As I approach my run in the London Marathon this Sunday, I wanted to thank you for your support, through your words of encouragement and morale-boosting.
I am feeling excited but also a little nervous in advance of my first marathon, but I think that’s normal. It is said that running is a series of arguments between the part of your brain that wants to stop and the part that wants to keep going. The support from you all, in various ways and at various times, has helped that second part of my brain, to motivate me to keep going through training, and will help me as the streets of London stretch out in front of me on Sunday.
I am also very grateful for the generosity of sponsorship from so many of you. Some of the sponsorship online has been anonymous, which is understandable, but leaves me unable to thank those people directly, but thank you all – you are awesome!
As I write, I am 94% of the way towards my sponsorship target, raising money for Guide Dogs for the Blind. If any who haven’t sponsored me feel able to help this important cause, and help me to help them make a difference, and reach and surpass that target, then sponsorship at virginmoneygiving.com/StephenD would be really appreciated – or money via other routes is fine too (including after the race).
A number of people have said they would like to follow me on the day: if you would too, my race number is 40244. The London Marathon app (download from www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/event-info/spectator-info/ or the app stores) should enable you to keep track of your “favourite” runners on phone or tablet – I’m not expecting Daniel Wanjiru (race number 1) or Mo Farah (race number 13) to be overtaking me, but if it happens, you could see it on the live map. (Note that though the main race starts at 10.00am, I don’t expect to cross the start line until between 10.22 and 10.28am according to the official timetable.)
Also, while I’m not a big Twitter user, my Garmin GPS watch will tweet a link to a live map of where I am – you don’t need a Twitter account, just go to twitter.com/StephenRDawson after say 10.30am on Sunday and follow the link which should be there by then.
Training has gone well, with no injuries other than a few blisters on my toes. I reached a long run of 22 miles at Easter, albeit deliberately slower than planned for the big day, since when I’ve been gradually reducing the mileage to let my body rest and recover. Some of the winter training has been very cold and with some floods to splash or wade through, but most has been enjoyable, and it’s been fun to challenge myself and execute the plan successfully. Just one run to go now!
Thank you again.
