self portrait at the location of the start of the marathon.

despite being in a crowd of over 35,000 runners it's weird how i didn't really have a conversation with anyone for 7 hours (from when i arrived at the start).

I suspect this was mostly because i did it at a different speed to everyone else. note the yellow fleece which i took off whilst walking (quite a feat as i had a backpack and a running vest on top of it).

i also haven't got a hat on at this stage. when it started getting really sunny i decided i needed a sun hat so i was going to pick up one of the discarded ones. but i didn't want anything too scanky. luckily just as i was thinking i might have no choice someone from the crowd gave me a free one advertising bottled water. and it was just the job.

in the background of this picture is the isle of dogs where the marathon course eventually snakes round to.