Gladiators.... Ready....

And they were off ... less than a mile into the challenge two of our army had to attend to a call of nature. Barring this small interruption, the pace was set. With legions of Londoners out to support, the 'messengers of the gods' were spurred into action. Wombles, superheroes and even Masai tribesmen were defeated along the way.

Despite rain, swollen knees, hunger and Artoria's inane chatter our Roman army made it over the finish line in one piece. No records broken but each gladiator was rewarded with gold and great recognition from the team at Snowdon Award Scheme.

Many thanks - we had a fantastic time and hope our pot of Roman treasure means that more students can be supported by the Scheme next year.

Remember 'dum spiro spero' - while we breathe there is hope!

(Photos: Courtesy of MarathonFoto)

I ran for the Snowdon Award scheme back in 1993 when I was head of Investment at a Law firm. Having had a dangerous driver write the car off from behind, this was my way to rehabilitate myself. Then, I ended up being the target of stupid drivers again in 1996 with another road traffic accident. This proved more serious and disabled me from my job. Not only was I fairly disabled physically in some ways but I lost much of my memory and then had learning difficulties, so I began to study for a degree to rehabilitate myself! Physically, to run a marathon was my goal.

So I entered for the London 2008 Marathon and started training, but by the time I got to 14 miles in training I found that muscles in the upper legs weren’t functioning correctly and I was in a lot of pain. The physio’ felt that it was a defect dating back from the accident and I couldn’t train any more from that date which was 10 weeks before the event. I even had pain in walking just 250 yards on the Tuesday before the race. I retained my fitness well but I had no expectation of running the whole race, however if I could finish the race, even if it meant walking, then I would do this and my personal achievement would be immense.

Having been competitive my whole life this involved a major character/personality rethink - especially having expected to do it in a time of 3 ½ hrs initially! Eventually the day came. Much homeopathic medicine was taken successfully and I took my courage, and most importantly my Christian faith went with me to the start.

I ran for 9 miles until the agony really set-in again then prayed that someone would help And there he was at 13 miles, someone called John who walked with me for the remaining 13 miles whilst picking up other runners along the way who had given up.

What an amazing experience to realise that even if you are one of the tail-enders, you are a vital and valuable part of the whole event. Everyone is important in this world and I felt passionately that I was running/walking to help other people with disabilities who needed support; after all I’ve been disabled and I still am in some ways, but my motto in life is that nothing is impossible. People said it was madness to run the London Marathon given my predicament but sometimes you just know that something or someone is telling you to go on. I did finish and I won the battle to get there, plus I met some wonderful people along the way and the memories will be with me forever.

Thank you to the Snowdon Award Scheme for your support, care and for giving me the opportunity to fulfil this dream.

My little story starts in August 2007. I’m a gardener for a property outside Horsham. I’ve always been interested in running the London Marathon since I was ten and used to watch it every year on the telly. I’m talking to Julie from personnel and saying that I had wanted to do the London Marathon in April 2007 and thought I had a place but there was a breakdown in communication and three days before the event I found there was no place for me. A lot of training a lot of fund raising all for nothing.

Little do I know that Julie is connected to The Snowdon Award Scheme, and even more little do I know that The Snowdon Award Scheme has a spare place for the Flora London Marathon 2008. So thankfully, a little organising and I am going to run this epic event. In mid September Julie says to me “You’d better get training boy”. But I don’t, I want to see if I can do it with only three months training. Everyone and I mean everyone thinks I’m mad - parents, brother, brother’s family, all the people whom I work with etc.

So in the early hours of Tuesday 1st January 2008 I look in the mirror. Looking back at me is a blunt flabby body and I realise that I have become lazy and slobby and I need to sharpen myself up. So like millions of other people around the world at the beginning of the year I’m on a diet and start training.

I do however have some little aces up my sleeve. I have my partner Lesley and I’ve worked in a gym. I’ve trained very hard before, so in my mind I already have a good strategy, and plan to train very hard indeed. I start a high cardiovascular and a little weight training with lots of stretching. Although I have a big ego (one big enough to do this ludicrous challenge), I will say to anyone out there if you’re doing any kind of exercise be it marathon running or just a quick session at the gym the most important thing is stretching. If you watch the worlds strongest man competition on telly they all walk like John Wayne, this isn’t because they’re so big; its because they’ve trained so hard without stretching and have stiffened up. Anyway enough lecturing…..

Lesley my second ace was a big help. I can’t run all that fast, so on very cold January and February mornings Lesley froze herself half to death on her bicycle to keep me going and kick me the proverbial glutimus maximus. She really was such a help because I wanted to do the marathon and I knew that if she would help me, then it would definitely happen.

And then there were the meals she made. She read all her Rosemary Connolly books that she bought years ago and scoured through my Runners World and the web for inspiration. I really like the Ginger pudding I still can’t believe it’s healthy! She also bought me the Rocky films for Christmas. A must have for this type of training - great music, with an “underdog can win” storyline.

During my three months of hard training it seemed everyone I know doubted me. There were occasional sarcastic remarks and insults to my intelligence but they were all up for the challenge and no matter what they said, I got each and every one of them to put their name down and sponsor me. I’ve done a couple of sponsored things but have never met this kind of generosity before. I also had an idea to visit local shops and sell them a sponsorship - in return I would print their company logo on my t-shirt. These people were Scatts (Agricultural suppliers), Oaks Bros Tractor (Quad bike sales and repair) and Richard Hillery (Landscape design, horticulturist and gardener).

I had gone from 20 stone to 18 ¼ stone - it would have been more if I didn’t lift weights. As for the diet all sweets and cake from Christmas and birthday would be arranged into a shrine for when I finished - but I still had the odd treat When dieting it’s not a strength test on how much you can torture yourself – it’s about maximising your strength (and strength comes with help from the odd treats!)

Believe me, losing weight made me feel better not only about myself, but having more energy means you can do more, therefore enjoy life more. The running was easier too.

As for the running I ran the Cranleigh 18-21 mile race. The rules to this race is that if you can do 18 miles in 3 hours or under, you will be allowed to continue onto the 21 mile run, which I really wanted to do but with my hardest push I did it in 3 hrs 8 minutes. I really wanted to get the mileage in but as I live in Cranleigh I could practise this run another time. Which I did.

On the day

I woke up at 5:30 am feeling nervous and excited. My adrenalin was certainly going because nothing was set in stone that I would complete this. I had two worries on my mind. I hadn’t had enough time to train which was my own fault, but this could lead to either me giving up (not much chance there) or me suffering an injury. I calmed myself with one of my Grandmothers sayings. “What will be, will be”. I gobbled my breakfast egg and bacon on bagles and got ready.

We got in my car to go to the train station - a car that hadn’t been used much and the battery was flat. ‘Doh!’ Lesley had lent her car to her son so we woke him up at 6:15 and he very kindly drove us to the station.

I had done the London marathon once before and family and friends came to see me and also to drop off extra food, drink because its very hard to run for five hours on water and orange juice but none of my friends could see me. By the end I was dead to the world. So my idea this year was to be noticed and I had a eight foot piece of bamboo grass to wave.

Tubes were busier than a weekday rush hour except the queue was more friendly than normal. Still can’t believe I had to pay 20p for a pee - but there was no shortage of people willing to pay.

At the start line the butterflies really set in. I was quite convinced that I would fail and therefore look an idiot because of my ego telling me not to train too early. I had a belt with four bottles of lucozade, a wrist belt with a mobile and my i pod. I didn’t start the run listening to music because I wanted to enjoy the atmosphere and everybody was waving and cheering. Lesley cave me one last squeeze and kiss and although I didn’t tell her of my doubts she can read me like and Enid Blyton She looked into my eyes and said “You’ll be fine, I’ll see you when I can in the run and then at the finish”. With that small sentence my fear vanished, my ego had kicked in and adrenalin had started to pulse throughout my body. I gave Lesley a last wave and was gently running to the start. The runners around me were quizzing me over my blade of bamboo. I replied “It’s just so my friends in the crowd can spot me from the rest”. One person said “You might be on the telly, because you look stupid!” and with that, a small penny dropped into the brain of these people. “If this silly looking idiot is going to be on the telly I’m going to be on the telly standing next to him!”

About fifteen people crowded in. One person who was I think. a bit jealous of my twig said “If you get in the papers because your ‘oldin that, and then they find out that there no reason, they’ll sue you!”. Now, normally I have a lot of tolerance and patience but being a country bumpkin and not enjoying being constantly surrounded by people I replied “I really couldn’t give a S*^%”.

No time to dwell. The race had started and we were about ten minutes from starting line. A couple of last stretches and a little run on the spot and the ten year old inside me was brimming with excitement.

I get through the start telling myself that it’s going to be a long run and I’m not going to stop. Mile 1-2-3-4-5-6 it’s sunny and it feels like everyone is overtaking me. My ego wants to run faster but experience is telling me to run my own race. Mile 7-8 the pace slows and I start making my way through traffic. There is a cloud coming and I need the loo. I pop into a fire station in mile 9 and pop on my I-pod and when I get out its pouring down and the pace has slowed down even more. Not me though I’m used to rain and I’m off - mile 9-10 I’m meant to see Lesley for a fuel top up but she can’t get anywhere near me so I’ll have to wait. Mile 11-12-13 it’s stopped raining and I’m doing well, I arrive at London Bridge people struggle here because they have done little hill training and after the bend I start seeing the St John Ambulance tending to the injured. I press on. It’s dry now and all the lucozade is sticking to our shoes and one thing I don’t like is being sticky.

Mile 14-15 passes and now comes the difficult part of the route. Basically, the run turns from long straight roads into small windy roads. This continues up to Marble arch. The hardest bit is that London is a compact city and you can see Marble Arch from where the small winding roads begin. I still haven’t seen Lesley for fuel. Mile 16-17-18 I’m now really hungry. Running for four hours on a breakfast, water and still lucozade takes its toll but as hard as this sounds I still glad that I’m in the run. The people of London are really the friendliest people and it was like they were all out on the streets cheering me on. I listen to the people when they’re cheering and when there are no people I tuck in to the I-pod and keep my mind focused.

Mile 19-20 I’m at last outside Marble arch and have spoken to Lesley on the mobile phone and I know she is close by. I’m just pushing and kicking myself with all my might. This part of the run, I’m fighting my demons and winning.

YIPEEEEEEEEEE! I spot Lesley and have an emotional embrace. I leave her with a big smile and all fuelled up, as the energy bar and flat Pepsi works its way down I feel like Popeye in the cartoons where he eats his can of spinach all his muscles go berserk and he is full of strength. Miles 21-22-23, full of beans and feeling like I’m on top of the world. In mile 22 I spot my parents, they have more fuel. It’s so nice to see friends and family come to cheer your corner. I give them a little show of my stamina by sprinting away from them and like the fool I am, by mile 23 I have a pain in my groin. I slow down a little and the pain comes on more, I slow down even more and say to my self “YOU’RE NOT GIVING UP!”. Even more pain comes from my groin. If it gets much worse I won’t be able to move my left leg and my run will be over. On mile 23 I slow down to my slowest trot, I’m not walking because marathons in my opinion, are not for walking. Just when I think that the pain can’t get any worse, it does. Left leg is really finding it hard to move.

I’m now waiting for the inevitable - that I’ll hurt so much and I have to give up. I’m very scared I think of all the people who’ve sponsored me, the charity and Lesley and my parents and that they’ve wasted their time coming up to see me. Just when I think I’ll have to pull over and quit, the pain starts to go away and go away quickly. By the time I reach mile 24 I’m all cured and mile 25-26 pass in a flurry of cheering public and me thanking the big guy upstairs that I’m still running. I know that the Snowdon people are at the finish line and I want to see them but there are so many people all ecstatically cheering I can’t see them. I pass through the finish line. I did it! I can’t believe I did it and I feel so great, I could run some more.

I walk over to the finish area have the tag on my shoe removed and my legs feel really weird, there all shaky because all they’ve known for the last five and a half hours is running. So my ego was happy because I ran the London Marathon with three months and two weeks training, which really isn’t much time. And I say to anyone who’s interested in running this epic race, that you should.

To think that you can’t do it is just because you’re telling yourself that you haven’t done it before. Probably, you can do it. And the benefits far outweigh the sore legs for a couple of days afterwards.