Well what a day yesterday was.
It was hot, hot, hot, hot. In fact it was the hottest day of the year to date with temperatures getting over 30 degrees Celsius.
The marathon did not go quite as smoothly as everyone would have hoped but I dug my heels in and finished.
We had to get breakfast delivered to our room as the hotel didn't begin serving until 8am which was too late for me to get to the start line so for the first time ever I experienced breakfast in bed in a luxury hotel (well four star anyway).
After breakfast we headed into town to find somewhere to park up nearish the Hilton hotel where the race began. It was fairly easy to get a space but then we were a pretty long walk away from the start line.
I had a quick photo call outside the Hilton before heading off to take my starting position - right at the back of the pack.
As usual the tannoy system was hopeless and hardly anyone could hear what was being said so when a delay of half an hour was announced it took a while for the message to relay to the back. As we were penned in with therailingss there wasn't much option but to sit down and wait in the baking sun for thirty minutes, which then turned into forty five minutes as the wheelchair racers had to get away first.
By the time the gun finally went off I was desperate for the loo and didn't even make the 1 mile marker before having to duck into the nearest conveniences - as did a number of other people.
At about the 2 mile marker I noticed a very vocal supporter so I turned to give him a wave of thanks and it was Bob Hope from ITV's Emmerdale, I was starstruck!!
At the 3 mile mark I saw my Marathon support group - the other half and his parents, gave a wave for the camera and carried on.
Shortly after that I was lapped by the leader of the Half Marathon race, at first I was mortified but then I realised that they Half Marathon followed a different course and they turned back a lot sooner than the Marathon so he wasn't actually THAT far ahead really.
I got to the third water station to find it had run out of water and the marshals were waiting more suppliedidn't didn't really want to hang around so I moved on to the next one - it was only 3 miles away after all.
At the next water station they too had run out, I was starting to get agitated, I scavenged around the discarded bottles on the floor to find a half empty bottle and took a drink - it was very warm but at least it was liquid. A little further on an ambulance was giving out emergency rations, thinking I had better leave it for those still behind me I declined his offer and carried on despite the fact I could have done with a swig to wash down some headache tablets as I was starting to get a nasty headache with the heat.
It seemed to take forever to get to the turning point in Lytham and it was getting very hot - made worse by the fact we were running by the sea and the reflections were bouncing the light right onto us, ironically I was beginning to drown in my own sweat.
Shortly after the turn I caught sight of the other half. He gave me a banana and promised some water was available 3 miles ahead.
The other half ran with me for the 3 miles, which was pleasant but also annoying as he was rather fresh and bouncing on his feet whereas I was sweaty, sore and getting short tempered due to a lack of water.
I got some water at the next scheduled drinks station and washed down two painkillers.
The other half then gleefully informed me I had broken my half marathon record. I managed a kind of grunt by way of acknowledgement, by this time my head was pounding.
I stopped for a short walk break to eat a banana and allow the painkillers to take action and then took a toilet break - a nasty affair as I had the trots very badly. It was a stark warning sign that I was very close to dehydrating, I needed more water and fast.
I met the other half's parents at Lytham Pier and they had a bottle of COLD water for me - woo hoo!
They remarked that I didn't look good and asked if I was sure I wanted to continue, I said I was fine and would finish - omitting the information about the deadly trots incident.
I set off again feeling refreshed for the water and started to head back towards Blackpool.
There was another lack of water stations on the way back but thankfully the temperature had started to drop and a number of local residents came out to offer glasses of water and dips in paddling pools - bless 'em - every one of them.
The run back to Blackpool was fairly lonely, I overtook about 4 people who were struggling but getting there.
When I got to mile 19 there was another impromptu water station provided by the Wife of a fellow competitor - she very sternly made me take 2 cups of water before letting me on my way.
Just after that I saw my support group again, complete with banner and more water!!
I had two more painkillers as the headache was still niggling me and stopped for more photos. I then set off to catch up with some runners I knew well from the runners world forum site.
We ran on together for the last 6 miles and chatted away about life, the universe and why we were mad enough to do this.
At mile 21 a fog started to come in and we could barely see in front of us and when we turned at 23 couldn'twe couldn't make out the finish line - NOT FAIR.
When the finish line finally loomed into vision I could barely believe it - I was going to finish a marathon and I felt fairly good!
We carried on run/walking until the finish was about 200 metres away and then we gave it a final sprint finish.
I made it in just under 6 hours - 5 hours, 59 minutes and 13 seconds.
WOW I finished a marathon.
I walked back to the car fairly easily - getting out at the hotel was damned hard and I started to get very light headed, the other half threw a king size snickers down my throat and I started to feel a bit better.
After getting showered and changed and inspecting myself for blisters - of which I found none
(wahay!) I went down to the restaurant to peruse the dinner menu, not very impressed with the vegetarian option we decided to head into town and hunt down an Indian or Chinese restaurant.
It took forever but finally we found a Indian in Bispham and it was beautiful.
When we came back I just about managed to get undressed before falling asleep within 2 minutes.
