If you have any questions, feel free to email me (ttsjl at hotmail dot com).

My personal blogs will continue on www.simon-levy.co.uk.

Without these people, the task would have been impossible:

Kevin. Thanks for helping to make this happen. I’m not yet sure about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed it (in the end) and am still buzzing now. Thanks also for putting up with no one else but me for 32 hours over those 218.3 miles. There aren’t many others who would have chosen to do that (maybe it was because you didn’t know me that well beforehand).

Cath. Words cannot begin to describe how instrumental you have been in this task. When Kevin and I first thought about this challenge, we contemplated the fact that we may not have any support. And as other supporters fell by the wayside, you stepped up to the mark and exceeded all of our expectations – before, during and after the event. Unfortunately, you now know that if I were to ever consider anything like this again, you will be the first person I ask. What’s more, you successfully kept all of my worrying supporters free from worry – not many can do that.

Without these people, the task would have been significantly more difficult:

Mum, Dad, Marc, Deborah. Thank you all for your continued support. Summer, autumn and winter 2010 was a difficult time for all of us, but we pulled through. You all completely understood my reasons for this and stood by me the whole way (despite calling me “bonkers” in the national press, mum). Marc and Deborah, the efforts you made and the enjoyment you gained out of being there will forever mean more to me than you can imagine.

Helen. By far and away, my biggest supporter. Thanks for understanding my reasons for undertaking this challenge – and always believing I could do it. Helping me left, right and centre with publicity. Supporting me before, at the beginning, the (end of the) middle, at the very end and after. You always took an interest, despite preparing for the biggest challenge you have ever undertaken, yourself.

Georgina. My second biggest supporter. You always took a genuine interest in what I was doing – and I was truly delighted to receive your support at the end, when your own dreams were being shattered (albeit, temporarily). Next year, you will be stronger and I promise I will do whatever I can to help you.

Pete. For getting me through my injury eight weeks beforehand, and giving me the confidence that I could overcome it and achieve this. For printing our kit (via Winning Ways). And for allowing Cath to join us for the crucial days in France.

Kevin’s family. Thank you for allowing me to borrow Kevin for a bit. I hope he is able to continue running in the future and, consequently, doesn’t burden you with complaints of yearning to run (and wishing he had never done this).

Jeremy. Thank you for enduring many a stressed conversation on training runs. When you had stresses of your own, not once did you complain about my own complaining. And for always offering solutions to my problems.

Stuart (and Mrs B). For providing our first aid kit. That nappy rash stuff was amazing.

Ryston Runners. Thank you all for understanding my predicament, for supporting me in my decisions at the club without questioning them. And for the encouragement and motivation you have all provided throughout my training. I could not imagine ever wanting to run for any other running club.

All friends, supporters and sponsors. The training for this challenge was as difficult as the event itself. The support, generous donations and kind words all helped me overcome these hurdles. Furthermore, it made the challenge so much more worthwhile. Taking the time to read the blogs, comment on them, and in the guestbook added to this.

Adidas. Thank you for providing the kit in which we ran. I now have enough trainers to last me almost 5000 miles. And no, don’t even suggest it…

Google. For providing some excellent map software that allowed us to plan a route that avoided most of the main roads (although it did cause us to run through a fishing lake in Dieppe).

These people helped to make the task more enjoyable:

Tom Williams. Thank you for being genuinely interested in what we were doing, for interviewing us (twice) and for podcasting to thousands of listeners via www.marathontalk.com. Also, for taking time to talk to us at the Expo, and for giving us a big shout out with only 7 miles to go.

The Lynn News. For giving me half of the back page and for keeping me on the homepage of the website for a week (http://tinyurl.com/6cpjxdh).

The Jewish Chronicle. For interviewing me and telling the nation that my mum thinks I am “completely bonkers” (http://tinyurl.com/6lea8dk). And again here (http://tinyurl.com/6l6kcer). That will show you, mum, although I am not sure this will change your opinion.

Jackie Newton. For interviewing me, for putting my story on the RunBritain website (http://www.runbritain.com/little-runbritain/88/) and for the podcast (http://ipad.io/Ytl).

Archant. For putting our story in the EDP (http://tinyurl.com/42ffhxt), the Evening News (http://tinyurl.com/62dj6yr) and the Advertiser (http://tinyurl.com/3w3nvbb).

Steve Bradley. For interviewing Kevin for broadcast on Norwich 99.9FM, twice.

Chris Goreham. For interviewing me for broadcast on Radio Norfolk.

The British Heart Foundation. For understanding my reasons, offering advice and helping me to publicise (http://www.bhf.org.uk/default.aspx?page=13073).

Whizz Kidz. For supporting me (as well as Kevin), as we ran through London, and publicising our story (http://tinyurl.com/3oqsktg).

Sprowston Manor. For providing us with use of the facilities to aid our recovery.

Anyone else who was remotely interested (especially if you have read this far), or who believed I could do this (or suspected I couldn’t).

First and foremost, Cath “Three Kettles” Duhig has been an absolute star in her role as driver, nutritionist, logistics whizz, and everything you could ever ask for. We really couldn’t have got past the first stage without Cath. Apart from anything else, Cath’s knowledge of endurance events from personal experience meant that she knew how to support us, often before we knew we needed supporting. Incidentally, it wasn’t until the fourth day that our running mileage exceeded Cath’s race-walking record for 24 hours, which puts all of this in perspective.

Simon, of course, agreed to do the run in the first place, and so should be thanked just for that, but he took lots of initiative in organisation, and his Baden-Powell like behaviour wherever a map was concerned was great. I was struggling a bit in the last couple of days, so thanks also for pulling me around, and this might be a good time to remind him that he’s 20 years younger than me. I did try to tell him at the time, but he helpfully ignored me.

Lots of people have given us really good advice on the run. Other than those whose advice was simply not to do anything so stupid, it’s worth thanking Neil Featherby at Sportlink, who also was good enough to stir up the local media a bit, and Steve Broadbent, who ran the same route in 2005 and gave some really useful help in the planning stage.

James Hook at Adidas sent us a huge box of shoes and kit for the run, which was really great, and will keep us both at least looking like reasonable athletes for quite a while yet.

Staff at Virginmoney have been really supportive, and also managed to find somewhere for us to sleep on Friday and Saturday! Special thanks to Matt Bullock for designing a great logo, and for Antony Simm for sorting out and solving problems with the website, often at pretty odd times of the day.

Steve Bradley at Norwich 99.9 and Tom Williams from www.marathontalk.com both indulged us with interviews and support (and in Steve’s case, persuaded Sprowston Manor to help out after the event). If you’re a runner and you’re not familiar with marathontalk, have a listen to one of their podcasts – really worthwhile.

Lots of people have very generously sponsored us, and the rough target of four Whizz-kidz wheelchairs has been met, exceeded and is now just about nudging five, which is great. Thanks so much for this.

Mandy, Will, Lexian, who is a Whizz-kidz ambassador, and her Mum, Kathia, travelled to meet us at the end of Saturday’s stage into Greenwich which was really special, as was the run in from Grove Park with Helen and Georgina.

And many colleagues, friends, friends of friends and random stalkers were good enough to read the blogs, send comments and sign the guest book; this was really appreciated.

Finally, a big thankyou from me to Jack and the boys, who put up with the planning and execution of this in the same way that they’ve always put up with my lack of proper grown up responsibilities.

I’ll be back blogging on www.kevinrevell.com  from now on – do tune in to get continual whingeing comments on middle-aged torpor…

But I didn’t want to do the predictable thing; I’ll put some stats up later and try to thank everyone properly when I get a chance.

Now seems a more appropriate time to talk about the why’s rather than the what’s, partly because it’s the end of the adventure, and partly because the why’s were all over London today in another fantastic marathon.

I started running partly because I was getting too fat, and partly because I managed to get a place in the 1997 London Marathon. With reasonably diligent training, I managed to cross the line in 3:58, and frankly, I thought at that point that I was pretty much the athlete’s athlete. By reading up a bit more on this marathon lark, I realised that, whilst dipping under 4 hours was not to be sniffed at, it was hardly an Alf Tupper like performance. So I got some help from some very knowledgeable (and in Mr Neil Featherby’s case, slightly scary) people, and managed to get down to under 3 hours in a couple of years. Then I joined a club, and met an absolute inspiration in the form of Peter Andrews, who was kind enough to give me some coaching, and I ended up posting some fairly good times in races. Peter died suddenly in 2005 and I don’t think I’ve ever gone for a run since without thinking of him.

And the whole point of that is to tell you that I’d found something that was difficult, but achievable, and reacted well to hard work. And that, in my opinion, is what is really, really fantastic about this sport at any level. You can start at any point, and almost invariably get better/faster/further by working hard. And then you learn that you can push your limits a bit further. A friend of mine, who is a terrific athlete, once told me that he found it frustrating that people told him he made it look easy. His point was that all the runners at the front of the pack are trying just as hard as everyone else. They’re just faster. And that’s why running is such an amazing leveller, because you try as hard as you can, and your only real measure is yourself and the clock.

So, every time I ran a race, like most other runners, I was effectively trying to hurt my body as much as possible in order to get the most out of it. As Steve Prefontaine said:

“A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.”

That’s why I ended most marathons that I ran either throwing up or in tears. And sometimes both, which was really embarrassing. (There are a lot of cameras at big city marathons, often trying to capture those ‘runner gives all’ moments.)

Anyway, I was getting pretty familiar with what a marathon felt like. In the best shape I’d been in for years, I entered the first Virgin London Marathon in 2010, got a great start, then cramped up at 14 miles, and recorded a 12 year Personal Worst. At which point I wondered whether this was really worth the candle, went into the doldrums for a little while and started to think about different things to do with on Sunday mornings. Then I started following some endurance blogs, including last year’s John O’Groats to Land’s End run…and that led to the 2005 Paris to London run. And then I made the mistake of starting to think about trying something similar…

I’m not telling you all of this to big myself up. I just wanted to write down how I got to this point, and what the ‘why’ was all about. It’s this:

First, find something you don’t think you can do. And then do it. And then remember what that feels like for a bit.

TTFN

For the large part, the run was ok, but the pain that had started in my right knee somewhere in the South Downs had become agonising. I was concerned when it didn’t really ease through the afternoon and into the night. It was all I seemed to be able to think about, but I didn’t want it to stop either the completion of the task, or my enjoyment of the final day. Just to maintain the competition (and not to be outdone by Kevin), I also picked up two (albeit small) blisters on my little toes. If I had felt like this normally for any other marathon, it is likely I would have deferred my entry.

But the running issues were only the start of yesterday’s difficulties. We made it to the Expo on Saturday afternoon, but I was thoroughly exhausted and just wanted to put my feet up. Arriving in London felt like the finish – and we still had to pick ourselves up for today.

When we later arrived at the hotel, a minor hiccup meant that I couldn’t keep the majority of my baggage overnight. A quick faff and a hefty parking meter meant that I only had a small amount of time to prepare a minimum amount of kit for the marathon and beyond (which would also mean that I went home without any underwear on).

Cath had to leave us, so we didn’t have our usual grounding. All of our worries would be bounced around each other – with no one else to absorb them. It also meant that we would miss our regular ‘feed stops’ along the route… although I’m not sure the Marathon organisers allow cars to drive alongside. Cath, I can’t begin to state how grateful I am for your support – you have done more than we can possibly have imagined.

In the evening, we discovered that we were not on the same start (contrary to what we had previously thought). We would have to carry mobile phones and work out where we were in relation to each other so we could meet up once the race was underway.

And, most frustratingly, breakfast at the hotel was not an option given our schedule – which meant a stressful night wondering how we would get the right preparation. Oh, how I wish Cath had left us with a travel kettle so I could have had porridge and marmite for an eight consecutive day.

Fortunately, I was so tired, that none of these stresses prevented me from sleeping.

Then race day arrived, and everything (for me) went to plan. I started nicely and ran well. There was no sign of any discomfort for the first 10 miles – by which time, Kevin was already struggling. I decided to stick with Kevin, enjoy the day and make the most of the support along the course; thanks ML for travelling from Liverpool to see me – again I was more pleased than you can imagine that you made the ‘effort’ to join me. Thank you very much.

By mile 18, I was in a lot of discomfort – possibly from running across (rather than along) the course in order to say hello to everyone I recognised along the way. But, by then, I knew that the task was manageable. I spent the next 8 miles being overly excited by what we were about to achieve.

We crossed the line together (with different times due to different start locations) and, despite being in agony at the end, almost feel like I could continue tomorrow. I think I may just limit myself to a track session instead…

I will blog again in a few days’ time once I have had some time to reflect. I will also upload some more photos, and organise them in some way. Thanks to everybody without exception for your support. Thanks also to Kevin who supported me the whole way and had to put up with me for eight days while doing this challenge – making his challenge even greater. Your patience at times amazed me.

Dedicated to Grandma and Grandpa – I couldn’t have done this without you.

So, this has been written in response to Kevin’s parting comment to me today as I deposited them on the steps of The Haymarket Hotel (no kettle in the room, that I could see…..) He said “Blog”. Or maybe it was “Dog”, or even “Jog”. Who knows? It’s been that sort of week.

I may write more about today’s run later, but there are too many demons in my head at this stage and I don’t want to encourage them by writing about their mischief. Just to say that it was really fantastic to be joined by some great supporters along the final stretches – thank you very much.

It was also great to be able to see and thank some people at the Expo who have helped us in one way or another along the way.

Tomorrow is another day but, as yet, seems a long way off…

Today’s statistics:
Distance according to Garmin: 18.56 miles
Time from Westerham to ‘The Green Start’ on Shooter’s Hill Road (including rests): 3:01:13
Running time: 2:46:07