Cheer them on!

Tikay10

As you know, it is the London marathon this weekend, & it's televised on BBC, on Sunday.

Forum regular "FCHD" is running, representing Bideford Amateur Athletic Club, & he thinks his race number is 23370. Look out for him!

Anyone else running in this, or know someone whoi is? If so, post in this thread, so we can cheer you & them on.

It's an absolutely wonderful event, & it symbolises all that is good with people.

Most run for charity, huge crowds turn out to cheer them on, & most of the runners raise tons of cash for charity.
 
There is never a spot of bother with the crowds, either, everyone is good-natured & happy.

It is one of THE great events of the year, imo, so much good condensed into one day.
 
I don't bother watching the Elite ("proper") athletes, I just love to see the regular guys & gals doing their bit for Charity.  When I see some old boy struggling over the line after running, sometimes barely above walking pace, after 7 or 8 hours, it's hard not to shed a tear of happiness. 

Mod_Machka: fixed the race number

Glenelg

In Response to Cheer them on!:

As you know, it is the London marathon this weekend, & it's televised on BBC, on Sunday. Forum regular "FCHD" is running, representing Bideford Amateur Athletic Club, & he thinks his race number is 22370. Look out for him!
Posted by Tikay10

I always have a bet on the London Marathon just to make it more interesting to watch! Not done London (logistically/time-wise very difficult) but having done over 40 can empathise with the pain & suffering!!
GL FCHD!

Poker_Fail

Wow so he's from bideford as well!

It's a small town so I just about might know them,
Anyone know how old he is?

scotty77

GL FCHD...do you have a charity page?  Would like to contriube a few pounds!

GaryQQQ

Best of luck to FCHD and everybody else involved. I'll be glued to every minute of the coverage as usual. Once you've taken part in the London Marathon you become a fan for life. I made my Marathon debut in London in 1994, completing the course in 3 hours 20 minutes, later improving my PB to 2-56.

AcidMan27

Best of luck FCHD.

Lambert180

In Response to Re: Cheer them on!:

GL FCHD...do you have a charity page?  Would like to contriube a few pounds!
Posted by scotty77

Was chatting to him on the FT of one of the DTD games and I believe he said he's not doing it for charity because he said when he does it for charity he feels obligated to finish the race even at the cost of doing himself an injury.

splashies

Good luck mate,

Run Good :P

FCHD

Thanks for the best wishes guys - just found a wireless signal at the hotel.

My number is actually 23370, I made a slight error when letting tikay know on Friday,

As Lambert said, I'm not running for charity this year, I did it for the local children's hospice last time and I should really have dropped out but carried on to make sure I finished to collect the cash for the needy cause. Regretted it for months as it took a long time for my knee to recover.

Should be back on-line tomorrow night sometime to let you all now how I got on

Glenelg

Pain is temporary pride is forever!!
GL

Machka

GL in the race.

Fixed the race number in tikay's post in case people are looking out for your number on the telly!

FCHD

Ok, so that didn't go exactly according to plan.

I knew I wasn't in shape to threaten my pb, or to actually run all 26.2 miles.

What happened however, saw me cross the line in a fraction under 6 and a half hours (that's based on my time from passing the start to the finish, nor from when the gun went off).

Started fine, although a longer than expected queue for the toilets saw it a bit of a rush to get my bag on the correct luggage lorry, and was OK up to about 10 miles. From then on it was all downhill. Spotting two of my mates, i closed in on them for a chat and not paying attention to where I was stepping, tripped over a kerb. While this in enough should not have caused a problem, from not much further on, my entire right leg from the ankle up to the gluteus maximus became so stiff that running at any pace became a problem. Putting two and two togetjer I connected the two, but there's no real evidence of that.

I was OK to walk and decided to carry on for as long as it took for the leg to loosen up - it certainly wasn't getting any worse (if it had I would definitely have abandoned there and then).

Well, i walked and walked and ended up walking almost the entire second half of the event, only managing to have enough confidence to start in to a jog, and then a proper run, about three miles from the finish.

So a sort of tale of woe for me, but I'll get over it and hopefully be running again on Thursday. And the on-line entries for next year open on April 30. The event itself never fails to amaze or inspire.

While I'm here , a huge wave of thanks to the volunteers who manned the start, finish and drinks stations, and to the many St John's Ambulance personnel who also gave their time for free and helped many hundreds of runners, from a helpful smear of Vaseline to full para-medic treatment.

Back now in a hotel part of the way home, that happens to have in-room wi-fi but not enough bandwidth to watch the live 865 stream!

scotty77

Fantastic achievement...if you don't mind putting up the name of the charity that you supported last time around because I'd love to send them a few pounds?!

FCHD

In Response to Re: Cheer them on!:

Fantastic achievement...if you don't mind putting up the name of the charity that you supported last time around because I'd love to send them a few pounds?!
Posted by scotty77

Thanks Ryan.  The charity I ran for was the Children's Hospice South West (www.justgiving.com/chsw) but in the light of the news regarding Claire Squires perhaps it would be more appropriate for the Samaritans to benefit.

My heart goes out to her family - a day like the London Marathon should be one of celebration, not one of personal tragedy.