Marathon number 7 - The London Marathon - Running it BLINDBOLDED

It just hasn't sunk yet that I ran the London Marathon BLINDFOLDED. It almost doesn't feel like I ran a marathon at all because I have no visual memory of it.  My memories are mainly of sound and smell.  It has definitely been a life changing experience and an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Once I had secured my place in the London Marathon through SENSE, the next thing I needed to do was find a crazy fool to guide me. I thought this was going to be a very hard task.  Ideally what I was looking for was someone that had ran marathons before. Someone that knew what it took to finish one.  I put out a few shouts on social media but wasn't getting much of a response.  What I didn't realise, was the ideal person for the job was staring me right in the face.  My friend Abbie. As soon as I asked her she said yes.  She was to be my crazy fool.  Abbie had never ran a marathon before, but I knew she was the perfect person for the job.  I have known her since school so the trust was instantly there.  Our only problem was going to be the distance between us.  With me living in London and Abbie living in Middlesbrough, this was going to make it tough to train regularly, but we managed it.

I was so excited for Abbie because it was her first marathon and I was going to be right there to share that with her and she was going to be right there to get me through one of the hardest challenges I have ever set myself.  She travelled down from Boro on Friday evening.  It was so hard seeing everyone's Expo pictures on social media. I was so desperate to go and get my race number in my hands, but I had to wait for Abbie. There was no way I could have gone without her.  We were in this together till the bitter end. Walking around the Expo made it all very real. We were both very excited but both experiencing our own nerves, but I know we were sharing the "What the fuck are we doing?" feelings.

RACE DAY

As soon as we arrived at Greenwich park the realisation of it all hit us hard.  This was happening. Today. We met up with SENSE for a photo call, dropped off our bags and made our way to our starting pen.  I made a pact that as soon as we got into our pen, I would put the blindfold over my eyes and not remove it until I had the medal around my neck.  We stood by the fencing to the entrance and I suddenly felt a tidal wave of emotion hit me like a ton of bricks.  I couldn't hold it back.  I promised I wouldn't cry but I couldn't stop myself.  There was a man in a wheelchair who looked at me and said "just remember, pain is temporary, pride is forever".  I have heard this many times before but coming from this man, it took a whole new meaning.  It was incredibly powerful and did nothing to stop the tears coming down my face. All I could do now was put the blindfold on and mask the tears.  I grabbed hold of Abbie's hand and she led me into the starting pen.  I almost felt like I was about to have a panic attack.  The pen was still really empty so this gave us a good opportunity to walk in a big circle continuously for as long as we could.  This really helped to calm me down.

We walked liked this until the pen got too busy.  It was so strange not being able to see all the fancy dress runners.  Abbie was having to describe what was around me.  Giant Minions, Big Bird, thousands of Tutu wearers and a Spiderman and a Scottish man with a karaoke machine.  He came over to me and we all had a sing song.  This was exactly what I needed. Abbie took photos with me and all these runners to look back on we had finished.  Until then all I had to go on was her descriptions and copping a feel.  Which I was kindly allowed to do.  With all of this going on we hadn't even noticed that the race had started. We were moving forward but ever so slowly.  I have done the London Marathon twice before so I was trying to use my memory to remember what it looked like but this was quite difficult.  What I found too was it wasn't was noisy as I thought it would be. I could almost here people's nerves.  Abbie told me she could see the start line. I squeezed her hand tight and our feet stepped over the line. I felt so disorientated.  The crowds were cheering so loud. To begin with this was so exciting.  It felt like everyone was shouting "GO KERRY!!" "GO ABBIE!".  It was insane.

We both needed the toilet so we had to stop at the first porter loos we came too. Sadly the queue was so long that we were last in the marathon.  The sweeper bus had gone way passed us and the trucks were right by us cleaning up the roads.  We both started to panic.  We got back onto the road and started running.  The only good thing about this was the roads where clear.  We didn't have to worry about dodging other runners.  We got a good comfortable pace going and just went with it. The crowds were so supportive.  I was so shocked people were still out cheering because of how far behind we were, but in no time at all we over took the sweeper bus and were surrounded by runners again.  We were back in the race.

People were shouting our names from both sides of the roads.  It was incredible.  It was giving me such confidence in what we were doing.  Then we were met with a huge obstacle, which was to be a problem for me for the rest of the race.  The entertainment.  I know myself from running many marathons that the entertainment along the route is fantastic.  It really lifts your spirits.  For me today, it was torture.  Every time we ran passed it I would freak out because I couldn't hear Abbie's voice anymore. It made me loose concentration and actually made me feel really scared.  This would force us to walk until we had passed it and it would take a bit of time for me to run again.  There was one moment where we ran into a tunnel, with a group of drummers inside it. This was horrible.  It was very suffocating.  Thankfully this was only on one occasion.  I couldn't help but wonder if blind people feel similar at these points, or whether they would just be use to it.

There were so many moments when I became very emotional. All I could think about was the children in my school who were blind and how this is what it must be like for them.  It made me feel so guilty knowing that I would be able to take the blindfold off at the end.  I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing this for them.  It also helped having Abbie beside me to keep talking to me.  She was marvellous at keeping my spirits up.  A little after mile 11 I lost my footing somehow and took a fall.  This was very scary! I scrapped my hand and leg on the way down.  This frightened us both, although it wasn't my guides fault, we had to walk for a little while after this because my confidence and been shot.  This didn't last long as I knew that Tower Bridge was coming.  This is an iconic moment and there was no way we were walking over it. As we ran over it I used the sounds I could hear to paint the image in my head of what it looked like and it sounded AMAZING.  It was great hearing Abbie's reaction to it too.  It was really moving.

I knew the rest of the race was going to be tough for both of us.  Thankfully I had 2 amazing friends that joined us for quite a lot of the route. They really both deserves medals themselves.  They got the crowd going for us and kept both our spirits up.  This was really needed for the second half of the race. For me they were the best entertainment of the whole marathon.

Being so far back of the race was starting to cause us so many problems.  The roads were being cleaned up around us.  We had trucks, tractors and buses all around us. Once again causing so much noise that it was making it so hard for me to hear Abbie.  She really had her work cut out for the both of us.  We were both starting to struggle with pain.  Then the marshals started to directed us onto the pavement.  This was so difficult for us.  We could no longer run as it was too dangerous. I kept tripping up over uneven surfaces and the general public were not bring particularly kind of keeping out of the way.  This was really frustrating as the walking was doing us no favours and costing us time.  I was so worried that we weren't going to finish in time for a medal.

We were allowed back onto the road from mile 25, but it was so hard to run now.  The walking we had to do made it hard to pick our feet up again.   We had an army of people supporting us now though, walking us up to the finish. The last mile was very emotional.  Abbie was in so much pain.  We were supporting each other to finish.  I was just waiting for her to tell me that she could see Buckingham Palace. As soon as it was in her sight I grabbed hold of her hand tightly and we ran to the finish.  I think we were both so relieved that it was over.  I suddenly felt someone walk over to me to put something around my neck!  Here it was. My medal. I grabbed hold of it so tightly and ran my fingers over it to feel every inch of it (Yeah I just realised how dodgy that sounded!! ha) I pulled the blindfold from my eyes.  I had been unable to see for over 7 hours.  I have never felt so proud to look at a medal. I did it. I ran a marathon blindfolded!! I literally could not have done it without Abbie.  She did an amazing job! I can't thank her enough for agreeing to do this for me. I feel the emotions every time I look at the pictures. I hope I have done Sense proud.  They had great cheering squads around the route and it made me feel great doing this for them.

I also have to say a huge THANK YOU for my best friends Laura and Dan for their amazing support throughout the WHOLE race.  I am not sure we would have gotten through the last 12 miles with them. Also thank you to everyone that supported me before, during and after this challenge.

So another mile ticked off. Almost half way through.  Thankfully I have a few weeks rest now until marathon number 8, which will be the Kent Road Runners Marathon on the 30th May.

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