The Aftermath
After the picture-taking at the finish line,
the medal collection, (the biggest, heaviest and best)
the t-shirt collection, (love the colour, great quality and love the way they have merged the date and the distance, very clever)
and the bag collection. It was then time for the melee otherwise known as ‘Meet and Greet’ with nearly 40,000 runners all meeting their families you can imaging the carnage. Not helped by me meeting the Madams way down the alphabet at W (yes husband number three will have a surname beginning with A) and my brother meeting people at C! Anyway Madams and brother successfully met and then later my friend from work, who unfortunately had missed me on the course, had battled her way to The Mall to see me. Her and her hubby then escorted myself slowly to Waterloo station.
My legs were not too bad although my left leg wanted to swing a bit and upstairs the left leg hurt and downstairs the right leg! I believe this walk of about a mile helped my recovery.
We got to the station, grabbed dinner and the suitcase and on the train we got. The three-hour journey home flew by with the help of social media, text messages, emails and phone calls.
Three caffeine gels in the space of four hours means sleep is impossible. I went to bed at 10 got up at 11, ate three pieces of toast, found and drank half a cup of wine, went back to bed at 1 am and ting 5 am was awake! (Note to self, get alcohol in next time you have gels)
The legs did not feel too bad at all, even on Tuesday they were not bad and then last night I went for a run, oh now that was slow and I had a pain in my right leg so will rest up now right after a two-day walking break in Cornwall!
Will I enter VLM again? Will I run a marathon again?
After EVERYONE of my 5 marathons before this one I have said ‘NEVER AGAIN’.
This time I will say, next week when the ballot opens, I will not enter. I might do an off-road marathon, one day, but not a road one. I am so pleased with the way this one went, I very much doubt I could improve on the time and to be honest deep down I have no desire to. I have done what I have always wanted to do and that is to run ‘a good for Shaz’ time and I managed to banish a few marathon demons on the way. If I try it again those demons might rear their ugly heads again so am going to quit while I am ahead!
I do have bigger plans though but my body is listening so wont reveal these plans just yet! Best keep tuning in!
shazruns 
Love you! Such an inspiration! Xxx
So kind x
Brilliant Job! Now I want to do the London Marathon! I will be directing the otherhalf to your blog when an explaination is requested lol
Thanks Sam. Enter that marathon, London is a must! Go for it!
Glad to hear the recovery is coming along. Definitely need emergency wine in the house at all times. It sounds like it was such a perfect day, everything came together because you worked so hard in training. There is this really cool off road Marathon in NZ. You get to run with horses. You’d love it Shaz 😉
Oh I would !
Great! An epilogue.
Nice one 🙂
I genuinely had a ‘I have no desire to run another marathon’ moment…
…but I’m forty next year and I really fancy challenging my 23 yr old self.
You might decide to do the same when you’re forty.
Interested to hear that you have quenched your London marathon thirst! I guess it gets a bit samey after 4 times! I didn’t see you on TV ( surprise) but I did think that it might be quite unpleasant running in a crowd like that. There are so many good off road marathons here in the north ( not that I have done any!!😆) brathay in the lakes in May, or Loch Ness. Less crowded for running and spectating but beautiful scenery. Just the issue of the possibility of rain to deal with. Anyway, now is time to rest and enjoy, so polish your medal and wear that lovely t shirt! It is good isn’t it?