Virgin London Marathon 2010

The London Marathon would not be complete without at least one member of 14AC, or more specifically, team MMX lining up on Blackheath. News came in early that Chris Wrighton had come down with a virus on the Friday and would not be running, so that left just Andy and Martin on the start line….or so they thought. Only later it emerged that one mysterious member of MMX had bagged himself a club place un-be-known to the rest of us.

Once again, Martin made sure he attained prime placing on the start line to get on to BBC1. However he got greater exposure than bargained for, as he appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal the following Monday. Meanwhile Andy and Leon (our mysterious sportsman) were a few rows back.

Early showers had left the road damp for the early miles, but the humid and hot conditions speculated earlier in the week did not really materialize until later in the day. The crowds and atmosphere were great in the East London boroughs and all three runners took the first 10k steady, citing experiences from previous marathons. The light breeze could easily be avoided by tucking in behind other runners and, by half way, the sun was out, the crowds were out, and the road had thinned out. And in true ‘Machine’ style, Leon was gearing up to nail the second half to achieve a negative split.

By Docklands, the rating on the hazy scale was pushing ever higher, and those early comfortable miles were being replaced with tough, painful and what seemed like endless, miles. Even so, Martin and Andy were ticking off the iconic landmarks of Canary Wharf, the Tower of London and the Monument, while Leon was ticking off the iconic railway stations of Limehouse DLR, Cannon Street and Blackfriars.

Soon Big Ben was insight and the prospect of entering The Mall and completing the 26 miles was drawing ever closer. Substantial crowds all the way along the Embankment and Birdcage Walk brought us home in very respectable times of 2:28:51, 2:47:13 and 2:54:28 for Andy, Martin and Leon respectively.

Great work all round with Andy finishing in 48^th place, Martin clocking up his 8^th London Marathon and Leon completing the second half with a 5 minute negative split.

Now for the simple task of completing that distance after the 112 mile bike ride and 2.4 mile swim – simple!