Watch the London marathon

Website: http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com

Yesterday was the 2010 London Marathon. This 26.2 mile race has been held in London every year since the first one in 1981. Even though I've lived in London for almost 8 years I'd never made it down to the marathon on race day to cheer along the runners - that is, until yesterday...

Before setting off we looked up the race course on the website. It starts in Greenwich and follows a circuitous route through London before arriving along the Embankment, through Parliament Square and to the finish line on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. ABJ and I decided to visit the last part of the race.

We arrived at around 3.30pm and the race had already been going for over 6 hours. The best runner had finished in 2 hours 5 minutes but there were still plenty of people running along the Embankment when we arrived.

All along the running course there were members of the public cheering the runners or looking out for their friend/family member who was running the race. Many people get sponsored to run the race and along the route there were small teams from the many charities that were there to support the people running for them.

We saw quite a few people in fancy dress - there were people dressed as bears, mice, superheroes, Wizard of Oz characters, firemen, rhinos... There were also tough-looking men wearing a full army backpack marching along stridently.

Every mile was marked with a huge archway which had a digital clock showing your current time:The racers could also grab a free bottle of water as they went:but this led to lots of litter on the track:At last ABJ and I walked up to Parliament Square, intending to see the finish line. To get to St James Park we had to cross the running course - something that was achieved by a sophisticated system which involved a kind of queuing island in the middle of the race lane. The runners were diverted along one side of the island while the public were urged onto the island. When it was full the runners were diverted along the other side and the public could cross all the way. The whole thing ran very smoothly thanks to the multitude of volunteers on hand.

At last we made it to St James Park near Buckingham Palace. There we encouraging signs for the runners:
and at last the finish line:
Since we were seeing the runners that finished around 7 hours 20 minutes many of them looked injured and slow but we cheered them on all the louder.

The whole event was very inspiring - making me want to try to run a marathon one day!

Summary: "Come on! You can do it!"