Six Tortoises travelled south to “The Big Smoke” to do the worlds most famous marathon. 3 of us travelled together, the rest keeping in touch and building the anticipation via text!

After arriving in London we quickly went to Excel to register…. Apart from Chris who hadn’t taken registration into account when he booked his flight! Fortunately he managed to arrange a friend to sort registration on his behalf… Phew! The rest of tried not to spend too long on our legs walking around the Expo…. Oh and trying not to spend too much money……. Liam capitulated to Garmin’s latest offering…… Sometimes a man just has to have the latest gadget!!! In any case it was a bargain!! 🙂

Then it was off to the hotel, carb loaded dinner and some zzzzzz’s! Well everyone apart from Kate got some zzzzz’s…… On Sunday morning she mentioned something about a noisy “honeymoon” couple? I’ll leave that to your imagination!

Sunday morning…… As we ate breakfast London was looking a rather wet and cold place!! By the time we had to make our way to Greenwich for the start it had dried up, but it was still rather chilly!

At Greenwich we all went our various ways to the start we had been allocated….. Before we knew it…..10am and we were off! Conditions for running were perfect….. Virtually no wind….. Quite chilly but ideal for running (even Darrell braved it in just his club vest….. No trademark Darrell T shirt underneath!)….. And no rain. Well I say that…. Darrell says it hailed on him during the race….. Maybe it was a very isolated shower or it was Darrell suffering from lack of oxygen….. Because no one else saw it! 🙂

26.2 miles later….. Well actually it was  more like 26.7 for most of us…. We obviously hadn’t followed the “blue line” accurately enough……. Anyway, 6 tortoises crossed the finish line with 5 of them getting PB’s!!

And the T shirt….. Gone are the days of a rubbish one size cotton finishers T shirt at London….. An Adidas Tech T shirt in the size of your choice this year! Happy Tortoises!

And that was it……. Quick dash around Horse Guards, into the nearest pub….. and a pint of London Pride to toast the successes!

If you are reading this before 1700 on Friday 6th May 2016……. You still have time to enter the ballot for 2017 London Marathon….. Go on! You know you want to! London is very well organised and the route takes in some of the best London sights……. And the best bit about London is the support….. You’ll have people cheering you on the whole 26.2 miles! And the noise of support around key places like Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and the final few miles along The Embankment is amazing!

Tortoise Results:
Matt Pearce 2:57:54
Liam Convery 3:09:58
Darrell Dunscombe 3:36:28
Gerry Penman 3:55:11
Chris Mullan 4:15:18
Kate McKean 4:34:49