Race Photos

There are photos of the race online already, which is cool.

This weekend, I am going to spend some time adding up the total raised for the SIA so far... I think it is looking to be around £1,600. And I believe I still have some collection to do... it's pay day tomorrow, so I might tie it in with that.

Recovery

Yesterday, in response to someone asking me how I felt towards the end of the run, I actually said the words "Oh, I felt fine, actually". Really??

It would seem that having been in and out the other side, I have now allocated my marathon experience a handy rose-tinted glow. Although I have to say it did all go rather quickly and I didn't really have much of a chance to consider how it all felt. Apart from two miles (18-20) where my knee was threatening to give way, there was not one point when I genuinely didn't think I could complete it and sustain my pace into those last few hundred yards. And I pulled a sprint out of the bag for the finish. So all in all, I can say it was neither entirely enjoyable nor entirely painful. I have no blisters, chaffage or missing toenails, my bowels did not move en route (worringly common, as I am told) and I can walk.


All in all, I am very pleased with my effort and only a little worried by the fact that at some point, my 'skin of my teeth' attitude towards the challenges life throws is sooner or later bound to leave me a cropper, since it has not done on this occasion.

More soon - I have yet to beguile you with tales of adult egg-hunting in the village of Clive ('adult' in terms of age of participant, fear you not), the brilliant team behind Whitchurch FM, THE radio station for Shropshire ("It's so hot right now"), the generosity of so many wonderful, excellent, fabulous people and, er, other stuff but right now, I have to go now.

Oh, and I'll post a link to the marathon photos when they're all up.

J

The Marathon Proper

deary me, i owe so much posting, blogging, writing, ranting.

i haven't written for a while... i think i was a little reluctant to commit to any one particular emotion before having run those 26.2 miles - unknown entities make me uncomfortable. what if i'd sounded all too confident and then screwed up, hey?

but now i can safely inform you that it was fine. the results are out and 3 hours, 38 mintes and 3 seconds, it took me. a fine time for a first-timer, might i say it myself. there was a hairy moment when my sciatic nerve tried to disobey me and screw up my knee, but this led to little more than a slow couple of miles and nothing that two nurofen plus and a bit of determination couldn't handle.

i'll write properly tomorrow for now i must really go to bed, but thank you everyone for enormous support and i am going to sleep happy in the knowledge that i am the 26th fastest woman in my age group. yeah.

Fundraising and The Domestically Challenged Bakery

People are being really, really generous... I have a couple of enormous thank you's to say and, a la most uninspiring acceptance speeches, you know who you are. Yup, I have a big smile on my face for all of you.

When I was doing my University finals, Mum was coming down to visit me in Oxford and decided to bake some biscuits to give me, in an attempt to top up both energy and seratonin levels. She regrettably however had to confess that the biscuits were so revolting, that when offered to the Dog, they had been politely declined, and thus she had left them at home out of shame. I protested - biscuits, from a woman who can't bake, are a labour of love, and no true labour of love can taste bad, non? And on this assurance, we saw the birth of 'The Domestically Challenged Bakery Ltd'.

Mum would send me extraordinary home-made packages of baked goods which were often pretty edible. Equally, however, the occasional batch would require what one might call nutritional gallantry. Taste buds apart, I do know that every time I received one of my treasured 'Domestically Challenged Bakery' packages, I was filled with a combination of wonder, disbelief and joy. The biscuits always had directions for use, which might be something like "Put on short skirt. Locate academic tutor. Offer biscuit. Simper"; the ingredients would range from ground ginger to spaniel hair but would always list huge quantities of love; and crucially, each package would manage to surpass it's predecessor in terms of hilarity, and each one played a small but important role in the maintenance of my sanity.

I made a brief yet successful forray into jams in the summer of 2005, establishing the subsidiary 'Domestically Challenged Preservery', but since then, the trademark has laid dormant. Until, that is, I thought of Marathon Macaroons. Yes, last week, certain hapless friends received through the post a small collection of somewhat crushed, dubiously 'freestyle', home-made baked goods, accompanied by a sponsorship plea. Incredibly, a few wonderful people even sponsored me upon receipt of said unsavourables!

And little do they know it, but my esteemed work colleagues are soon to be subjected to a similar thing. I think Thursday might be the day for the next major biscuit assault.

Well, be it biscuit bombardment or begging, I am going to raise this much-needed money for the Spinal Injuries Association and I am (fingers very crossed as my right knee/ankle still aren't great) going to run every mile of the London Marathon.

Thanks again to everyone who has sponsored me... it means lots. And if you haven't, I would love just a little support.

Jess