From the Premiere Hotel Bar to the Start

Seeing that the end was near we had quite a few drinks at the Premiere Inn Hotel Bar – Jan being anti-social updating the blog.
The price was a slight hangover when we got up the next morning. The breakfast buffet offered a wide choice of fruit, cereals and eggs in all variations could be ordered – an option we made good use of – James going for scrambled eggs, Lorraine also got scrambled eggs but with vegetarian sausages and baked beans, and Jan ordered an omelette with mushrooms. Abbey and Barry were totally fascinated by the Toaster Conveyer Belt, a complete stranger who’d overheard us talking came by and gave 20 quid for the fund raising!
Abbey, Barry, Lorraine and Jan did the obligatory interview just before we got ready to leave, we packed the vans, double-checked the routes and took-off… almost: The driver’s door of the red van suddenly blocked, after some fiddling we managed to fix it and took off.
We went to Southgate Park in Crawley without any further incidents and Lorraine and Barry ran off for the Marathon number 6!

Check Point #1

The first check point turned out to be at a McDonalds. Luckily, Ronald had already put on the kettle and we had some coffee. The supporters started preparing the Finish Line with balloons and flags.
The runners arrived in good time – and could actually been smelled a mile ahead. Barry had fallen into a swamp when stopping for a comfort break – very unpleasant for Abbey taking care of the medical check and the Tiger Balm on Barry’s legs.
Our preparations drew quite some attention from the McDonalds visitors and we met Gary, a local ambulance driver who gave us some good luck.
Kirsten joined the runners on this leg – this time on her feet rather than on her bike 🙂

Check Point #2

The next stop was outside The Feathers pub and Aaron and Jan got ready for Kirsten to pass the baton.
The runners arrived and took off again. Lorraine being on the way for a PB (personal best): 21 km to beat.
The route was not very attractive, being parallel to a dual-carriage motorway, but as a group of four runners we at least created a good atmosphere. Later the RAC stopped by – to have his lunch break 😉
Jan was in charge of directions but after a couple of kilometres he ran into issues, had to restart his phone, but still had problems with GPS. With slow internet, no GPS and a steady pace, Jan was struggling to keep the team on track – and keeping Barry and Lorraine motivated on the long climb through Croydon.
James did his best to find the runners and exchange the phone. Funny enough, after calling James, the GPS started working again and the team was back on track in no time – meeting Kirsten and James by chance at some traffic lights.

Check Point #3

Finally, Abbey’s high-viz jacket turned up on the horizon. We had reached Check Point #3 “Beddington Park” in London Croydon. Lorraine had trouble with blisters and got some first-aid-support from Abbey. Aaron checked-out and James joined the runners for the last section. At this point, Lorraine had already passed her PB!
James took the lead and went self-confident in the direction of Tooting Bec Common, only too learn after a couple hundred metres that Google maps was connecting paths that did not exist. So, we had to take a different route. Memories of Neuf-Marche came up…
We surprised the supporters by passing them once more and finally went down the Streets of London. All day Barry had been dragging his feet but feeling the Finish Line getting closer made gave him an extra push for the last miles.

The Grand Final in Tooting Bec Common

James had taken the lead and we followed him through suburban roads down to Tooting Bec Common. Actually, James and Jan took care of navigation and checked / blocked crossings so that Barry and Lorraine could go as steady as possible. Both were exhausted and very much focused on simply running; a state that every Marathon runner knows from the last few miles or so.
The suburban streets turned into high streets and the runners had to avoid collisions with pedestrians. Finally, for the last time, we saw Abbey’s high visibility jacket at the South-East corner of Tooting Bec Common. The supporters had prepared a proper finish line from flags, balloons, and papers spelling Paris-London-Finish on’em.
Barry and the team crossed the line, finishing 6 Marathons in 6 Days and Lorraine had finished her first Marathon!
We started celebrating the successful finish with Champagne and the Macmillan folks joined our little party!