(more pix from the London Marathon)
I'm pretty sure I could never run the London marathon. It takes place on a Sunday morning. The staggering implication of which, is that, in order to compete, you have to get out of bed early on a Sunday. Absolute madness! It was hard enough for me to grope for the remote control at 9am this morning to watch the start.
I mentioned the Sunday morningness of the event to excuse my not having any pictures of the elite runners. I intended to go down to the race to watch them but it was not to be. First, there was the Sunday morning aspect. Then, there were house guests to make grilled cheese sandwiches for. And then of course, there were various Germans my spouse needed to talk to on the phone.
It was probably for the best anyway. I felt humbled enough seeing mere mortals run the thing at a five hour pace. To watch Paula Radcliffe whiz by with a winning time of 2:17:41 would have perhaps been too much of a shock to my machismo. That works out to an average of 11.42 miles per hour. By a freakish coincidence, this is exactly my average speed cycling to work and back: 11.42 miles per hour. The woman runs a marathon at the same speed I ride my bike.
Admittedly, I have to stop for lights and have traffic to deal with. But, I only do nine miles at a stretch and then I get to have a leisurely 8 hours of rest at my desk before I do another nine back home. She does 26.2 miles in just over two hours all at once. That's just bizarre.
Three of my co-workers ran in the marathon today for the first time. I looked for them but somehow missed them amongst the 35,000 other runners.
Anita Busby ran to support Help the Hospices. So far she raised £2518.82. If you would like to support Anita, her donation page is still up at http://www.justgiving.com/anitabusby. Anita finished the race in six hours, 24 minutes.
Catherine Wingate ran to support the Parkinson's Disease Society. So far she has raised £2000.27. If you would like to support Catherine, her donation page is at http://www.justgiving.com/wingate. She finished in 6 hours, 4 minutes. She's posted some pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wingateca/.
Chris Mitchell ran to support the Royal National Institute for the Blind. He raised more than £1000 and finished the race with a fantastic time of 4 hours 2 minutes 41 seconds, which put him in 10,057th place.
Congratulations to all of them. Nice work.
Now, as I said, the marathon is not an option for me and my duvet. Cycling, however, is a sitting down sport. I am far more willing to get out of bed for a bike ride. And so, partially inspired by the efforts of my three colleagues, I've entered the London to Brighton charity cycle ride. It is just over twice as far as any wimpy old marathon.
So, please, if you have any money left after sponsoring folks for the marathon, go to http://www.bhf.org.uk/sponsor/yanda/ and help me support the British Heart Foundation. Heart disease is the UK's biggest killer, and I don't know about you, but the idea of dying from anything irritates me. Donate 10 quid and maybe we can all live forever.
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