What a fantastic day it was! Can you believe that I ran the 26 miles with a smile on my face?! The London Marathon really is a wonderful festival, something that can be described as the Olympics and the Notting Hill Carnival rolled into one!
The newspapers talk of 500,000 people cheering us 33,000 runners and that support really made all the difference. From old people sitting outside their homes, ringing bells, to kids trying to get high-fives from the runners, to bands playing outside pubs, ladies offering orange quarters to weary runners, children giving their jelly babies away! What a fantastic, heart-warming crowd!
And then the runners: many fancy dressers, almost everyone running for a charity, helping the needed, making the London Marathon an enormous fundraising event.
Not less important than the cheers I heard on the way (and the jelly beans I was offered!) were the messages of encouragement and the donations of the generous people below. Many thanks to all!
Worried about covering the 26 miles (which I did in just 1 minute and 40 seconds over the 4 hours - do I hear any applause?), I didn't run in any fancy costume and didn't carry anything that I thought could weigh me down, but I proudly had my Nottinghill Foundation vest on! And I'm still hoping to meet my fundraising target for this charity that helps the homeless in the London area, so I count on your support, good people!
Keep those contributions coming and many thanks to all!
Pedro