we did it!

we got up at 7am and headed over to find our silver starting pen on regent road. we walked along London road which is where the elite athletes start from...we were looking at how fit they were and knew we weren't in the right bit. so we got some directions from the crew and found the ever-so-slightly-less-ripped section (haha) and felt more at home. time seemed to slow down as we waited to start and we ate bananas, drank water, peed then peed again, people watched and stretched. finally we got going and felt great...although we had to nip into g's flat on the way past for another quick pee. we both felt really good as we headed down to portobello although the heat and direct sunlight was already noticeable. the crowds were great and very encouraging. as we went along the seafront I started to drift away from beefy and he was adamant that I should just go. so off I went, taking water at every station. I originally thought my first stop would be at 13 miles, but I had to walk a bit and eat some haribo at 9 miles, the heat was making a difference...it made it all 10 times more knackering even at a steady pace. the route was lovely and soon I reached musselborough and could see some of the elite athletes on their way back to the finish line - they looked amazing, like running machines. I was scanning the race numbers on folk as they went past to see any silver numbers that might indicate that the double back was soon. couldn't see any for ages. finally at mile 17 I saw the double back and it went round and into the grounds of a stately home which was lovely. I stopped for a pee here and my legs were really tight so I tried to stretch them a bit which worked for a minute or two but they felt like lead. I also had some stomach muscle cramps but they eased off after a while. I didn't feel particularly good at this point but just kept drinking water and eating haribo. I wondered if I might see beefy in my way back, so spent time scanning the runners for a while, but when I couldn't see him, I was glad as that meant he wasn't too far behind. as we came out of the grounds and back on to the road, something flew right past my head and hit the guy behind me on the leg. it was a golf ball and I was really lucky it missed my head. it hurt the guy but I think he was ok. I was now at about mile 21 and starting to feel sick. I had to walk quite a bit because I really didn't want to puke and I was trying to work out why I was feeling nauseous. I had drunk heaps of water but it was really hot... I carried on, running then walking until at mile 23 I took one of the gels they hand out and some water and that seemed to be what I needed. I had never practiced eating the gels, but now I know that I should have been taking them the whole way to give my body a boost in the heat. oh well! so I managed to run the last 3.2 miles, although the last mile felt like 20. ace crowds though, I high fived loads of kids along the way. the finish was such a welcome sight and I nearly cried when the lady put my medal over my head. I lay down for 5 minutes then ate the snack bar they gave me which was minging but made me feel a bit more normal. I needed something to eat after not eating much since breakfast at 8am...it was now 3.20pm. my official time came in on a text to my phone at 5 hours and 19 minutes which I pleased with (but a bit scunnnered that the heat meant I couldn't get my sub-5 that I was after). I spent the next 20 minutes watching out for beefy, hoping he wouldn't be too long as I'd start to worry. he appeared soon after, knackered, delighted and a bit emotional. of course he had made some pals along the way as I knew he would. I was so pleased to see him. we sat at the finish and took photos, lolled about, took our shoes off to assess the damage (none, really) and try to recover.
the bus was a mile away, so we walked there and it took us back to regent road where we had started. we could have done without the two mile walk back to the flat, but it probably did us good to keep moving. a quick bath then we drove back up the road, stopping at dundee for food and celebratory beer...both totally knackered and weather-beaten.
we picked up the girls from g&j's and headed home, too knackered for that celebratory beer. we did it, yaaas!