how i walked the marathon

i started at the back with a few thousand others. here we are making our way to the start line. at this point i was feel very unsporty in my long trousers, fleece top and mini rucksack (nearly everyone else was in shorts and running vests).

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we slowly shuffled until eventually we reach the starting line:

because i was walking, a few thousand runners whizzed by me in the first hour. this was a bit depressing, but then i’m not in any way sporty so i wasn’t too bothered.
it was a bit disturbing seeing people pack away around me though:

i kept my pace steady throughout the race and enventually started to catch up with some of the people i’d stood with in the original line with.
By about half way my walking speed was faster than those who’d run as far as they could and were walking the rest of the course. By the time it was 8 miles to go i was being rarely overtaken myself and it was me who was doing the overtaking.

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those last 8 miles were great as my patient pace meant i could really push a bit faster to the finish. and i was whizzing round people (without having to resort to anything as vulgar as running).
somewhere in the middle my feet stung like mad things so i took my pain killers which helped hugely.
the last bit of the route is very well known walking territory for me so i knew how far i had to go. i even had time for a self portrait with big ben behind me:

and finally i made it to the finish line:

the official photographer said i looked ‘very fresh’ and i realised i hadn’t really broken in to a sweat or got out of breath the whole race !
In the end i came 33,507th out of 35,680 people.
hoorah for walking. hoorah for all your lovely sponsoring and support. (and hoorah for pain killers)
give yourself a medal: