On sunday I took part in the Virgin London Marathon. I had not planned to race it but just run it as a long training run, I had got a place through my running club ballot. I had volunteered to run it with a friend from running club called Donna who was running in aid of the charity Headway as they have helped her mum through her ilness. I drove to my mums in Hackney on the morning and left my car there and myself and Sue and the girls (Becky and Laura) got on public transport and headed towards the start. I showed the girls where to go to get to the 22 mile point where they where going to watch the race from Fetchpoint (a Fetcheveryone support point) and meet some friends. I went off on the tube and train to get to the start and got a little held up due to a delay on one of the tube lines as a result of someone under a train! I made it to the start just in time to get my bag on the last late baggage lorry and get into my pen where I spoke to a friend of Sue’s who doe swimming with her. I just had time to wish him luck and off we went. As I was in pen 3 I got through the start in less than 3 minutes and went off at a decent pace as donna was starting on the red start and I was on Blue so I wanted to get to the junction they merge to wait for her before she came through. I got to the junction faily quickly and waited for her and due to her having taken ages to get through her start I had a 20+ minute wait for her and I very nearly gave up! Once i picked her up we then went on plodding round the course. Donna was aiming for a time of about 4:30 so I was doing the maths and trying to keep up a pace that would achieve that time and encourage Donna to keep that pace. I am not sure if it was just me but it seemed more crowded than usual or maybe it was just the fact that I as further towards the back than I would be normally be. Occaisionally I got a bit frustrated with runners with MP3 players just cutting ppl up or blocking the route 2 or three abreast without any consideration. Some woman was concentrating on talking at her phone, “Shouting can you hear me” repeatedly at the phone untill I got a bit frustrated and shouted “yes I can hear you fine” so she could hear me. Then there was the man running along shouting at his phone “play all music” in many different tones and pitches as the background noise was messing it up I assume, just bloody pres a button you muppet! Why would you not want to soak up the atmosphere at london and just shut yourself away from the world? By about half way it was clear that Donna was starting to struggle a bit to maintain the pace needed to get a 4:30 so I tried to keep her pace up as much as possible by running slightly in fron and just dropping back to offer encouragement. I was a nice sunny warm day and warmer than was expected during the race. by about mile 20 Donna was clearly feeling it and in reality so was I but I think mainly as a result from running slower than I would normally. The next big highlight was Fetchpoint at 22 miles where I said hi to various people and then plodded off with Donna again. Soon we were in the last mile and with a bit of encouragement Donna picked up the pace and finished strongly, she was a little bit wobbly at the finish. Her time was 4:35 and some seconds. I helped her get her baggage and then sat her down while I got mine then we walked to the meeting area and we met our respective families. I met Sue and the girls then we went off to get the tube and back to the car and off home with a well deserved MacDonalds on the way home. All in all a good training run and good to help out a fellow runnng club memeber. My official time in the end was 4:53:28 due to waiting on the course for Donna and officially my slowest road marathon ever not that that really matters.