04:59:03

It's all over. After a year's training, fundraising and fretting about my unbelievable chafing, on Sunday April 25th I completed the London Marathon. And I didn't get carried away on a stretcher!

(This is the fantastic surprise pre-Marathon Pasta Party - much more fun than the Expo, with friends, t-shirts, banners, cup cakes and numerous delicious carb based dishes!)

The day itself started with a very early morning start as we headed over to Greenwich with a 5am alarm call. To be honest I don't think I actually slept at all, but we made it to the charity breakfast, only slightly delirious, for 7am. Help the Hospices had put on a spread for all its runners. I had a slight panic over uncooked porridge, but after fuelling up, it was time to slap on some factor 50.

Now, sometimes we can have regrets in life. And there's no point crying over spilt milk, but there is a point in crying over spilt suncream. I didn't want to get sunburnt; it was forecast to be sunny and a week later I was having to stand up in front of 100 people and make a Best Man's speech. Didn't want to have red horns. But I wasn't counting on looking like Casper the Friendly Frigging Ghost for the whole 26 miles after I'd smothered myself in baby suncream and ruined all my official photographs. Doh. To quote Sally Bedding at 19 miles: "oh, it was lovely to see Paul, but he did look awfully grey".

So to the start I went, definitely behind the elite runners, but at least starting in front of the oversized fancy dress runners, except for 1 giant ice cream. And I was on the telly! Go here and watch the video - at about 7 seconds I'm in the top left hand corner, just behind the Strawberry Cornetto.

I must say without doubt the highlight of the race was seeing my amazing cheerleaders. Thank you to everyone who came - you were all incredible, and I was so happy to see you all at Greenwich, Canary Wharf, East London and finally at 25 miles on Embankment - you lot made the whole thing worth it.

The race itself was actually mostly thoroughly enjoyable - I didn't stop until 10 miles and was feeling pretty good.

Then 20 miles hit. It wasn't the infamous "Wall". It was just ridiculous searing pain through both of my legs; every step made me want to cry and my playlist started to make me feel violently ill. So I took my earphones out and just enjoyed the crowd. I'd heard amazing things about the London Marathon spectators - and it was really true. People lined the whole route and were constantly shouting out your name from your t-shirt, giving high fives and holding out Haribo sweets to give you a tiny burst of energy. Never thought a jelly fried egg could taste so delicious. People I'd never met shouting my name! I think they might have read the blog. 

Some parts I didn't enjoy. Hanging out on the Isle of Dogs has never been a strong desire of mine, and now and again I really did question what the hell I was doing. But the good outweighed the bad, and eventually, after an incredible amount of support, I crawled over the finish line sub 5 hours, with 57 seconds to spare.

Here's me doing a cheeky jig at 25 miles - obviously it was all for show - I'd been intermittently crawling and weeping for about an hour previously.

Here's a picture of probably the best pint ever tasted, with my medal, that I wore for at least 24 hours afterwards. Oh and a shiny gold jacket that made me feel like Jimmy Saville.

So, for all the training, chafing, carbing and Beyonce ridden playlists, there was really only one reason that I originally embarked on this journey.

My Dad was a great sportsman, and to be honest, I was always pretty rubbish at P.E. Not that I didn't try.. I was just kind of over it at secondary school. Always picked last for football, last in from cross country. So to actually finish a marathon.. I guess it's kind of a big deal. I hope I make him proud.

Almost 3 years ago to the day, my dear old Dad passed away after a long and difficult illness. During the last few years of his life, he had carers come and go, some great and some not so great. In the last 12 months he had been admitted to a palliative care ward and for me this was a mixture of sadness, relief and frustration. A Hospice is not just a building - it is a way of caring for people. Help The Hospices' vision is that everyone at the end of life has the best possible care and they offer services to support hospice and palliative care professionals as they support their patients, like my Dad. Hospices are grossly underfunded by the Government and rely on contributions from charities like Help the Hospices.

Your donation will make a difference so please, please, help us reach the fundraising target. Donations can be made easily online at http://www.justgiving.com/paulandgracelondonmarathon2010

Thanks for reading.. until 2011!

Pauly McK xxxx

ExPoSeD

Last night I went to the London Marathon Expo at the Docklands Excel Centre, where I picked up my race number, timing chip and lots of useless leaflets.

Very exciting - no going back now, I am OFFICIALLY REGISTERED. Gulp.

The Expo is a weird place. It's basically corporate sponsorship hell, where lots of people try to sell you lots of things you don't need, like shoes with calf-strengthening soles, and where you can also pick up a wide and extensive range of disgusting samples of food and drink supplements. We had fun though, and it was nice to meet the people from the charity. Big thanks to Grace who came along to join in the pasta party fun times. 

We sat down at some lovely white formica tables, and watched an adidas sportswear fashion show, where some beautiful people walked out onto the stage, showing off the latest in adidas lycra sportswear, then broke out into a full on street dance routine. Bizarre.

Here's me having my own personal pasta party:

But wait, what's this on the stage?

It's only the adidas street dancers! 

Look at the partying!

I also had a souvenir photo taken with the trophy, which will obviously be mine on Sunday afternoon. I'm pretty sure I might actually be in with a chance, especially what with all the volcanic ash.

I think the carbs have actually tipped me over the edge.

Beyonce for President

The tapering is driving me nuts, it's official. I'm extremely bored and irritable so in order to take my mind off the disgusting amounts of carbohydrates I am currently ingesting, I've been working on my playlist.

Sometimes I think Beyonce should actually rule the world. Just her and Jay, sat on two thrones, lording over everyone with their sweet music. Big shout out to Jeffrey Haddon for recommending Destiny's Child's 'Survivor' for the final stretch - a true powering home anthem if ever there was one.

My current playlist consists of 125 songs and 9 hours of music (I'm really hoping it won't take that long) but at present my top 10 tunes is mainly consisting of the songs below. These are the ones that I am REALLY going to appreciate when all I want to do is jump in an ice bath, or the Thames.

- Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O'Mine
(I gain an extra mile per minute just with that opening)
- Bjork - Army of Me
(GET OUT OF MY WAY)
- Destiny's Child - Survivor
(hats off Jeffers)
- Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Ooooh
(couldn't do it without these shiny ponies)
- Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight
(Dronez Mix - nothing less)
- Devo - Snowball
(and it rolled back down.. and it rolled back down.. and it rolled back down..)
- Brakes - All Night Disco Party
(spooky.. makes my head bob)
- Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
(brings a smile to my face)
- Hercules & Love Affair - Blind
(an epic)
- Gus Gus - David
(another epic)
- Ministers De La Funk - Believe
(the ultimate epic)

Okay so that was more than 10. However, I have to say that my ultimate running song must be The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up'. It's just awesome in so many ways. Makes my head go funny. Makes my legs go faster. Makes me want to cry. I just love it.

I would love any more suggestions; nothing is final on the iPod until M-Day! Any ideas?

Ps. THANK YOU so much if you've already donated. You're all totally amazing and I can't honestly believe we're nearly at £3,000! Your generosity has been incredible and truly inspiring.

If you haven't had a chance yet - in the name of Honey B, please..... http://www.justgiving.com/paulandgracelondonmarathon2010

Taper Worm

This tapering lark isn't all it's cracked up to be. In the build up to a marathon, the training in the last few weeks actually "tapers" down, as you conserve energy and rest before the big day. Now, this obviously sounds like the ultimate joy, no more long runs. But you begin to feel like a caged animal - pumped up with nowhere to go.

I've had a lovely weekend but seem to have spent quite a lot of it hydrating and eating carbs. Anyway, I'm going to channel energy this week into getting my survival kit ready. Today I was hand delivered a special treat, in the form of my sister's breastfeeding nipple cream. Apparently it's quite expensive and more effective than vaseline. I'm not ashamed to admit this on a public blog. I'm not even drunk.

Have bought all of my carbs for the week ahead, and am looking forward to a week of:
(a) porridge breakfasts
(b) baked potato lunches
(c) pasta dinners

I feel like the michelin man just even typing that.

ROLL ON SUNDAY 25th!

Ghosts! Ghouls! Girls Aloud!

Talking about fundraising, I threw a party last year in aid of the Marathon cause for my favourite holiday of the year, Halloween. Actually maybe second favourite after Christmas. Anyway, it's up there.

Everyone looked brilliant and there were some really awesome costumes! Had I not been too drunk to remember the Best Dressed Award, I think a strong contender might have been Mattie as the kid from The Orphanage - I'm still having nightmares. We managed to have it in the basement of the Princess of Wales while it still retained some spookiness and hadn't yet been converted into a hideous Primrose Hill gastro pub.

And you amazing people raised over £220! Thanks to everyone who came, dressed up, donated, bought decorations, carved pumpkins, baked cakes, danced to Cheryl Cole or smashed the pinata and wore the remains as a decorative head trophy. Truly terrifying.

Merci. Gracias. Thank U.

Had an amazing delivery this week. The wonderful Alex Reyto, of Toronto, ON, sent me the most beautiful set of hand-made jewellery pieces to sell for the Marathon fund. Some pictures are below, and you will see the amount of time and effort that has gone into this project - I just can't ever express enough gratitude. Aren't they incredible? I'll be hawking these round in the next few weeks, so if you'd like to reserve a piece, let me know.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how amazing everyone has been since I started this whole thing.

So just wanted to say a huge, massive, enormous THANK YOU to everyone who has donated so far - friends old and new, family, even people I don't know. If you've sat and blown up Halloween balloons, dressed up as ghosts and witches and My Little Ponies, come on gruelling training runs, stood in the pouring rain cheerleading, collected money on my behalf, or just listened to me moan about my chafed nips - a heartfelt thank you xoxo

Blogging about Blogging. Too much.

Had some exciting news this weekend. I have another follower! My good friend Kate had checked the blog and was dismayed, yes DISMAYED, to find I hadn't updated. I couldn't believe it! I am basically Julie Powell. I mean, I'm thinking next stop - publishing deal in North America. To be fair, she is recovering from foot surgery at home so probably didn't have all that much else to do. But still! Thanks Layfers, and get well soon.

So.... Please, if you're reading this with any interest, or just through sheer Monday night Facebook boredom, please donate! It's easy and secure online at:

www.justgiving.com/paulandgracelondonmarathon2010

Your donation will make a real difference to an amazing charity and will be very much appreciated :-)

In other news, I had an exciting delivery to the office last week. A crate of Majestic wines? Some nice books, DVDs? No, it was my bulk buy from lucozade.com. Actually, I guess being sent 24 tubes of disgusting carbohydrate gel and a crate of Orange Sport drinks is quite depressing. But these little gems are amazing when you're out on the run.. you get that sick feeling.. can't..go..on.. just down the goop and you're away. It's like when Mario eats the mushrooms.

As for the long run, did about 14-15 miles on Sunday, in about 2 hours 45 minutes. Same route as last week and a little bit extra round London Fields. Not too many to go now. I HAVE to keep telling myself that there's only a couple more of these horrors until it's taper time in mid-April.

Let's get Physio, Physio, I wanna get Physio

Had my physio this morning, bright and early. I've been having treatment for medial tibial stress syndrome. This is more commonly known as "shin splints", or, as my sister Helen has been taking great pleasure in calling it, "Sore Leg Syndrome".

I've really enjoyed having physio, admittedly mostly just so I can say that I have a physio, but actually it's really helped me with the running. But I do have slight mentionitis of "my physio says this, my physio says that". Sorry. I started off having acupuncture which was clearly terrifying but amazing. Here's a picture of my trotter, a la Hellraiser:

It's supposed to do something or other to the energy channels but all I know is it made my ankles stop hurting so that's good enough for me. Weird having pins jabbed in you though, that then make you feel better.

Had ultrasound and a sports massage this morning, only slightly embarrassed by my vile runner's feet. I swear they get worse every week. Damn those long runs.

Although I will be sad to have to leave physio, I won't miss the exercises I have to do in the office, looking like a total plum. The "Oyster" stretch is a particular treat.

I can definitely recommend these guys - they do a great job! Check them out here.

Saturday it's a Saturday

I recovered from the McMuffin fiasco and did my big weekend run on Saturday, about 13 miles. These horrors are definitely getting easier, and a shout out to new flattie Tim and the Beechmeister General who came along for the ride. It's so much better doing it with other people, and we managed a nice route from Clapton, around Victoria Park, along Regents Canal, up through Angel and then back to Stokie.

I'm slightly upset that my long runs always seem to end on Stoke Newington Church Street, when I am looking my most disgusting, with a big red ribena berry head and me being an overall sweaty mess. I've been spotted a few times now, think I really need to change the route of my final stretch.

Feeling encouraged by the fact that I don't want to curl up and die after these long weekend runs any more. In fact afterwards I actually went and finished moving house, wandered around the Dalston pound shops, went for dinner and then polished off a bottle of Sailor Jerrys on Saturday night. Result!

Runner's Breakfast

So, mine and Shelby's breakfast this morning consisted of sausage and egg mcmuffin, hash brown and Tropicana. That last bit is healthy, right?

Shouldn't have had that last Vodka and Cresta lemo last night.

Big run tomorrow morning - must be good for the rest of the day.

The Final Countdown

So, as I enter the final month of training before the London Marathon I thought it was high time I entered the blogosphere as well.

I finally made it! My next challenge is how to make a blog about running, running and more running not be the most boring thing ever written in the history of man.

Shameless plug - please sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/paulandgracelondonmarathon2010

Too much too soon?