London Marathon – Wet and Drop Free
Not much time to write but I just wanted to let everyone know that I finished the London Marathon in a decent 3:35:36.
I’ll have a more thorough write-up tomorrow but three highlights
It rained from mile 10 through mile 18. That made joggling much more challenging as my ultra leather Gballz got pretty drenched. Juggling wet, slippery bean bags is always challenging.
The crowds were amazing. There were people along the entire path, even on the Tower Bridge. What made it even more incredible was that they were out there cheering despite the significant amount of rain. These people completely ignore rain. Must be used to it.
Finally, I went the entire distance without a single drop. That’s only the second time I’ve ever done that and this was bar far my fastest, drop-free effort. I even added an additional trick that made it more likely for me to drop. When I passed little kids who had their hands out for the runners to slap, I would throw a bean bag high up in the air, hit the kid’s hand with the bean bag in my hand and resume juggling before the high one fell. It was great!
That’s it for now. More later.
Joggle on.
This Post Has 7 Comments
Congratulations on the finish Perry — that’s quite a respectable time, especially for a joggler in the rain! And special congratulations on finishing dropless. Now only twenty more to go before you hit the magic four-four.
While I’m thinking of it, here’s a suggestion for your web site: how about a listing of your results for all the races you’ve run? Something like a simple table would do: event, date, distance, time, number of drops.
Keep ’em flying!
Nice race! I love the trick throw to high five the kids. nicely done.
Wow – impressive stuff! Enjoy the rest of your stay in London! 🙂
Excellent stuff, Perry. I’m glad you found a way to high-five those South London kids after all. They deserve it. Lucky they didn’t pinch one of your prized joggling balls though, whilst you were at it, the little varmints (as Dickens might have said).
Sorry I didn’t get up to town to watch the race in person. Rightly, a fair number of places are reserved for international runners, but it’s very tough to get into the London Marathon as a local, since the event is oversubscribed by four to five times, and the ballot is unforgiving. I’ve got in this way only once in eight years, and although I’ve run the race twice more with charity places, there are only so many times you can fleece your friends.
I rigorously avoided the TV coverage for the first two hours on Sunday, since I knew the effect it would have. Then finally, I cracked, and so I watched the masses come home – this is what Londoners really line the streets for. If you watch the elite race highlights, the pavements (sidewalks, to you) are pretty quiet, but an hour later the roads are lined six-deep and roaring from every side.
Watching the runners struggle and come home in pain,to fulfill a lifetime’s dream whilst raising so much money for charity made me feel quite emotional, as it always does, and I found I couldn’t watch for more than a few minutes without wanting to blub.
The result of all that emotion was predictable. The online entry for 2009 opened at 12 noon on Sunday (whilst you were still at mile 16). By 2pm, you had finished the race, and I’d already entered the race. Fingers crossed.
Enjoy Paris. How could you not?
Congratulations on the finish and the dropless marathon!
OK. I’m impressed. I’m reasonably certain that I couldn’t run a marathon in that time even without juggling at the same time. You not only ran a great marathon time but you had a perfect joggle.
Greg, great idea. I’ll try to figure out how to add that info.
Roads, the crowds in London were incredible. Thankfully, I’m not faster or I would’ve missed them. Good luck on getting into next year’s race.
Everyone else, thanks for the kind words. Now, I just have to figure out the next challenge. Chicago marathon probably.