It was during my year studying an MBA at Cranfield School of Management that I completed my second Marathon. This time it was London.... and I was running as part of a giant orange and purple CENTIPEDE!!
I was one of the first to sign up to the London Marathon 'Centipede' team, 7 years on from my New York experience. We needed a team of 12 and we were raising money for the NSPCC. I was one of the few team members who had run a marathon before which gave me a little confidence but at the same time I still remembered how tough a challenge it was and how much pain you have to go through! Nevertheless I was really looking forward to running London and doing my second marathon.... and this time I was going to train properly!
However, the training didn't go quite so well. As soon as I started running more than a few miles I was getting the same painful knee problems. This time it seemed even worse... so as before, I did much of my training in the gym on a bike! I felt reasonably fit and also knew that we weren't going to be running particularly fast dressed as a giant centipede... so I didn't get too worried. That was until the team did the Reading Half Marathon a few weeks before London.... basically it was a disaster and I stumbled across the finish line in over 2 and a half hours..... having to stop and walk the last couple of miles due to my knees and general lack of fitness!
I was now worried.... if I couldn't do a half marathon in under 2 1/2 hrs then I was going to really struggle to get round the full marathon in a few weeks time. I was a team member and whereas initially I was seen as one of the stronger runners, I was now one of the weakest. I didn't think I could ever go through more pain than I had been through doing the New york marathon.... but that was exactly what would happen!
We drove down very early on race day and assembled with the giant centipede in Greenwich park... my knees were heavily strapped and I had a bag full of painkillers with me as well as energy gels and power bars! There were 12 in the team.... and at any one time 6 people would be in the centipede costume with the remaining 6 running alongside.
We set off at a reasonable pace and it wasn't long before I was running with pain.... people talk about hitting 'The Wall' at about 18-22 miles..... well I had seemingly hit this wall at about 6 miles! However, we kept going and at about 12 miles going over Tower Bridge.. we got a boost... the TV Presenter Suzi Perry interviewed us for the BBC coverage! It realy helped give us the boost we needed (especially me).... although watching the video back later that night.... you do see an idiot waving to the camera (yes... me!)
Somehow we kept going.... the crowds were amazing... and it really was simply a case of one step at a time and keep going. The pain was horrendous but we managed to keep going and soon were were coming down 'The Mall' by Buckingham Palace and into the finishing straight.... we crossed the line in an impressive 4hrs 46 mins.
Again, I couldn't walk for about a week.... but I had my second fantastic medal and it was a great experience and reinforced the fact that I was strong, determined and could dig deep when the going got tough... very tough!
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