26.2 Miles and a Cure for Cancer

Hi all,

I am delighted to be able to tell you that on October 15th, Natalie (my running partner) and I, along with 5828 other runners, successfully completed the Amsterdam marathon.

We finished the race in just over 3 hours and 48 mins - twelve minutes under our 4-hour race goal. We are both delighted and surprised by the race time ... though we paid for it for the first few days after the marathon with some serious soreness in the thighs, hips, and knees. I can now confirm that although you receive a lot of adrenalin from running with a crowd – it still doesn’t help ease the pain you feel in the last 7K.

… That being said, some of the best experiences of life’s are because you endure the pain and come out the other side smiling. J I will never forget the feeling of crossing the finish line, nor will I forget sight of our friends waving us frantically through the hard parts. Nat and I were very fortunate to have a large crew of friends and family cheering us on throughout the race – my brother Paul and my friend Jill made it all the way from home to see me run. Our cheer squad managed to frantically cycle to 7 different spots on the course – helping us throughout many of the challenging parts. Along with their smiles and shouts, we also encountered some amazing and humorous people along the way, including:

- a blind runner – being led on the arm of a friend
- two women in tutus and tiaras – aka the ‘running princesses’
- a man running his 100th marathon
- a man who has run 70 marathons in 70 days, and has 295 more to do this year
- a man in a hula skirt and leigh
- Kate (not sure who she is, but I studied the back of her shirt for more than 20 miles of the race)
- a group of Italian men … who were singing songs in Italian and flirting with all the pretty runners – proving some things never change
- a man running with two prosthetic legs

All in all, it's an experience that will be etched in my mind for years to come.

Thanks again for all your support over the past 8 months - in total, you've help me run over 900 miles in training, and raise over £3700 to help Julie fight her battle against Multiple Myeloma.

Suzy