London Marathon 14^th April 2002 – By Eric ‘the eel’ Downey

It all started in August 2001 when a work colleague suggested we enter the London Marathon. After two failed attempts to gain a place, I was successful in getting one of the two Kingswood Tri guaranteed entries. Now the hard work really started and I had to do some real training. This involved the infamous Rich James’ Sheeptrack Trail (ie, running up a stream, sorry, raging torrent!) and Chris Glover’s 10-mile night-time road run. All through the winter months, we slogged through rain and mud, dreaming of that sunny Sunday in April when it would all be over! As the time approached I realised I hadn’t done enough distance work but then I had to taper down before the event. Then all too soon it was the protein and pasta loading sessions.

All Gordon’s (Bitton Road Runners) meticulous planning came to fruition on the Saturday before the race day when we boarded the coach bound for London. The coach was full of excited and nervous competitors as well as encouraging supporters. The journey was uneventful and we arrived safely at the hotel and headed for London Arena for the race registration and exhibition. Here Lee Francis, Nick Nickling and I took full advantage of the freebies on offer, including High-5 energy drinks, bars, gels and blister plasters! We also took in the finish location and our route back to the hotel as we knew that our brain wouldn’t be functioning too well at that point the day after! After the pasta party (supposedly better than last year – no comment), we all hit the sack in preparation for the day ahead.

A 5:30am wake-up call signalled the start of the race day and after a full breakfast (against most trainer’s advice!) we boarded the coach again for the procession to the start at Greenwich. We were herded into the Blue Start area and waiting with trepidation for the opening of the Lucozade tent. We deposited our kit into the numbered bags which were then loaded onto wagons for collection at the finish. Lee and I as training partners had intended to start the race together, however due to different finishing times we were allocated different pen numbers. As 9:30 approached we all observed a minutes silence for the Queen Mother and as I looked to my right I noticed someone kneeling which I thought was a touching mark of respect. However, on closer inspection, I realised he was pulling his shorts aside and relieving himself on the pavement! As the cannon sounded we were off at a snail’s pace, waving at the starting camera (next time I’ll carry a big board with my name on!). At the three mile mark I met up with a fellow Bitton Road Runner, Tony Walsh and we continued together. At each watering station we took turns in fighting our way through the throng of runners to secure some refreshment for each other. Understandably I took the advice of “hydrate, hydrate, hydrate” which meant that sooner or later it was a question of “urinate, urinate, urinate”! In my case, an additional “urinate” which cost me dearly – see later.

The support of the crowds and fellow runners was amazing and really kept me going. The atmosphere was electric, with so many people running for so many good causes. Everything was going well until 18 miles when all of a sudden I felt a twinge in my left leg which gradually worsened so much so that I had to stop and stretch it out. At 22 miles I felt a blister pop on my foot and that really started to hurt. The support from the spectators during the last mile spurred me on through the pain and soon I had the finish in sight. I looked at my watch and realised that I was JUST outside my target time and also the Elite Start for next year.

Crossing the finishing line was an overwhelming sense of achievement and well worth all the miles of training. With the silver space blanket placed over me, and feeding myself from the finishers goody bag I felt very contented even though I had this heavy weight around my neck!

My official finishing time was 3:15:08 which I was more than happy with as this was 20 minutes faster than my previous time 16 years ago! But back then my legs were shorter and my belly was smaller! Well done to Lee Francis and Karl Slater who completed the gruelling 26.2 miles in 3:57 and 3:59 respectively.

I obviously did the marathon for sponsorship ( who would do it for fun!). I raised money for St. Briavels Centre for Child Development www.stbriavels.org They are a charity working with handicapped children in the UK, Europe and South Africa.

I raised the money for the South African bit as it is very dear to my heart (I was born there). The UK therapists train local therapists in the homelands to help handicapped kids to have a better quality of life. They visit twice a year and have had some amazing successes!

This race report is a big thank you to all of you that sponsored me.  I have handed over £1,426.40 to St. Briavels Centre.  Once the tax has been reclaimed it will be in the region of £1,825.80. This will then be matched by the National Lottery commission to give a final total of £3,651.60

This is a truly phenomenal amount and I am truly grateful to everyone.  You will be well aware of just how much it means for the Centre's continuing work in South Africa.

Lies, damned lies and statistics...

Here are some (approximate) statistics. Over the last 5 months of training I have:

*       run 550 miles in around 69 hours which is an average pace of 7:30/mile (London to Paris is around 210 miles)

*       thought about sex 18,783 times whilst running

*       had to re-arrange my testicles mid-run 116 times

*       exchanged 214 runner's "Hi"s

*       been laughed at 16 times

*       been completely lost 4 times

*       almost been hit by bird sh*t once, some say this is lucky!

*       stepped in 1 pile of dog sh*t

*       Fell over once (that was after a bottle of wine)

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

The Flora London Marathon provides....

Portable toilets (incl, start, course,Mini Marathon and finish) 950

Urinal trough 440ft Urinal trailers 3

Barriers in metres 20,900 metres

Petroleum jelly 88lbs

Bottles of water over 710,000 bottles in total

are distributed at the start, on the course and at the finish

Lucozade Sport (isotonic energy drink) 120,000 33cl soft packs

at the start and on the course

Blue line paint marking the course 300 litres – 3 stripe line

Pubs on the 26.2 mile course 76

Pubs hosting charities 52