field and the celebrities were fenced off from us. There was a lot of space so I got a drink and sat down to eat something. I had asked Sarah to get me some bananas the day before but on looking in my bag found I had left them at the hotel. I was quite hungry and cross with myself so I got a free Lucozade sports drink and sat down on a spare bit of grass and tried to see if I could spot anyone! There was plenty going on but as the time got closer the queues for the toilets were getting longer and longer. It was also quite cold and about 30 minutes before the start you had to get changed and put your numbered bag on the lorries to be taken to the finish line. I had my long running trousers on which I planned to remove and run in shorts and my long sleeved wind proof jacket which I decided to take off and out in the lorry for the finish. After about 5 minutes stood in the cold I needed the loo! I knew it would happen and looked at the long long queue and thought there is no way that I will get to the front before the start. I then remembered the gents toilets sign and headed off to see what they were, hurrah urinals with no queue. I remember walking round the screen and seeing a woman waiting, shouting sorry, sorry I am really desperate please don’t look! She was using the gents. Never seen anyone this embarrassed and relieved at the same time.

Did I see anyone at the start ?– Well I remember seeing Sophie Raworth, Mike Bushell, Michel Roux, Graham from Corrie, Cheryl Baker and Will Young...

15 minutes before the start we had to get into our pens which were numbered – The idea of this is to put you with other runners with the same pace. I was towards the back in pen 8 of 9 even though I predicted I would run a 4:30. This meant being in the same start as a woman who was knitting a scarf. There was a lot of excitement at the start and we all were chatting away then one of the races started from the Blue start, think it was elite woman, I remember looking at everyone who was commenting on how very fast they were running.

All of a sudden it was time 9:45 and we were off, the start was great for me similar to a local park run and not the masses you see on the telly (different start) I was over the start line in less than 2 minutes. Not before taking some pain killers. I started the race on paracetamol and diclofenac.! The foot felt good.

Pacing.

Everyone says pace yourself it’s along way... Well I was prepared for this. I had fully charged my Garmin 405Cx running watch and was determined not to run faster than 11 minute miles, my training was leading me to run just under 10 minute miles but I knew my foot wouldn’t last. The 11 minute mile pace felt like a right old plod. The streets were lined with people who had just popped out of their houses to clap – this was the start of something that just grew and grew as the race went on.

This early miles were great, loads of room and I settled into a very comfortable running pace.

Blue start runners.

Well it wasn’t long before it got busy. Around mile 2 the blue start runners merged from the right and I found myself pinned to the kerb on the left for a while. I remember this bit of the course being a roller coaster through the speed humps “Ramp” “Ramp” “Ramp” was all I could hear as the marshals shouted to warn us of the speed humps in the road, as you couldn’t see them.

I turned the corner and who was standing in the middle of the road but @MarathonGorilla waiting for his friend the banana I think.

I felt good so got my head down and put some miles in.

Drinks Drink Everywhere.

I was starting to warm up and I soon came across one of the many water stations on the course. These were placed around every mile so there was plenty to drink. I had practiced in training to take on my first drink around 3 miles and as I was still trapped on the left hand side of the road so got a drink easily, after a few meters I noticed something strange bottles everywhere. One of the hazards of running a big marathon it seems is not the bottles discarded on the floor but the 1000’s of bottles being tossed by the runners in the middle of the pack over the heads of all the other runners to the side of the road. Not only empty bottles, but some were half full, Bang, Bang, Bang – this went on for some time.. Luckily I didn’t get hit.

People everywhere.

I remember hearing a lot of booing which just got louder and louder. This turned out to be the Red start runners. There were thousands and thousands of them as far as you could see. We were running along the same road but separated for some reason.

Part of my race plan was to take in the atmosphere, the crowds were building and I must have been on mile 4/5 by now. I have to say the crowds are amazing, pubs playing music, people clapping and singing, children holding out their hands waiting for a little pat as you go past, loads of shouts of encouragement and sweets... Now never take sweets from a stranger you don’t know what they have done to them, silly I know but despite them being tempting I wasn’t going to take any.
The first of many Lucozade sports drinks stations was soon upon us and by now about 20,000 bottles of Lucozade sport had been taken by all the other runners ahead of us. I must get one of these now to give my body a little boost.  So off I headed to the drinks station, arm held out, eye contact made, bang some cheeky sod has just stolen my drink, grrrrrr. Never mind there were plenty to get. Shortly after the drinks station and whilst dodging the incoming missiles (discarded bottles) the going got really tough. As if running a marathon wasn’t hard enough Lucozade had decided to make the road sticky. Every step placed on the road your foot got stuck, this went on for some time after the drinks station too...

Heading now towards Cutty Sark, Shame we didn’t go round it this year but the crowds were still out in force. A quick check of my watch told me I had been going too fast, in fact I was a couple of minutes ahead of my scheduled pace already so I decided to take in some crowd and look out for some TV cameras to wave too.

Ouch.

Months and months of training, body glide everywhere you can think of and also in places where you don’t want to think of and what’s this, a sore bit starting. No..... right between the legs (thigh!) I pulled my jogging tights down a little and carried on. The soreness was getting worse and worse. Oh well not much I can do about it, so despite being cross with myself for some reason decided that I could ignore the pain.

What race was I in.?

I really do not remember bits of the course. Between 6 and 10 seemed to pass me by. I think that I just concentrated so much on adjusting myself to stop the rubbing and concentrating on my running strategy and pacing that I just followed the crowd.

Sunshine and showers.

One of the things I remember was the showers (sprinklers). It was so hot out there that I decided to take a shower at every opportunity. There were the official showers but I am sure there were also unofficial ones too. Garden hoses spraying you as you went passed. The first of these was great I didn’t get too wet but after about 2 minutes could hear a beep. What’s that? My running watch had decided that it didn’t like water on the bezel (touch sensitive) and was changing modes all by itself. grrrr again. I wiped it dry then spent the next mile trying to get it onto the training mode so I could check my pace again.

I could tell we were not far from Tower Bridge as the noise of the crowd was getting louder and louder, and of course my watch was clocking me coming up to mile 12...

As I approached the bridge I realised that for the first time I was going to run a half marathon without slowing down, stopping to take a drink or walking for a bit.. I was so pleased and determined to get to the half way point without stopping.

Up onto the bridge. Every runner I am sure will remember this part of the course. I remember looking up as I crossed the bridge, listening hard to the noise of the crowd and trying to record the memory for ever. This had the effect of just making my rather emotional, Can’t cry all the people in the crowd will think I’ve gone mad and Denise Lewis, who was on the bridge doing interviews might grab me! I held it in and turned off the bridge towards the half way point.

At this point you see the other runners at around mile 20 coming the other way. It’s great to see them going so well. I was inspired to carry on but also the reality that I had another 7 miles to run to get to that point on the other side of the road was playing tricks with my mind.

Yeah... 13.1 miles complete in around 2:23 I think, My PB for a half marathon at this point was 2:08 so was well placed for a good second half of the race...

Part 2

I decided to carry on to see how far I could go without stopping. Not long after the 16 mile mark came things started to go wrong. My sore bits were getting really sore now and I could feel a pain coming back in my right foot. I eased off down to a 12 minute mile pace.

This was a really tough part of the course for me. The docklands were so hot, very little wind and very claustrophobic. All of the training I had done was in the freezing cold so running in this very hot sunnyweather was quite different, I found myself looking for any bit of shade that there was as we ran through the tall buildings. I remember going into a tunnel and thinking this is great, a little breeze and away from the crowds. The tunnel was full of runners, stretching, sitting down or using a quiet spot for a little wee. I carried on back out into the sunshine.

I noticed the pain in my foot, really bad, so bad in fact I had forgotten about my sore bits. I did have emergency pain relief on me so reached into my shorts pocket get the 2 paracetamol and 1 declofenac out only to find a sweaty mush of powder. Ordinarily I would not put anything like this into my mouth but desperation took over and in it went..! Horrid... I spent the next half mile with a disgusting taste in my mouth until I found a small child with sweets. Despite my earlier silliness of don’t take sweets from a stranger I grabbed a couple of jelly snakes – result.

I had told Sarah that I would send her a message if I started to walk so she could time her appearance at the finish to take me back to the hotel. Sure enough just after 16 miles I had to walk, I couldn’t stand the pain any longer in my right foot. I unhooked my phone from my arm band and called her lettering her know I would walking from this point (Making a finishing time of around 5:40) I reached to put my phone away and my arm band broke.. Fortunately I had my long tights on which had a big pocket (which was full of running gels) I took a couple out, ate one (they are disgusting!) and squeezed my phone into the now very heavy pocket.

By now I was approaching mile 20. I could hear "come on James come on James" but not having a name on my top knew they weren’t shouting for me.! A little further on I saw someone I recognised. It was James from the Twitter. He was struggling with his knee. We started hobbling along together, He was insistent that I went on as he felt I could, I knew I couldn’t as since meeting him my pace had increased. James is very tall and his fast walk was my slow run – perfect. We dragged each other through the next 3-4 miles me going ahead a little, then him, then me just trying to get each other to the finish.  Another water shower great I thought - through I went this time I got pretty soaked, sun cream and sweat entered my eyes and I couldn’t see I rubbed my eyes with my fingers, this made them worse so spent the next part of the race looking for a drinks station so i could wash my face. I could just see James up ahead about 10 meters in front. James was on target for a 5 hours finished so with a big boost of encouragement I sent him on ahead to see if he could do it.

The strange thing about a race this big is that people around you are all running different times. I was fortunate to get over the start line in 2 minutes but red starters that were around me had taken 20 minutes or so to get across the line.

I spent the next mile trying to catch James up as I could see him as a target in the distance but really couldn’t, I felt pretty strong but my foot was so bad by now. Instead I started to read the t shirts of the other runners. “I’m doing this for you Dad” with photos, so many stories to tell so many personally challenges overcome so many heart breaking moments and reasons why people put themselves through 16 weeks of pretty brutal training.

I can’t remember exactly where I was but I remember seeing the walking brass band and the sweeper bus going past on the other side of the road, there were quite a few people around the sweeper bus who were obviously going through quite bad times, I then started to notice people around me struggling, to get this far and not finish, I can’t imagine what that would feel like..

I shook my head and started to take note of the very fact I was going past mile 25, not far now – I must run over the finish line. I started to plan how I could do this, for the past 4 miles I had struggled to keep up with James and now was in pretty big trouble.  Big Ben approached, I knew it wasn’t far, I couldn’t run but was marching along nicely

800 meters to go – Come on thats only ½ a mile I can do that  - I started to run, It wasn’t happening

600 meters to go – Same again

365 yards to go – The crowds were cheering, I felt amazing and I ran for the line, I don’t remember any pain just jubilation that I had completed the race in 5:11:31

The Finish

Remember earlier on in this I mentioned that I called Sarah to say I was on for a 5:40 – The difference in finish time is all down to James Tansley a stranger the week before but a true friend on the day – He saved me over 25 minutes, Thank you James.

Standing just passed the start was James.. I was so pleased he had waited for me. We got our medals, a stranger took our photo, and went our separate ways to see our families.

The finishers area was so well organised and calm with what seemed like loads of space. I made my way over to the lorry that had taken my bag from the start and picked up my goody bag.

Out of the finishers area into the meet and great – there were 1000s of people and I had to try and find 'T' I tried to call Sarah but just went straight to answer phone. I found a little spot on the grass and sat down.

By now I was absolutely starving – the last proper food I had was breakfast and it was now the middle of the afternoon.  Looking in my goody bag I found a mars bar. For some reason my body would not accept this. Not sure why but it just tasted disgusting! So decided to eat the big bag of jelly snakes instead.

I kept trying to ring Sarah but was aware I was 20-30 minutes quicker than anticipated so just lay on the grass a little.  After a while I felt myself seizing up so stood up to be greeted my family. Apparently I went white as a sheet as was relieved to find the pavement again to sit on.

After a little rest I put on my finishers t shirt and medal and we headed off the Planet Hollywood for some free food and drink. Planet Hollywood was packed so we settled into Pizza Express across the way.

After a Taxi ride back to the hotel (My feet were so painful I couldn't walk down any steps to the tube) I took off my trainers – Now I knew my right foot was a mess but didn’t notice the blisters and black toe nail that I had on my left foot. Having a shower reminded me of the sore bits that I had too!, a glass of wine and then I was fast asleep!

I paid for the lack of stretching after the race when I got up the next morning – It was a very slow walk down to breakfast. Full English for me – I had earned it.

If you ever get the chance to do this please do, learn from my mistakes, make your own but overall enjoy it as much as I did.

A big thank you goes out to Sarah (my wife) Sadie and Olivia my two girls for the fantastic support they have been throughout this journey.

We have raised over £1500 for the MS trust and would like to thank everyone that has supported me through kinds words and sponsorship throughout my journey

I am now into the fourth week of recovery – My toe nails have just started to come off and my right foot as held up enough for me to be able to do a couple of 2 – 3 mile runs, but it’s still not fully fixed.

I have a huge medal and am very proud of my achievement.

Thanks for reading this and many thanks to everyone that has sponsored me and followed my progress on facebook and twitter

James

 

You can sponsor me at : http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/jamesturton

You can follow me on twitter : http://www.twitter.com/jamesturton