Furthermore: April 2007

April 24, 2007

Valedictory

I think that just about wraps it up for Furthermore in its current incarnation. I shall leave the current pages up for a while, but then I think I’m going to move the site and its archives (yes, I know, a blogging sin - so shoot me) and start using Wordpress. There will be occasional updates, but I doubt it will be more often than monthly.

I’m also thinking about posting to my LiveJournal. I use it for private posts and commenting at the moment, but I’d like to have somewhere to be able to blog some more personal stuff without having it easily linked to me by anyone who cares to google my name. So if you want to see that (I’m not promising how much there’ll be yet) and you don’t know where my LJ is then mail me.

post Marathon

I did it! I ran the London Marathon in 4.43 and finished 19,360th! It was a hot day - I remembered to bring a hat, but I forgot suncream. I think the hat was a lifesaver in actually allowing me to get round - I was very worried I’d get heat exhaustion. The suncream would have been nice though - I’m quite burnt on my arms, neck, and backs of my legs.

I felt pretty good through the first half. The low point was at around mile 17 when I somehow lost track of how far I’d gone and was expecting mile 18 to be coming up. Big disappointment when I saw the marker.

Fortunately I got a lift soon after when I saw my friends Alison and Chris - it definitely helped to see some friendly faces on route. If I do another then I will get my name printed on my shirt - I hadn’t realised people gave shout-outs as they saw names pass by.

The last section was tough. My legs were very tired, but I stuck to my run/walk cycle and it did seem to help stop me seizing up. The feeling when I finished was incredible. I can’t really describe it - just a kind of cathartic wave of emotion. I shall probably look very strange in the photo.

After the race I staggered across the river to meet H (we thought it would be a bit less crowded on the South Bank). We had a snack at the NFT cafe and I got changed. Then we went on to eat at Strada - it was pretty good (though I suspect almost anything would have tasted good) and then back to H’s parents in time to see the girls before they went to bed.

Here’s my official time, and here’s a random picture of me on Flickr - I literally picked it out a big page of thumbnails.