We did it!
What ride the last few weeks have been.
It’s hard to put our London Marathon experience into words… but we’re certainly going to try! It is easier to put it into a video, but just a little more time consuming (and this is our excuse for the usual delay!).
Weeman- the ever prepared, seasoned runner had already made his way to London on the Friday before, completed a shakeout run and organised where his wife and children would be waiting to watch him fly by on the day. Daz and Lissi on the other hand, had decided to go down last thing on Saturday evening. Lissi prioritising her (admittedly excellent!) TCS nails, meant they didn’t quite leave on time (quel surprise!) and instead of arriving during the match as planned by Daz, arrived in the capital as the Crystal Palace v Aston Villa FA cup final finished and the exodus of disappointed Villains clogged the streets of London. This meant Daz arrived in his chipper, “we are not late mood” at our airbnb near Green Park with loads of time for the evening (night!) stroll to enjoy the finish line that Lissi had been planning. We did venture out and this is where the excitement (and nerves!) started to build as we watched the construction of the various parts for the big day around Buckingham Palace, all under the cover of near darkness.
Predictably, this also took up slightly more time than planned meaning all of the shops were closed by the time as we head to our home for the night. The realisation when Daz realised there was nowhere to buy milk for Daz’s all-important race day breakfast further added to the magical experience. Thankfully, London Pret-A-Manger was still open at 10pm forcing Daz into purchasing the most expensive “cup of milk” in the world - the Weetabix was saved!
Lissi and Daz imagined that by this point Weeman was fast asleep getting in plenty of rest before the big day with everything organised, locked and loaded ready to get it done. Lissi on the other hand chose this as the perfect time to organise all of the running items we had brought to London (in our single room air bnb that was the approximate size of a postage stamp!) and ensure that everything was good to go for the morning, including the hydration vests!
We did eventually get some sleep - Daz more so than Lissi, who actually woke up shaking several times and by the morning was up, alert and ready to turn the alarms off and begin the now well-rehearsed race day morning routine. As is standard with Daz and Lissi, time evaporated and in a haze of weather checks, watch charging and sun cream applying it was suddenly time to head to the tube.
London was buzzing with activity and everyone seemed to be making their way to the start line. We were met at the tube gates by a group of staff who directed us towards the free entrance with a smile and a “Good luck runners!”, which very nearly had Lissi in tears before we even made it to the start. After months of physio and doubts about whether she would make it to the start line, emotions were already running high. Daz on the other hand was just concerned that he might need to take another poo salt tablet to counter balance the amount of sweat already pouring off him. The tube was packed - we did not need the layers we had on to keep us warm!
At the start we made our way to the toilet queue and waited with our toilet rolls out ready!
Phone signal was terrible (an early sign of the tech issues that were to follow!) and as time ticked by it looked like we would not be able to find Weeman before the start. After wandering around a bit looking for him we made the choice that picking a spot and staying in it might be the safer option. Thankfully this eventually paid off with Weeman able to spot the giant that is Daz from across the park. We were able to consume our third and even our fourth breakfasts, get some team photographs in and make it back to the toilets for several more trips before Weeman made his way calmly to his starting wave and Daz and Lissi decided to drop off their bags.
Turns out there’s a cut off for dropping these off!
As we strolled over, people were shouting “2 minutes!” at us and pointing dramatically to the lorries. This gives you an insight to where our brains were as at this point as neither of us twigged that the frantic waving was directed at us or that there was any sense of urgency related to us. As Lissi handed her bag over, Daz was directed back to the TCS hospitality tent for his drop off, we were still none the wiser to how close we had been to missing the bag drop! It wasn’t until a couple of minutes later that Lissi filmed the lorries driving off and realised that this was indeed a close call!! No doubt the ever stubborn (cheap!) Daz would have run the marathon with both bags on his back, rather than discard the knock-off dry robe and body glide!
After a few more trips to the toilet and several incredibly emotional conversations with people about the charities they were running for and why (including the connections some had to the TCT), the time came for us to make our way to the start. As we waited patiently in our pen and the excitement continued to build, Amazon Music “failed” and we both praised all the Gods that we’d downloaded our Marathon Entertainment in advance!
Finally, in a wave of emotions we crossed the start line and began the epic adventure that was our London Marathon.
It was hot.
But the London Marathon organisation was incredible. Compared to previous runs (particularly the horrors of the Bristol half marathon) countless showers, water, ice, Lucozade and refill stations were there to keep you cool and hydrated. The stresses of the hydration vest from weeks ago paid off for Lissi as keeping a constant source of water on her removed stresses of previous races and meant we didn’t suffer quite as much in the heat as some of the other runners. Nothing new on race day was quickly abandoned as we took salt tablets and Lucozade in an attempt to keep ourselves going in the heat.
We battled through the crowds but managed to stick together as we made our way past the famous land marks, both hoping that Weeman’s wave was quieter/faster/less bonkers so he was able to get away and into a rhythm better than us. We waved at the cameras and the supporters, Daz high fived everyone he could get to and we maintained the pace we’d discussed the night before. We (Lissi - royal “we”) made shaky videos of key moments on our phones and cheered at all the brave people still wearing their fancy dress despite the heat. We read the back of the shirts of the people we were following and joined with the celebrations and encouragement of those championing their charities for deeply personal reasons, riding the ever emotional rollercoaster that is the London Marathon.
Then we turned a corner and standing in front of us was Tower Bridge.
And it’s every bit as overwhelming as people say.
The noise, the view, the emotion of running across it. Just epic.
We kept our eyes right as we ran on, looking out for the white coat of Lissi’s Godmother, when to our surprise Lissi was able to pick the needle out of the haystack and spotted her in the crowd. An all too brief wave and we were already past, but it was a brilliant pick-me-up right when things were starting to get tough.
And man did they get tough!
By the time we got to 27km our legs were heavy and things were starting to feel more challenging. Then, out of nowhere, both our headphones died almost at the same time. We were convinced that it must have been something to do with signal, or the number of people and spent several km continually pressing the fiddly on/off button with sweaty palms, trying in vain to restore the Marathon Entertainment that had become such a vital part during our training. Alas, we couldn’t make out what the Shokz lady was saying over the roar of the crowd and after several frustrating kms, we both had to give up on the headphones. The meticulously crafted London playlists that were designed to get us through the last 10k were gone. We faced the horror of only having our thoughts and the sound of our souls slowly leaving our bodies one step at a time to drag us through the most challenging part of the race.
But we weren’t alone. We had the many, many hundreds, if not thousands of people who were lining the streets. They shouted our names like they knew us personally and were huge fans of the blog, cheering us on as we battled with all kinds of pain and exhaustion.
It wouldn’t be a blog post without some mention of Lissi’s feet. A dull ache had been building since the halfway point of Tower Bridge and by 32km the ache had turned into full-on stabbing pains in her arches. This threatened to derail her calm (and not so cool) focus as she silently started to panic that she may not be able to finish. As our pace started to drop a fraction, Daz’s Lissi radar pinged. As we passed through a Lucozade station, she tried to use the “pinch and sip” approach to drinking from a cup while running, so he suggested that we just walk for a moment to drink properly, rather than cover ourselves in liquid sugar. This was a game changer. After a minute or so of walking, stopping to refill bottles and collecting ice we were back up and running again. Lissi’s feet had been given the short break they needed and her mind the brief distraction required to reboot the mission.
The next few km were hard. It seemed to take forever to get to the section where we would pass runners coming in the opposite direction. We’d reached the point where there was very little talking, even from Lissi!
Then we went into a tunnel. The crowd died away and suddenly we could hear ourselves breathing and our feet pounding the road in what felt like an incredibly slow rhythm. The quiet gave us time with our own thoughts which enabled us to realise just how heavy and painful our legs had become. Lissi was part way through taking her last gel at this point and decided that this was in fact the “break glass in case of emergency” caffeine gel moment she had joked about. Armed with the knowledge that the previous caffeine gel experience ended in a migraine she decided to try and reduce the risk and just have half. Unfortunately Daz was on the other side of the tunnel at this point and communicating was still challenging when running next to each other, so shouting across the tunnel was out of the question. Lissi made a mental note to let Daz know when they were next to each other again. However, no sooner had she thought this, it fell straight back out of her head and Daz was none the wiser that he was now running alongside a caffeine fuelled Lissi…
Running past The Shard, The Tower of London, past the London Eye and Big Ben was amazing. Here the crowds were so loud we couldn’t help but forget that we didn’t have any music to listen to. As Daz’s legs grew weary with his second marathon in 3 weeks, Lissi’s caffeine gel kicked in and the “performance enhancing drug” effect took a strong hold. Before long, her pace was picking up and she was high fiving everyone in sight, while cheering back at those shouting her name. Daz had a desperate moment at 38km when he celebrated his watch telling him he had 2km to go, when there was, in fact, 4km still to go! Then at 40km, exhausted by previous exploits at Brighton, a gruelling training schedule and the heat, Daz was hoping praying to coast to the finish line. He was a little surprised, to say the least, by the sudden increase in Lissi’s caffeine laced enthusiastic pace. Now struggling to keep up with Lissi he was cursing her under his breath as he attempted to film the all-important last couple of km knowing full well the dog house he’d be frequenting if he missed the all important finish line photo!
The last km of the London Marathon is incredible.
The noise from the crowd is deafening. Running under the bridge that tells you there’s 385 yards to go and spotting the gates of Buckingham Palace, the fountain and the flags flying down The Mall is a jaw dropping moment. For Daz it is also the moment he wanted to kill Lissi the most as she sprinted down The Mall to complete her fastest km of the whole Marathon. A heads up about the caffeine gel would have been nice, but he still managed to finish 2 seconds behind Lissi and capture the moment she crossed the line… even if he had to use the zoom lens!
The time afterwards passed in a blur, but we managed to find Weeman again and our support team (or more, they managed find us!) to get some post marathon photos. In the days that have passed since we crossed the finish line it has really sunk in just how amazing it has been to be able to go on this journey together. To have been able to experience the unbelievable event that is the London Marathon not just as individuals, but as a team sharing the incredible journey from start to finish has made the once in a lifetime experience that much better. At the time of writing this our fundraising pot for the TCT stands at £3097, which is just phenomenal. We can’t say it enough, thank you so much to everyone who has donated to this cause, we hope it will make a difference to the lives of young people who are currently facing what Ed and his family once did.
42.2km is tough, it was certainly a challenge to keep going when we felt like our legs (and minds) might give up but would we do it again if we were given the chance?
Well we’ve put in for the ballot for 2026, along with 1.1 million others…
So you never know!
For now, we’ll leave you with the videos, we hope you enjoy them!