7 Marathons Challenge - Marathon 7; London, UK 02/10/11

The day dawned at 38,000 feet somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic as we returned to the UK from Atlanta.  The last two days had always been my major concern as there was very little slack in our program, both Kevin and I would be getting tired by this point and I knew these couple of days wouldn't involve much sleeping.  As it was, both of us managed to grab a few hours sleep on the return flight.  In fact, Kevin's wory was more about calorie intake and he spent the flight scavenging food from various sources including one of the stewardesses in flight meal (of a dried up sandwich) and a couple of leftover main meals.


To ease my planning worries we landed 30 minutes ahead of time and were very quickly through security, baggage reclaim and customers.  Kevin's wife and daughter were at the airport to collect us and we then drove to Uxbridge to collect my car and the equipment we needed for the day from the UK HQ Offices where we had left it 8 days ago.....although it seems longer than this to me for some inexplicable reason !  After this it was a blast around the M25 to get to Hackney Wick where we were meeting for the car parking.


This was the days one and only problem.....when we arrived there was a football competition go on and the car park was full to overflowing.  Fortunately, the competition was just finishing and some parking spaces soon became available.


There was a good turnout for the event both in runners and supporters.  There were 5 other runners taking part from the start, cheered on by Kevin's family, families of the other runners and also some great support from the guys at Kidscape who are the charity for which Kevin has been running.


After about an hour of preparations our little group of about 30 people walked the 2km from the car parking to the start at Old Ford Lock on the Lea Valley Navigation, right in the shadow of the new 2012 Olympics athletics stadium.  After a quick photo shoot it was time to go.


As with a number of races this week it was HOT....about 28 degrees, and due to the relative remote route we knew that getting drinks would be tricky so I cycled along ahead of the runners, making sure that they knew the right direction to take and to pas them food and drinks as they needed them.  At the start of the race I was carry about 10 litres of drinks in my rucksack which made it quite heavy.....at least it got lighter as the day went on !


The route proceeded 13km up the Lea Valley Navigation Canal to Lea Valley Athletics Centre and was very busy with walkers and cyclists on a lovely sunny autumn day.  At the Athletics Centre we joined in the Family Fun day being organised for the Edmonton Site and Kevin and his runners were well supported as they ran around the 200 metre indoor track for 14 laps.  This was also a good opportunity to restock my rucksack with water and Powerade....back up to 10 litres again....groan !  Whilst we were at the Athletics Centre we were aslo able to grab a hog roast sandwich for each of the runners and we all set off back down the canal chomping away.







The return route was 11km back the way we had come to Hackney Marshes where Kevin and his support team completed 4 laps of a 3.5 km course before finally running the last 2km back to Old Ford Locks where we had started earlier in the day.  Kevin finished the route in 4 hrs 48 minutes and 32 seconds....an excellent time given the temperature and his exertions of the last week !  We were met at the finish by Kevin's family.....happy to have him back in one piece !


Distance traveled today:  6,750 km
Total distance traveled:  19,200 km


Distance run by Kevin today:  42.2 km
Total distance run by Kevin:  295.4 km



Check back here later this week for the "summary and wind up" posting !