I Am A Marathon Runner!

Holding back the tears at the finish!

What a day! I knew that marathon day was not going to be how I originally envisaged when I signed up to the challenge last September. With two months of illness and injury hindering my progress I had to mentally let all aspirations of fast times go and just embrace the marathon journey. And what a journey it was! It all started with a fairly relaxed morning in that there were no kids to worry about and I was staying a ten minute walk from the race start. I got to the start, stood in a half hour queue to go to the toilet and was lined up ready to go at 0945hrs after a karaoke rendition of Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. The atmosphere was buzzing and I told myself it was just nerves and that I didn’t need to go to the toilet again. However, as soon as I started running I realised that actually I did need to go and so half a mile into the race saw me nipping behind a bush to ‘make myself more comfortable’ before I ran another 25+ miles!. Running through the centre of Brighton was absolutely amazing, there was so much support from the crowds and I saw Raf for a second time at Mile 5 although I was slightly annoyed that he was tucking into a breakfast baguette which I would have loved at that point. The next part of the course took us onto the sea front and left for about three miles before we ran around a village and double backed on ourselves. Brighton Marathon had been billed as a ‘flat course’ but there was certainly nothing flat about the three mile uphill run which seemed to never end. It was here that I made my first schoolboy error by attempting to go in a bush again after hydrating myself a little too much and instead sat on a patch of nettles! I was cursing this extra pain; as if the marathon wasn’t bad enough I now had nettle stings all over my bum! But luckily the pain wore off after a few miles and as I neared the half marathon point I was back in the centre of Brighton again and waving at Raf who did a great job navigating the course to be my cheer squad.
There were huge crowds along the centre of the sea front and they all offered jelly babies, Haribo, crisps and various other treats. I nearly kissed the man who handed me an ice pop at Mile 14, it was probably the highlight of the race!

               

So happy with that ice pop!

The race continued with more sections which double backed on themselves which was really demoralising; you would turn a corner and see runners as far as the eye could see before they would turn around and head back to where you started. As I neared Mile 20 you could see that I wasn’t the only one who was struggling but the support and camaraderie that existed amongst the runners was something really special. One lady fell over and hit her head and immediately about five runners stopped to help her get back up not caring that stopping to help would affect their time. I ran into about ten other runners who were running for Dementia UK and so I spoke with all of them about how they were finding the race and why they were running for Dementia UK. This helped inspire me to keep going. I also checked my phone at various intervals so I could read messages of support that were coming through as well as donations to my fundraising page. At about Mile 22, when I was really struggling and I didn’t think it could get any worse, the heavens opened and we were hit with a torrential downpour of freezing cold rain. I had already cooled down a lot by that point and as I continued to make my way back home to Brighton Pier with the cold rain pelting in my face I wondered why on earth I had signed up for this! Those two miles were by far the hardest and I had to resort to a fair bit of power walking which by that point was probably quicker than my ‘run’. But as I neared the Pier and the crowds picked up again I was given another dose of adrenaline to keep going. I was running (dragging my feet) with another girl who saw her Dad just before we hit Mile 25. She was finding things really tough and her Dad could see it too. The next minute he climbed over the barrier, grabbed her by the arm and ran his daughter home. I couldn’t help but be overcome with the emotion of it all and a few tears sneaked out. The last mile was a blur. My left hip and knee were so sore at this point that I had to adopt some weird gallop with my right foot moving ahead and my left following behind! I felt like a pop star with the amount of people shouting my name and encouraging me to get to the finish (my name was written on my top!) and I kept on going with my weird gallop and crossed that finish line at 5:19:50. I cried when they put that medal around my neck; from pain, exhaustion and pride. I just couldn’t believe that I had finally finished it and that I could stop! A quick trip to the Dementia UK charity tent gave me some food, drink and a massage before I scoffed an entire pizza and made my way slowly home. The marathon was an experience from start to finish; some of it negative but mostly extremely positive. The people who were competing and the people who came in support absolutely made this a fantastic event. Will I be doing it again? I’m not done with this distance. I want to see what I can do when I am at my peak. But I am happy to wait a few years for that to happen. And for now I am just incredibly proud that I dragged myself around 26.2 miles and lived to tell the tale.

A big shout out to this weeks sponsors: Ash Browning (Who also graciously opened up his house to  us for the weekend), Mam and Dad (Again), Amy Acton and The Copelands.

If you can donate then please visit my fundraising page and help fund more Admiral Nurses at: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HelenFrancis10

KM Complete: 125
KM To Go: 175

 Bin Bag Chic at the Start 

 

The Proof!