London Marathon 2013

Dear readers,

I completed the London Marathon 2013 in 3hours 34minutes 19seconds, beating my previous year's time (of 3hrs 38mins 58secs) by nearly five minutes.

I'm exceptionally pleased with this result for two reasons - 1) I had done a lot more intensive training than last year and 2) I wasn't even sure if I would finish in a faster time than last year, despite the extra training, so I am glad to see that it had not gone to waste. Not that I would have been particularly bothered if I had been slower than last year. As I've said from the beginning, the fundraising means more to me than anything else.

In fact, I was on course to finish around 3hrs 30mins. However, I let things slip a little around 23 miles in, but to finish only four minutes after that is still an incredible achievement all the same. My other family taking part also finished the marathon, including my uncle Mark and my cousin Darren who got cramp in both his legs around 9 miles in, but bravely soldiered on through the remaining two-thirds of the race. It is hard enough to run a marathon as it is, but to do most of the race after picking up an injury and carrying on to the very end without giving up takes a hell of a lot of guts. I am very proud of his determination.

The organisers and participants took part in a 30-second silence before the beginning of the race, in memory of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing last week. It was a very moving and respectful 30 seconds, followed by loud applause. It was absolutely the right thing to do, and many of the runners, like me, also wore black ribbons as a mark of respect.

I got off to a good start as I was much closer to the front of the crowds than I had been the previous two years, meaning I did not spend so much of the first few miles trying to wind my way around slower runners in front of me. Despite the only landmark in the first 11 miles or so being the Cutty Sark and therefore there not being any sights to see, I was able to keep myself motivated.
Running along Tower Bridge was a wonderful experience again, and the sight of so many people cheering me on is one I won't forget in a hurry. At the 13-mile mark, my cousin Matt was there to greet me, with his colleagues from the Alzheimer's Society who were all cheering on the runners for that charity.

I kept up the pace but after around 18 miles, I was beginning to flag a bit. A short walk and a drink of water and Lucozade were enough to put a spring back in my step and I carried on again. I saw some more family at mile 23, near the Monument. At this time I had slowed down and started walking again as fatigue set in. Their shouts of encouragement spurred me on. I counted down from 5 in my head and zipped off, yelling "AAAAARRRRGHH!"

My brother and my Dad were at mile 25 to cheer me on, and they saw me, although I did not  see them properly, expecting them to be standing on the other side of the road. Another cousin of mine, Claire, was also at mile 25, and it was great to see so many family and friends turn out to support me (though to be fair, they were mostly out there supporting other people as well).
As with last year and in 2011, the Embankment and Birdcage Walk just went on and on and on, with seemingly no end in sight. That last mile or so down Birdcage Walk was like mental torture. I ran past a sign saying "800m to go!" After running what I thought must surely have been at least half that distance, if not the whole lot, I approached another sign saying "600m to go!" Things continued in this fashion when I got to a sign saying "200m to go!" as I turned into the Mall for my sprint finish. By this point, I did not have much energy left so it wasn't so much a sprint finish, more like a "relatively fast-paced jog" finish but I at least had enough energy left to overtake a few people down the final stretch.

I crossed the finish line, and who was there to greet me? None other than Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin, who are the sponsors of the London Marathon. He very kindly shook my hand but I was too exhausted to even say anything, let alone thank him. What a nice man though.
I could barely walk down to Horse Guards Parade to collect my kit bag and had to sit down for a while, but eventually I summoned up the strength to get up and go. I went to the institute where the charity Whizz-Kidz were hosting their post-marathon reception, and there I got some food and a massage. I was hoping for a hot, blonde, Swedish masseuse (as in my mind, this is what all people who practise massages look like) but instead it was a 15-stone bearded man called Peter from Birmingham. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

I was initially worried that the heat would affect my performance, as most of my training had taken place in the coldest winter I have known for years, but fortunately the temperature on Sunday did not turn out to be too hot. In fact, it was quite frosty first thing that morning, and though it did get very hot later on, it was just about bearable, and I did have to slow down and walk a few times, but this was more due to tiredness than any adverse weather. I'm happy and I've raised nearly £2000 for a really deserving cause - the charity Whizz-Kidz, which provides disabled children with wheelchairs and other mobility equipment that is not readily available on the NHS.
https://www.justgiving.com/martinpampel/

So that's three marathons done in three years. Marathon number four next year?
To paraphrase the rower Steve Redgrave's apparent retirement after winning his fourth Olympic gold medal at the Atlanta games in 1996, "I give permission to anybody who catches me in a boat again to shoot me," I say "I give permission to anybody to shoot me if I enter another London Marathon."
Of course, we all know that Redgrave changed his mind and went on to win a fifth gold medal after competing at the next Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. So who knows?

After all, tomorrow is another marathon day

One more day to go! This is it, now. Third marathon in three consecutive years. All the hard work in training has been done, and it's up to me to put in a good performance tomorrow.

I attended the London Marathon Expo at ExCeL in the Docklands yesterday (as I did in previous years) and got my name printed onto my running vest, although the letters of "MARTIN" have come out slightly smaller than I would have liked. I spent most of the morning wandering around the Expo, looking at the various stalls and listening to people advertising marathons in other parts of the country or in other countries, and trying to sell me running equipment, energy food, etcetera that I didn't really want or need.

More and more people have sponsored me with the marathon getting closer and I should make my target now, and hopefully even exceed it. I set up another sweepstake at work, asking people to guess my finishing time in the marathon, for £1 per guess. Nearly 200 employees at the corporation took part, so a lot of money was raised! I have my quiz evening in two weeks' time and I expect to raise even more money then.

£200 in the money mug!

People have been asking me "are you going to beat your finishing time last year, Martin? Are you? Are you?" I don't know. I wasn't setting out to finish in a faster time. I just wanted to raise more money and take part again. Now I feel under pressure to be better than last year, and it's a pressure that I don't really want or need. The fundraising is more important to me, so if I perform better than last year, then great, but if not, I won't be too bothered about it. With the death of a 23-year-old runner in the Brighton Marathon last week, and the death of a young lady in last year's London Marathon, as well as the horrible events of last Monday's terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon, I think there are more important things to be worrying about than how quickly I finish, so it's good to have a sense of perspective.

One thing is for sure, I will endeavour to do my very best. So I would like to end by thanking all of my supporters and sponsors for their kind donations and good wishes. I would also like to wish my fellow runners (including my cousin Darren, my uncle Mark and his uncle Paul, who is again the oldest runner in this year's race at the age of 88) all the best for tomorrow, and hope that the event is a safe and enjoyable one for all participants and spectators.

My running number - 49914.
I am not a number, I am a free man!

You can follow my progress (or lack of) as my running number is 49914 and if you wish to sponsor me, my JustGiving page is here: http://www.justgiving.com/martinpampel

Boston bombing

The excitement of the upcoming London Marathon has turned into a period of shock, sadness and disbelief at recent events.

Yesterday, at around 14:50 local time, three people were killed and dozens injured in a twin bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Of the three murdered, one was an eight year-old boy called Martin.

Even though I was not in Boston and have never even been, and even though I only found out through watching the news last night, the story has shocked me to the very core. I just can't get my head around how this could happen at such an event, or anywhere else for that matter. Why anybody would want to bomb runners and spectators at a marathon is beyond me. I cannot for the life of me see any reasons. There's no military, financial or strategic reason to do this, so the only conclusion that I can jump to is that someone, or some people, simply wanted to kill and injure as many people as possible. Pointless, utterly senseless violence. Whether it is an act of domestic or foreign terrorism, or the work of an individual or a terrorist group remains to be seen, but I hope that the perpetrators are caught and duly punished.

The security measures for the London Marathon have always been stringent but I expect that they will be re-examined just to ensure that all participants and spectators on Sunday are completely safe. I am not worried and I have nothing to fear (in regard to terrorism anyway). I will feel no more or less safe than I did during the last two marathons, and I know that the police will do as brilliant a job in policing the event as they have every single year. The horrible news of yesterday has only made me more determined to start and finish the race on Sunday, as an act of defiance against the terrorist scum, and as a show of solidarity to our friends across the pond who have been affected by this atrocity.

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Twelve days to go until the London Marathon. I have completed the last of my long runs and started tapering down the exercise to allow me to recover and take it easy before the big day, so that my body is in peak condition.

My sponsorship has now exceeded £1000, I have attempted several runs in my green Whizz-Kidz vest, my friend Sam and I are in the process of organising a fundraising quiz evening, for which I have been able to obtain a number of very exciting and sought-after prizes, and I have also received my running number for the race - it's 49914. I am not sure what the numbers mean. I think they're either completely arbitrary or sorted by charity, but last year I was 33743 and in 2011 I was 46411.

In short, everything is coming along nicely as we head into the last few days before the Marathon. I am excited, although it is a nervous sort of anticipation. I will just do my best and just keep on running, even when my heart, head, legs and feet tell me to stop.

In the meantime, if you wish to sponsor me, here is the link to my JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/martinpampel