12192 - that's my brother
The London Marathon
22 April 2007
It was a bit of a shock when a while back Debbie informed me: Your brother is going to do the London Marathon in April.
That is not exactly something that you take on lightly at any age and he had decided that he wanted to try before he was fifty - which meant getting a move on in his case as he didn't have many months left.
He was going to do the run to raise money for Cancer Research.
He persevered with all his training, running for hours by himself every weekend, doing the gym work and following a strict regime and diet.
As he said whilst he was over visiting in February - you have to find a speed that is comfortable because you are going to have to run like that for over four hours.
Anton's first real indicator came a few weeks beforehand when he ran the half marathon at Reading in just under two hours.
On the eve of the race Jean-Jacques and I drove over for the big event. JJ had just finished a week of training with the Reserve - now he was going to see some real exercise.
The big day arrived and we set off for the train early in the morning. All the way into London people were getting on armed with their wee bags marked London 2007.
At Greenwich the participants are divided up into three start lines - Anton was on the Blue Start - and then sub-divided into sectors according to your intended time.
The weather warning was out because it was looking to be a very hot day. The unseasonal temperatures had continued and at least 20 degrees was being expected. That is very hot for running at the best of times let alone 26,2 miles.
Anton donned his number plate and protective plasters, took his bag and headed off to check in and join the big wait for the off.
He told us afterwards that the start was a bit like the M25 start and stop and start again as the 36 000 runners got themselves going.
We walked down into Greenwich village to witness the first block of fast runners hurtle past the 6 mile point (we had just walked less than a mile to get there). With the press of the crowd it was very difficult to spot any particular runner and when we did see Anton come past he was in such a crush we ended up with a photo of half an ear here and a bit of head there !
I did catch him however as he ran round the corner away from us.
The intention now, was to cross over the river and meet up with Hannah and Alex and my Parents to see Anton come past the 13 mile marker.
All that went in the bin when we discovered that a train had broken down in the tunnel under the Thames at 0800 hours and there were no services. Obviously no thought of having breakdown teams available, and that explained why we had seen people arriving so late for the start. They had already been forced to walk three miles extra just to get there.
Debs, JJ and I ended up having to take a train into London Bridge which was forced to wait for 20 minutes to get into the station because of congestion. There we got a phone call from Hannah saying that Anton had already passed by. He was covering ground faster on foot than we were by train.
A change of plans was required and we decided to try for near the Monument - we had to walk across the river - no Underground system in that direction.
Anyway we managed to find everybody and had a good view from a bridge as the runners came down to the 23 mile marker. Of course the race had long been won (2 hours 7 minutes) but we were now getting to see the ordinary folk doing their best.
The heat was obviously having an effect and down on the road it was 27 degrees. The water station just in front of us had become a bit of a crush and runners were having to stop to get a drink.
I was getting a bit worried for Anton when the theoretical time for his passage came and went but my Parents had also seen him and he was looking ok at the half way mark so perhaps it was just the throng of people that was making it hard going.
I am glad he was wearing blue because it made him easier to spot. Of course he couldn't really see anybody in the crowd in particular but this time he managed to hear Alex roaring out his name and see Hannah pointing up onto the bridge above him.
Just a few more miles to do then and he was done. Using transport we just about managed to cover the distance faster than he did.
For somebody who had just run 26 miles he was looking pretty good - no funny walks, both knees still attached and the trainers weren't smoking.
We looked the following day and he had come in 16 424th out of a total of 35 669 runners which placed him in the first 46 per cent. For his age he was 2042nd out of 3966 runners between 45 and 50. For a first timer and at the upper end of that bracket I reckon that was pretty good especially as almost all the front runners were members of clubs.
As his new shirt says:
You see impossible - I saw the finishing line
Proud of you brother !
See also