Virgin London Marathon 2010

I turned up at Greenwich Park very excited and confident. The adrenalin was pumping, the rain had started falling. Great, I thought, much better than the 20 degree heat and blazing sunshine that had been predicted.

After failing to use the portaloos before the start due to the long queues, I rushed to the start, where my competitors were already slowly crossing the start line. At two minutes and two seconds after ten o'clock, my race began...

I started off steady, in a large crowd of slower runners. I met several other people wearing Victa vests, essentially my teammates. They were a pleasant bunch of people, and we mutually motivated each other along.

After 0:32:47 I had passed the 5k point. I was on a good pace. I was happy, comfortable and enjoying myself. I decided that I needed to stop for the toilet, as I didn't get to go pre-race, so my next 5k split was slightly longer. I finally reached 10k in a time of 1:15:09. I got back on pace again after that, my 15k time was 1:54:19.

But then things started to go down hill. My right calf was beginning to ache badly. Several times I had to pull over and give it a rub. The 20k mark was on Tower Bridge, and I reached it in a time of 2:37:47. Nine minutes later I reached the half way mark. But that was it for my calf, I could not run on it after that. I was forced to limp and hobble on.

As I struggled along, the crowd tried their best to motivate me, to keep me going. But my head was dropping, the clocks kept ticking, and my confidence was fading away. My 25k time was 3:33:14, and nearly an hour later I reached 30k in 4:25:46.

The sun was now shining, and the temperature was climbing, but I could hardly walk after 19 miles, 6 of which I had been limping, and I struggled over to the St John's Ambulance personnel, ready to retire from the race. A young woman gave my sore legs a massage and encouraged me to go on, for at least another half mile to the next ambulance station to see if the massage had made things any easier, and reluctantly I took her advice and carried on.

As I struggled on, I became aware that the massage had helped loosen the aching muscles, and I was able to walk without limping. I ignored the next ambulance station and kept going.

Very soon I came across a runner in a rhino costume. I had seen him hours ago, between miles 6 and 7, and at that time I had told myself that I was determined to beat him. That determination came back. The guy in the rhino costume could not be allowed to beat me. I sped my walking up so that I could overtake him. A short while later I reached 35k, 5:22:44.

By this point, everyone around me was struggling with injuries or fatigue. We were all walking or limping, apart from a pirate who steamed past us all. These were people that I would have easily beaten if I didn't get injured myself. But the crowd were behind them, every runner with their names printed on their vests were getting rallied by the onlooking crowd. My name was nowhere to be seen, nobody was cheering me on. This spurred me on even more.

Then I finally got some support of my own. Victa, the charity I was running for, had a cheering point just shy of the 22 Mile mark, across the road from where I injured myself. There was only four people left here, but they were so pleased to see me, and I them. Their cheering put a smile on my face, and some of my confidence came back. I was now hopeful again.

Soon, calls of "Come on Rhino" came from somewhere ahead of me. Another rhino. Another rhino that I could not let beat me. I caught up with him, and that pirate was now limping beside him. I passed them both. Now there was only 3 miles to go.

In sheer disbelief I turned the corner into the Embankment. The crowds were larger and louder. I was exhausted, but the adrenalin rush was back. I passed a blindfolded runner who was being led by a friend in a dog costume, and then a man dressed as a lion. He was another runner I had seen early on and told myself that I would beat him to the finish. 40k, 6:08:55.

I kept going. Parliament Square came and went. Buckingham Palace lay before me. The finish was nearly in sight. I was walking very fast, I must have looked very silly, but I no longer cared what I looked like, or what the crowd thought of me. I had done 26 miles, and there was the Finish Line, straight ahead.

I bit my lip. I took a deep breath. This was it, my moment of glory... I ran to the line, my legs were aching beneath me, but I didn't stop until I made it over that line.

I got to the finish, I got a medal, and I've got a personal best time to beat next year. The shame and humiliation that I felt when I was limping and giving up on the Isle of Dogs was now long gone, and replaced with pride and elation that I had finished. I'm a marathoner, and my personal best time is 6 hours, 27 minutes and 52 seconds.

Next year I will beat that time. You just wait and see.

Peace and Love
xx

PS: I must thank the young woman from the St John's Ambulance station who gave me that massage. Without it, I would have not been able to finish. You made the last 7 miles possible, and I am eternally grateful. Thank you.

I Have An Interview!

Unfortunately it's not in New York...

It's in the village of Heathfield in East Sussex, which doesn't have it's own train station and therefore won't be easy to get to, but that won't stop me going. I've spoken to a girl who will be interviewing me and she's impressed by my enthusiasm, so that's a good and encouraging start.

I'll hopefully be able to view a few apartments while I'm there, because there's no way I'll be able to commute. It looks like a nice place on Google Maps, and certainly an affordable place to live.

Peace and Love
xx

New York

I'm dreaming that dream again...

I've even made a big step towards it. I've forked out something in the region of £100 to get the help of a company called Green Card Base who send out my resume to companies who aren't just hiring, but looking to hire international workers and pay for their green card! I know, it's a gamble, but if it works it will totally be worth it, because then I'll be able to live and work in New York permanently!

And that is the dream!

Peace and Love
xx

Hastings Half Marathon

I did it! I ran a half marathon! Here's proof:



Considering I only trained for two and half months, and struggled to get over four miles in training, to finish in 2.28.44 is a major achievement for me, especially as I was targetting a time of 2.30.00!

I am really pleased with myself! And I won a medal, the first medal I've ever won!

Peace and Love
xx

Long time, no type...

So I've been to a few recruitment agencies recently. The first was very un-enthused by my CV, but the second one, Recruitment COlutions in Tunbridge Wells, they think they can get me something. That's got to be good news - a job and it would be out of Margate! It's the stuff dreams are made of!

Anyways, running - it's getting tough now. I'm running far more regularly and for longer amounts of time. As a rookie who is only a couple of months into training, it's starting to become a bit of a struggle. The knees ache and the calves are tight, but I'm pushing on.

I've bought a running shirt and a pair of adidas sunglasses. They cost a bomb, of course, because I need prescription lenses with them, but it means that I can see whilst running in the sun, which is something I couldn't do before.

Time is flying by, Sunday is the Hastings half marathon! I'm not really in good enough shape to run it, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I can only do my best, so that is what I will do. Wish me luck!

Peace and Love
xx

Exciting Stuff

It snowed again... and there was loads of it! It made a nice change, usually every other part of England gets Alaska dropped on it and Thanet gets hardly anything; this time we took the brunt of it, several centimetres in fact, and no one else got any!

But what's more exciting is this:

Brad Paisley will be doing a show in London! I so want to go to that, he's brilliant and hilarious!

Peace and Love
xx

Super Bowl XXIV!

I enjoyed the Super Bowl so much this last night! It was the 6th consecutive Super Bowl I've seen, and I rate that as the best of the 6!

New Orleans Saints thoroughly deserved that win. From 10-0 down, it was beginning to look like they would live to regret their decision to receive the first kick off, even more so at 10-3 when they failed that 4th down on the 2 yard line. But that onside kick to start the 3rd quarter...

It was genius. Absolutely genius. That completely turned the game around, and from then on their offense was unstoppable.

Of course I must mention the quarterbacks. Drew Brees played exceptionally well and deserved to be the MVP. Peyton Manning on the other hand, so many people hail him as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time... well he threw the winning touchdown pass, but he threw it to a Saints cornerback Tracy Porter instead of his own receiver Reggie Wayne... Oh well, even the great ones have off days...

I'm happy with the result. I personally don't like Manning. Admittedly he does his job well, but I think that he is over-hyped. No offense Colts fans.

Peace and Love
xx

Updates...

Firstly, all the nonsense with the Student Loan seems to have been cleared up. I actually got 2 letters from them this week, from the relevant departments, apologising for their mistakes and clearing up all the grey areas. So hopefully, all is good on that front.

Secondly, that interview... The interviewer said he'd call me in three to four days. It's been seven. That doesn't look so good. What's more disappointing however is that means my hot streak of 4 successful interviews in a row has come to an end. I'm now 4 from 7 overall.

Thirdly, training for the Marathon is getting better. I had a cracking session this morning, completing 2 miles (only 1.5 jogging) in under twenty minutes. I'm very pleased with that. I felt relaxed and comfortable while I was running, which made me feel even better.

So I have some positives and some negatives to build upon over the next few weeks.

Peace and Love
xx

Interview!

I have an interview tomorrow! I can't believe it, it's only been a year since the last one...

So it's an early start tomorrow to catch the train because it is over the border in Sussex. I'm quite excited, this could be my chance to leave Thanet far behind me. So cross your fingers and pray to whatever fictional character you believe in that I get this!

Peace and Love
xx

Fire!

The house across the road from mine, number 31, caught fire last night! It was so exciting!

First of all, my dad starts shouting "Call the Fire Brigade", so I run out side to see what's going on, and there's a fire in the upstairs window. He runs over to see if there's anyone in there because the downstairs light was on, but the windows started popping out, so I pulled him back.

Then it got really hot and suddenly the whole upstairs was engulfed in flames. Then 2 fire trucks pull up outside and put it out really quickly, which was a bit of a shame, it was freezing afterwards...

I'm joking. Hats off to the fire service who got there very quickly and somehow stopped the fire spreading next door. They done an excellent job.

Fortunately there was no one inside. The lights were on a timer, as the owner doesn't live there and wanted to create the illusion that he did. He's been renovating it for a while, but now his task is substantially bigger...

Peace and Love
xx

It Snowed! At Last!

It literally started to snow about an hour after yesterday's blog... What are the chances?

So, I took my 6 year old nephew out to the park and we had a snowball fight. I had an unfair advantage... but I'm not complaining. I got to enjoy pelting someone with snowballs and took very few hits myself!

We also attemped to make snow dinosaurs (I mean why make snowmen? There so unoriginal). His was pathetic, he has no idea at all about making things. He's bad enough at Lego, he cannot visualise anything. My Brontosnowrus on the other, well it was small, but I thought it looked great. I would show you it, but I can't connect my phone to my computer. My phone is like 2 years old and keeps saying that I need Windows XP to make the program work. Damn Windows Vista!

I suppose today was mildly fun, and much better than all the other days of this so far...

Peace and Love
xx

First Blog of the Year

So, nothing - I mean nothing - has happened since this time last week. Reports of huge amounts of snow have led to no snow falling in Margate; Football matches have been called off because of frozen pitches; and I still have no job...

It's all getting a bit boring around here. I've got some ironing to look forward to this afternoon, but nothing else...

But, I did get my new highest rating on chessworld.net yesterday, and I also got some more sponsorship money for my marathon bid.

But to be honest, so far 2010 sucks...

Peace and Love
xx

Bring On 2010

What a year it has been... And don't get me started on the decade as a whole!

Ten years ago I was saying goodbye to my PC, fearing that Millenium Bug would destroy it. What ever happened to that Bug anyways? Did it affect anyone?

Ten years ago I was a couple of months away from getting full marks on the 11+ exams, and therefore I was a couple of months away from being the top kid in my year group in the whole town, and in the top 1% of 11 year olds in the whole country. Now look at me; unemployed uni drop out who can't get any work. I'm practically in the bottom 1% of 21 year olds in the whole country, and I've not even done anything wrong or bad to deserve it...

To be honest, this time last year I was fairly with myself and my life, but since dropping out of the disaster that was uni in February, nothing good has come my way. It's all gone downhill this year. There's only really be one highlight, and that being Taylor Swift's show at Wembley Arena, otherwise it's been a miserable year.

Fingers crossed that next year will be better.

Peace and Love
xx

Excitement

I have discovered something amazing - Lady Antebellum! No that is not Lady Gaga's sister...

They are a country music singing group, and they are so awesome that I've ordered both of their albums. Their second album isn't released until next month in the US, so I'm having to import it, but it's so worth it! They are unbelievable, I've heard all of the songs off their first album, and I love them!

I also have a Keith Urban album on the way, and I'm really enjoying to Kellie Pickler, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill online. And let's not forget Julianne Hough and my angel Taylor Swift!

So there it is, I've finally found a genre of music that I can call my own. It may seem to have come as a surprise, but I have been wearing jeans and checked shirts for many years now. I should have seen this coming!

I am also excited about running the Hastings Half Marathon in March, which seems like the ideal event to warm up for the London Marathon, which is in April.

Exciting times... Now all I need is a job...

Peace and Love
xx

Brittany Murphy

Tears were in my eyes when I heard about the death of Brittany Murphy. She was some woman - not just a great actress, but an amazing singer too, and so very beautiful. It's rare to find someone with any of these attributes, but she had them all.

I will miss you Brittany. Rest in peace.

Peace and Love
xx

Snow!

They were predicting 15-20cm of snow for my neck of the woods, but in reality it was no more than 3-4. But still, it was awesome.

I took a hike along the cliff tops in Cliftonville. The horizon northwards was jet black with a white mist in front of it, so I was hopeful that a blizzard was coming, but it hasn't, much to my disappointment.

But still, snowman hunting was fun. There was an excellent snowman on the grass out side what used to be the Endcliffe Hotel - it had eyes, nose, buttons and even a hat. But the rest of the snowmen along the front were pathetic, deformed, some of them headless, all of them featureless, and most of them mud-stained where the amateurish builders had rolled them up on the grass. But that's not the best way to do it. Scoop and mould, that's the way to go. Scoop and mould.

Anyways, if it snows again like this in the week, I will scoop and mould and photograph the results.

Peace and Love
xx

Happy Birthday...

Taylor Swift!! 20 years old today!!

Can't believe she's only 20! She's sold over 10 millions albums, won hundreds of awards (ok, slight exaggeration there, but it's still a lot!) and she's only turning 20 today!

She is unbelievable. Well done Taylor, and a very happy birthday to you

Peace and Love
xx

This afternoon I embarked on my first official training session for the 2010 London Marathon. I jogged a massive 1.2km, that's 0.75 miles...

I know, that's not very impressive, especially considering I was very out of breath at the end of it, but it was my first run, and I wasn't expecting to go much further than that.

I was actually very pleased with myself. My legs felt strong and were not tired afterwards, and as I mentioned yesterday, my Asics were so comfortable that I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet. So that's encouraging.

But I am slightly annoyed at how quickly I was out of breath. Hopefully that will improve a lot as I do more training. Fingers crossed!

Peace and Love
xx

New Shoes

Yesterday I took my new running shoes for a test run... well, test walk. I didn't want to run in them immediately, I wanted to make sure they were comfortable before any running begins.

And they were so comfortable, almost like walking on air. I couldn't feel the road beneath my feet. They also felt very sturdy and supportive, so I certainly made the right choice. Which is a relief, I must say. They only cost me £50, and they are therefore the most expensive thing I have bought since October last year, when I bought my current jacket!

Peace and Love
xx

Twitter

I've been wondering what the point of Twitter is. The only people I recognise on it are celebrities and famous people... and myself...

I mean I have like 241 friends on Facebook, and I can't find any of them on Twitter! If it's cool enough for actors and singers and sports stars, surely it's cool enough for the early twenty-something population of England...

But no, I'm alone on there. Feel free to add me and say hi! I'm stuyrandall on there.

Peace and Love
xx