Tom Farrand

Having seen how challenging it was for competitors in London including my brother-in-law, training to try and keep my fitness in the extra month has been hard so I went into this knowing that it was going to be much tougher than I'd originally expected. 

My target time was very ambitious, and in the end a combination of rather warm, humid conditions and my inexperience led to me cramping up fairly badly from about 18 or so miles which put paid to any dreams of sub 3hrs 30. However, with it being my first ever marathon and really not knowing what to expect, I felt a mixture of elation, emotion and relief to come home in just under 3 hrs 47 mins, 307th out of a 1000. It feels great to have completed it, and I've learnt definitely learnt a lot about stuff in the process.

The first 20 or so miles I was well on-track for the time, but they say the marathon starts at 20 miles, and that's when the wheels started to fall off! It was just like the Wacky Races with runners starting and stopping, stretching, hobbling, limping, walking and then running again in patches for the last 6 miles. I was no different (see my race record below), suffering a mixture of cramps in both legs, probably some level of dehydration and lots of fatigue but a handful of forced short stops to stretch and walk off the cramps as well to rehydrate, get some gels and jelly beans in gave me a lift and I bodged my way through the last few painful miles

There were some fantastic pockets of support along the what was a rather long but thankfully flat out and back course, with huge long never-ending straights. Most notably Gemma who was brilliant and found me at 6, 13 and an emotional 22 miles and finish line which was a huge boost. It was also great to get so many well-wishing texts, messages, mails and tweets as well of course as the very generous donations to the charity. In the end Jon and I raised not far short of £3000 for ChildLine which we are delighted with so many thanks to everyone who donated.

Finally, if you are fed up of my constant updates on Twitter and Facebook, you'll be glad to know I've disconnected my Nike+ from both so you no longer have my running updates barging their way into your digital space! That is, of course, until the next and definitely final marathon which will be London in the next few years once I've fully recovered and forgotten how hard it was this time round!