Travelling to the race start in London's Green Park was sad as the team was set up to raise funds for Sands Neonatal Death Charity following the death at the seventh month of pregnancy of baby Chloe. The brave mother and father were the stars of the team which looked thus:
Yet despite the reasons for the team being formed the atmosphere at the start in Green park was uplifting with the very large number of competitors present preparing for the race. The organisers I think are part of the same group which is responsible for the London Marathon.
Many supporters also accompanied Team Chloe, including mrs maytrees and there were excellently organised refreshment areas with seating to enable them to have a coffee or three in comfort after they had seen the team off at the start.
The race route was excellent taking in the best of the London Marathon route with a great finish in the Mall just past Buckingham Palace.
The route as I recall went through to Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, Aldwych, past the Law Courts in the Strand, up Chancery Lane, High Holborn, Moorgate, then around the Bank of England, back to the Houses of Parliament and the finish in the Mall near Buckingham Palace.
The tourists and others enroute looked slightly bemused but to my surprise there were large numbers of well wishers and onlookers throughout the course with many bands and live groups of all kinds playing great music for running.
It was very pleasing to see that nearly all of the 15,000 or so runners were racing for charities large and small. One of the signs of the times may be the fact that many appeared to be running for Alzheimers' charities, possibly very much more relevant now than in previous centuries because of the far longer average life spans currently experienced by many, at least those who are not suffering through war or famine.
The original aim I believe had been to run as team in the hope of raising £500 for the SANDS charity. In the event the mother and father's team raised well over 10 times that sum.
The race was so well organised that entering again for a charity in 2017 seems a distinct possibility.
The result: I had calculated that my time was sub 1 hour but in fact it seems to have been a fraction over but that hardly matters.
Well done, Jerry! I could never beat that.
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