London Marathon

My friend Zhan was running in the London Marathon this weekend, and came down to stay with me on Saturday. Luckily, I'd escaped the worst of a hangover, so I managed to make it to the gym and to the post office, and even got home again and showered, before he arrived to drop off his stuff and head out again to the pre-marathon expo. We had a pretty chilled evening, as he wanted to expend as little energy as possible before the marathon. So I cooked dinner and we did nothing much, before heading in for an early bedtime.

In the morning Zhan headed out before I was even up, so I made my way to Tower Hill, where the course looped back on itself at the 13 and 22 mile markers. There I found the hash beer table, where they were handing out beer to the marathon runners at the 22-mile mark. (Yes, the hash has different ideas about serious running than other people do).

I was quite pleased with myself when amidst all of the pack of runners constantly whipping by, I managed to spot my friend Zhan. Even more amazing, I managed to whip out my camera and even fire off a few shots as he went by, although it was pretty obvious that he hadn't seen me.

I stayed around for a bit longer, before it became pretty clear that there wasn't anyone I wanted to see there, and the hashers were all just the annoying old guys. So I left and made my way to the finish line, although it took ages to fight my way through all of the crowds! At least I got a few dorky photos for a work contest we're having, taking a photo of my team lead in front of Buckingham Palace.

I finally managed to make it to the meet-up area, where we all took a photo of our group with Zhan, and then went on to get something to eat. We ended up at a Nando's, which was actually pretty good, and then Zhan bought me lunch. It was a long lunch with everyone talking about this and that, but mostly giving Zhan an opportunity to revel in his victory.

Finally, we headed out, and I took Zhan home, stopping on the way at my gym to pick out a movie. (Who knew that my gym rented movies for free? Although how cool is that?) So we came home, I cooked dinner, and we did nothing much. A great way to finish off a marathon day!