Diary of a London Marathon Runner - part 5: The big day arrives and it's a journey I'll always treasure

You can read part one of my blog here; part two here; part three here and part four here.

London Marathon 2023 run! Marathon day started with a 5am alarm, to allow me to get clothed, do some light stretching and have a coffee, before I then headed to Three Bridges with my wife, sister and her other half to get a 6.30am bus kindly organised by St Catherine’s Hospice to take us to the start of the marathon in Greenwich.

Just before getting off the bus at around 7.30am, I scoffed my porridge, knowing that would give me three hours to digest breakfast before running at 10.30am. We then had a St Catherine's team photo before I parted ways from my family and headed to the blue start zone with runners Rob and Peter. I was really grateful to have Rob and Peter there for company, as we stood around for the next 2.5 hours for the run to get underway!

Luckily for us, the rain held off for the majority of the waiting time, and when the rain did come the poncho that St Catherine's provided came in very handy! With about 45 minutes to go, I dropped off my bag at the designated drop zone, used the facilities for the final time and did a few stretches before heading to gate seven.

I was in the same group as the 3.55 runners as I was a bit too slow to amend my initial overly ambitious estimated finish time back to 4.30, with cutoff for estimates about the middle of March! The rain started to get a bit heavier about five minues before I was due to run, so I keen to get going ASAP!

Before I knew it we were off! It all felt very surreal, with people lining the streets from the off. The Cutty Sark at mile six was the first area we got to where it was super busy, and the noise from the crowd was phenomenal! I was lucky enough to see my wife, sister and her boyfriend amongst the huge number of Cutty Sark supporters too!