We caught the train in to Waterloo station. It was raining quite solidly when we got there. It was a short walk across Waterloo Bridge to the north side of the Thames, where we hoped to find a spot to watch. The crowds were already pretty big, and with the pram we were fortunate to find a great viewing spot on top of a building.
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| Our unobstructed view of the action |
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| We weren't the only ones to find this spot |
The rain continued to come down and got very heaving for a while.
Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long before the women came past the first time. They would go past 6 times.
The first time they went past they were all in a pretty big group. There were a few stragglers and one in particular from East Timor who was a long way behind. The kiwi girl, Kimberly Smith, who went to Jackie's school, was in second place in the main pack the first time they went past.
After the runners had been past the first time a lot of people left from our viewing platform, I assume because they weren't prepared to put up with the weather. We took the opportunity to get a more advantageous position.
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| Going past the drinks station, still quite early in the race. |
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| Snug as a bug in a rug |
The atmosphere was amazing, the cheering for the Brits was pretty special and I'm sure gave their runners an extra lift.
We were positioned next to the drinks stations. Each country had their own drinks station and many had coaches at their drinks station. The drink stations were laid out alphabetically, we were at the end so had Zimbabwe, Venezuela, USA, Uganda, Turkey, Tunisa and TLS - it took us a while to figure out who TLS was, Timor Leste (East Timor).
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| Field spreading out a bit |
As the race went on the crowds become more imaginative with their cheers including a version of "Rain, rain go away, come back another day" and "The old man's snoring..." The real fun came when the kids started cheering for the coaches of the countries who in between the runners going by didn't have much to do.
Before long one of the coaches ran over to the people that were cheering for them and gave them some sweets or something. Well that set the standard with each country coughing up some form of treat or memento.
The best moment was, the Ugandan chap, a big burly bloke with a moustache was well liked. I don't think anyone actually cheered for the East Timor lad, who was a small weedy kind of a guy, but he could see what was going on and had the ultimate present - flags. He dished out a number of East Timor flags to the fans to everyone's delight. So his runner, who was coming dead last by quite some margin got the biggest cheer of all when she ran past next. She had been receiving a great cheer anyway as the person that obviously wasn't in the same league as the others.
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| The photographers were driven around on the back of a truck, I think I would have got car sick doing this for 2 1/2 hours. |
As the race progressed the field spread out, the kiwi was still doing well staying close to the front runners.
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| This was the leaders coming past on the last lap |
This was a brilliant event to go and watch and we had a great viewing spot. We're hoping that the same spot will be equally vacant for the men's marathon next week.
The East Timor athlete finished with a personal best of 3:05:07, and wasn't last, she ended up beating one runner (who got injured but still limped on to the finish).
After the marathon we went for a coffee in town before heading to Tooting for a Sunday roast and watched Andy Murray win another gold for Team GB, beating Roger Federer. Then home to see Murray again, this time in the mixed doubles, no more than an hour after his match with Federer. He did well with his partner but couldn't hold on for the double gold. Gold and silver in one afternoon is more than enough for him though.
Later in the night was the big one, the 100m final before bed.
All in a days work for the Bush family.
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