What an amazing day! At 3.50am 17 of the Nettleham Trotters Running Group set off by coach, heading for the London Marathon Mile 15 Lucozade station near Canary Wharf. Coffee and bacon butties at Birchanger Services at 6.15am and we arrived, just about awake. First job was to set up the trestle tables and our first lot of drinks. The Trotters were on the first 3 tables and we had to set up cardboard cups in trays and put 100ml in each cup from 500ml bottles. 12 trays, 45 cups to a tray and 9 bottles per tray. We had a bit of a breather while the wheelchair racers came past (there was a slight incline so they had to keep going), then the elite women and elite men, who had no intention of slowing down for Lucozade. They all looked so relaxed and comfortable! After that it turned a bit manic. The fast non-elite runners wanted drinks without slowing down, so it all became a little soggy 😂 Then the massed runners started to come through. As we were tables 1-3, we were first in line and everybody wanted to stop at our tables, despite the fact there were another 6 further up. We had 3 people to each table replenishing but couldn’t keep up. A packed lunch was provided (as well as t-shirt, jacket and baseball cap!), which we grabbed when we could. By 2.00pm we had run out of cups and spent our time telling people to keep going to the other tables and finally being able to watch the runners. One woman had a compression boot and crutches, several rhinos, a postbox, minions, a beer bottle, various human organs for their respective charities, somebody carrying golf clubs, another chap with an ironing board 🤷♀️ And, of course, our amazing Tailchaser, with whom I had a huge sweaty hug! Armed with a 12 pack of Lucozade each, we headed back to the coach and the journey home. A tiring day, but a fabulous experience. All the atmosphere with none of the pain and a definitive conclusion that I will never enter a marathon 😂😂
London Marathon Volunteering - Fun Beyond 10K & ...
London Marathon Volunteering
Sounds like an amazing experience-and so vital to the success of the event.Amazing to meet up with TailChaser in all the chaos!
I was tracking her and was determined we wouldn’t miss each other
This has to be one of my favourite race reports ever Sandie1961 , well done on volunteering!
Thank you 😊I loved it. We were just buzzing the whole day
That was an enormous effort (especially the early start!) to support people in achieving their marathon dream, including our own amazing TC of course. Well done the Trotters. 👏👏👏👏.
It was amazing. I can thoroughly recommend it
What an amazing day Sandie1961
I love the London marathon. Well done for volunteering. So wonderful you got to see TailChaser . I’m looking forward to her race report. 😍
It was brilliant!
It be around shortly RW!
Fun fun fun Sandie! I bet TC was thrilled to see a friendly face at what I can only imagine is a very tough part of the race. 🙏🏻
Brilliant job you and your Trotters. ❤️
I’m so glad we saw each other. A special moment! There were quite a lot of people looking really tired, some limping when they passed us and they still had 11 miles to go. Mad!
Sounds mad but great fun!! Well done 👏
It was brilliant. We’re already looking forward to going again in April if we get the chance.
What a fantastic thing to do Sandie - a lot of grateful faces I'm sure, at 15 miles!👍
Funny how 100ml of Lucozade can bring such big smiles. Trying to fill a water bottle with it as somebody tries to keep moving is quite an art too 😂
A bit like refuelling mid-air!
A good analogy Jonathan!
Sounds an absolutely amazing experience Sandie! You could soak up the brilliant atmosphere without the pain (apart from getting up at early o’clock 😴)
Well done everyone.
I am so pleased we were given the opportunity to go. It was a fantastic day 😃😃
That early morning rise with your running friends sounds well worth it Sandie. You got to experience a little bit of the London Marathon up close, without months of training. I always feel sorry for the people on the front at the drink stations with the liquid flying in all directions and I try to head for those on the last table.
How wonderful that you got to give TailChaser a reassuring hug- I bet she got her batteries charged from that.
I still haven’t heard from GSR, apart from the first acknowledgment, and I suspect I’ve fallen between the cracks of the running clubs . I’m not chasing it as it will be nice to be a floating cheerer.
You see it on tv, but you just cannot imagine the numbers, just a mass of people going past for hours on end. I have never seen so many bottles of lucozade either. Pallet loads😳 It was lovely to see TC and cheer her on 😊
Shame about GSR but you can pop up in unexpected places to keep us going 😂
I shall put on my running gear and do just that!
There seemed to be a huge mass of people at the Manchester one, I guess this was so much bigger again!
For the first 2 hours it was quite relaxed, but then they just kept coming for the next 4! Incredible!
Amazing job Sandie - well done to you and your team! 🙌 Like you say, “all of the atmosphere with none of the pain!” Perfect day!🙂
I can thoroughly recommend it. Great sense of camaraderie!
wow what an experience, sounds a wonderful but tiring day! Im looking forward to the Lincoln 10km in a few weeks time. You still ok for meeting up to say hello at the end of it?😀🏃♀️
Yes definitely 😃 Looking forward to meeting another VRB
It was so goooooood to see you Sandie! It must have been quite a thing manning that table. I noticed all the other ones struggling to keep up with demand too. I was warned about the roads being really sticky but the stickiest bit seemed to be the tunnel at Blackfriars where there was no stand 🤷🏻♀️ There were thousands of gel packets on the road though and I know of one person who slipped on one 10k in and really struggled for the rest of the race 😢.
In terms of nutters dressed up or carrying things, the man with the ironing board has been carrying a clothes airer as well 😂 I saw a pair of ovaries and a Minion at the start and I beat a tin on London Pride beer 🤣. The best one I saw was a man in a cage being carried by a gorilla!
We had to clear up after too. You should have seen the number of cubic metre bags we filled with empty bottles and cardboard cups 😳
The gorilla was amazing. Totally nuts!
I can only imagine, and those bottles are replicated over the full 26.2 miles. I had at least 4 bottles of water (sorry no Lucozade!). I wonder how many bottles of Lucozade and Buxton Spring were used 😟
All had to be emptied before binning too. Somebody had the sense to bring a box of gloves!
Good call!
What an amazing way to experience the LM, well done I bet it was an emotional and exhausting day.
It really was but we were buzzing. One advantage was we were allowed to use the posh hotel loos instead of the portaloos in the underpass. Result 😃😃😂
someone with an ironing board! 😁😁😁😁. Aren’t folks just so funny 😂. As if it’s not hard enough! 😁
Shout out to volunteers everywhere 😀. Without whom ….. 🙏👏👏💫✊
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