h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, I’d found a charity to run for, and the secretaries at work had promised to sponsor me.
I set up a small website through the charity, so that I could get sponsors online. The site included a picture of a homeless woman and child, which was strange because you couldn’t tell that was who they were. I emailed everyone I could think of and waited while the responses, pledges and donations came in. Some of the responses were pretty amusing, including the ones about the picture of the homeless woman.

"who's the woman with the kid?"
"Congrats for trying to run 26 miles. You will feel the collective effect of 15 years of smoking all at once... P.S. You should hookup with the homeless chick in the picture."
Plenty of people commented on trying to run a marathon given my lifestyle.
"that's f*****g great! i hope yr not smoking as much."
"You know you're crazy right?! Not that I'm not impressed or that I hope to discourage you, I just don't know what's up with all the psycho marathon runners I am "running" across lately!...Why do you people think that it would be fun to run 26?! IN A ROW! Are you just trying to make me feel really lazy and non goal oriented!? Anyways, as long as you know that you are totally crazy... Are you going to quit smoking?"
"I still think you are insane Josh, and have duly donated to the idiot fund." "Thanks ...!” I wrote back. “You rock. Insane idiots everywhere appreciate it."
"I think you're very brave!!!!" To which I replied "I think I'm very nuts!!!!"

The money came in. I raised about 500 pounds, including a couple of donations from h2g2 people (thanks purplejenny! thanks agirlcalledBen!). Not bad for a first time runner, and its especially impressive given that most of my friends are nothing close to wealthy. I didn't get much from work though. The secretary sent out another email.
"Well, what a Scrooge lot you are. Only two people so far have offered sponsorship! Josh – if I were you at 50p a mile sponsorship so far, I wouldn’t even get out of bed next Sunday! Mind you, only doing 11 miles so far and still smoking, those 26 miles are going to be so horrendous it will take you a month to recover!"

As for training, I’d been doing a fair amountbut nothing close to what you need to be ready. My initial goal for the Marathon was 4 hours, then I scaled it back to 4 and a 1/2.
About a week before the Marathon I did a very long run. It was a loop around north east london, along the canals from Finsbury Park to Victoria Park then up through Hackney Marshes. It was beautiful, but I was in trouble because it was only about 12 miles and I had to walk a lot of it. So, I decided that for the Marathon, I’d run to the halfway point and then see how I felt.

The big day arrived and by 10am I was one of 30,000 plus people who was running across London. In a way, that was a bit of a letdown. It doesn’t seem like such a unique achievement when 30,000 people are doing it with you, some with incredible handicaps, and some in ridiculous outfits.
There were moments along the course that were great. Running past the Cutty Sark at 6 miles, crossing Tower Bridge at 12 miles, running through the City... I decided halfway that I would run as much as possible. But once I got to about 18 miles, my legs fell off! My whole body just locked up. I didn’t feel like I was running so much as waddling. Towards the end I slowed down to a virtual crawl. The costumed runners started passing me! I spent 3 miles running next to a guy in a rhinoceros costume, and 2 miles racing the pantomime horse.
But I finished!! Five hours and 1 minute was my official time. If I’d known that, I would have run a minute faster just so I could say I did it in under five hours.
A couple of friends met me afterwards for drinks. The postrace congratulations was great! We went to a pub full of drunken Marathon runners.
The next day I could barely move. Can’t wait to run it next year.

Hay, haven't seen you round for ages, just thought I'd drop by (after not being able to find your space for some reason ), and see what you up to? hope all is well...