And I'll show you.. a woman with a bad knee who ran a marathon (with apologies to Ralph McTell) Well it doesn't rhyme, but I did run the streets of London on Sunday. But disaster nearly de-railed the plan. My knee swelled up the week before and I paid for an MRI so my GP could advise me. He us also a sports doctor for our county football team, well versed in sports injuries. On the Friday, he rang me and said his suspicions were right, I had a torn cartiledge. "Normally, I'd say don't run" says he, "but here is the plan...forget about racing, back off the pace, take it easy. Your recovery might be a bit longer."
So, armed with Voltarol gel, and filled with paracetamol, I headed for London. I was a complete bag of nerves. On Saturday night, I hardly slept a wink, and might as well have been sleeping on a bed of nails.
Sunday morning, got the K tape out and taped up my knee, took a light breakfast with a side order of 2 paracetamol and made my way to Blackheath to join 50,000 other runners. There was a fresh breeze and we were standing round for an hour, it was freezing 🥶
I joined the toilet queue, left my stuff on the bag drop lorry, and rejoined the toilet queue.
I started the run next to someone dressed as a rhino. Then there was a duck, and a couple of purple dinosaurs. I was in good company! Having abandoned all thought of time or pace, decided I might as well stay with the party crowd.
My reason for running? The main one was running in dedication to two of my brothers: Declan had been killed in an RTA at the age of 42, and Seamus died suddenly just over a year ago at the age of 58. I'm 67, the eldest. I also ran "memory miles" for local people, the names of their loved ones printed on my vest. On the front of my vest were pinned two small angel pennants. They had been gifted to me by Seamus. He asked me to run my first half marathon with them in memory of Declan, one for me and one from him. He was not to know that he too, would leave this world early.
So I ran (slowly) and sometimes in tears for all the memory miles. Declan had run this marathon for a bet (couch to marathon in 6 months). He was killed 5 months later. I met my nieces at mile 21, and we all bawled.
The roar of the crowd and thousands of people calling my name is something I'll never forget. Coming into Tower Bridge and it was a wall of sound. Somewhere round Canary Wharf, there were a few drunk men, all shouting my name in a chant, along with "we will never forget you" It made me roar laughing. 🤣🤣
I took loads of photos, videos, talked to everyone, hugged strangers. By mile 21, I had eaten 8 gels, a ton of jelly babies, drank water like I was in the Sahara and getting sick of sweet stuff, when a stranger gave me crisps - heaven! Mile 22 and someone gave me salted pretzels - amazing.
By mile 23, I was convinced I had a blister, so stopped and took my shoe off - no blister, just hot feet!
Coming into The Mall and a lot of people were walking, but I decided I was going to run it, and I did, with an 8 min/mile pace finish.
It was not the marathon I had planned, nor was it the one I got. I got something better - a marathon of memories: poignant, funny, and sad all rolled into one big roller coaster. And maybe, just maybe, it has helped my grieving for what has been lost, and found, on the streets on London. The impossible became possible. And I found joy in small acts of kindness.
PS: NEVER AGAIN!
PPS: I've entered the ballot 🙈
PPPS: And a wee bird whispered "What about the Loch Ness one? You've always fancied that 🙈🙈🙉
Written by
Teresa1632
Marathon
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Congratulations to you Teresa1632 on completing the London Marathon, a fantastic run and report from you, you are as far as I know the only person on Healthunlocked who ran London, I hope you celebrated your wonderful achievement with 🍷 and 🎂 or whatever you liked ✔️✔️👏
I ordered a 12" pizza and almost inhaled it! Have never been so hungry. Had my first glass of wine in months too! Still haven't found my knees, and stairs are out if the question 🤣
I know a man from parkrun who runs an average time of 21 minutes for a 5K, he has also completed a half marathon in 1 hour 45 minutes, last year he ran his first marathon at Manchester in a time of 3:17:30 but suffered for almost a month, his time the following week at parkrun was 55 minutes, the next week 40 minutes and it took about 3 more weeks to get to around 25 minutes for his parkrun time.
What a gorgeous post Teresa, a real run of emotions. So sorry to hear about your brothers but you really did them proud. London really is something else isn’t it? 😍
What a phenomenal post! You are brave, you are strong, you’ve got both physical and emotional power, go you! 👊👊👊 l don’t read posts twice but l did read yours. 👍🎉
I'm just amazed at your courage and the love you've given and received. A very brave thing to do and a perfect way to honour those who are no longer here. Great memories ♥️
Oh Teresa, you made the most of every moment of that iconic race. I can only imagine the emotions that must have overcome you. I’m so so sorry about your brothers. 💔 You did it for your brothers and others, and they would have been proud, and hopefully you have happy memories to look back on for years to come.
Congratulations Teresa 1632 on you London marathon. What a fantastic run and a very heartfelt post. You are absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing . Your brothers I’m sure were with you all the way! Well done!
Hope your recover soon and are able to eventually manage your stairs😂xxx
Oh goodness Teresa. What a run that must have been. The roller coaster of emotions that must accompany the loss of two brothers, the frustration and fear of all the training being for nothing on account of an injured knee, the gratitude you must've felt on finding a GP with a plan, ... and all before taking single step over the start line. I imagine the size and noise, the prestige and the hype, together with the sheer number of people with an emotional story to tell, make the London marathon the most emotional of events to run for anyone anyway, without everything that preceded it for you. And then you add in the enormous challenge and achievement of running your very first marathon. What a run, what a day, and what a wonderful memory you have made. Just how proud must your family be? and how proud would your brothers be too?
An amazing, amazing achievement. Sending massive congratulations and bucketloads of recovery wishes for your knee. Be especially nice to yourself over the coming days, it may be a little tough now it's all over 🥰
I'm still taking it all in. I met someone from my local area last night, and he said the whole town umis talking about what I did. I couldn't believe it!
Brilliant report Teresa1632, I fully understand why you needed to run in the marathon. I feel for you regarding your brothers, the memories and crying together with your nieces, and then a great lift at the end with the lads calling your name. Ha-ha. Roll on next year and Loch Ness!!
Teresa, I cannot imagine how you can run anywhere with a torn cartilage, never mind the London marathon! You're an amazing lady. Congratulations on a race well run in memory of loved ones. Good luck in the ballot and maybe Loch Ness! ❤️
What an amazing post Teresa! You are an awesome person, so much courage and sheer grit on show here 💪
My mouth fell open when you said you ran with a torn cartiledge (is your GP a runner too by any chance? 😂) and then I got a bit weepy reading the rest. That must have been such an emotional day I can’t imagine. But your brothers and other loved ones would have been with you every step of the way.
My GP, lucky me, is an orthopedic consultant (part time), and a sports doctor. And a runner - I hit the jackpot having him as my GP. Legs are a bit better today can even get downstairs without having to go back ways 🙃😃
What a brilliant run report Teresa1632 . It is stories like this that make the London Marathon so special, and the longer cut off time allows charity runners/walkers to take part. You celebrated the lives of those printed on your T-shirt just perfectly.
I hope your knee can now be given time to recover.
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