LonDONE, A birthday to remember – 25 April 2010

Debbie King reports.

Twelve months ago I went to watch a friend run the London Marathon and was so inspired I decided to enter the very next day.  I'll never forget receiving the call from Spinal Research to say I had won a place, the lady said to me ...' You don't seem happy' ... I was just in total shock!  I decided to run for Spinal Research as my partner, Tom, suffered a spinal injury after breaking his neck in a diving accident seven years ago, he is now paralysed from the shoulders down. Tom used to enjoy running himself so this felt very appropriate.

We decided to set off from Wimborne on the Friday night to ensure a nice relaxing trip to the Expo and a solid night sleep on Friday knowing full well that Saturday night would be full of excitement and nerves! The Expo was great, plenty of useful freebies and a good pep talk from Liz Yelling and Paula Radcliffe. Friday night’s sleep was not such a success when our air conditioning unit decided to leak through the ceiling at 3.15am! Not being able to move rooms we had to settle for wringing the towels out every hour or so to stop the continuous sound of running water. Anyway, after 3 hours sleep I managed a complete and well deserved day of R&R followed by the last bowl of pasta of the week ... thank goodness!

Race Day.....

Arriving at the start line, having checked my kit bag five times, I was ready to rock and roll. Having left my kit bag on the lorry the heavens opened, not expected at all, thank goodness for the trusty old bin liner! Despite this and 45 minutes queuing for the loos the excitement in the air was electric!

The first six miles seemed to come and go very quickly, I managed to keep my pace fairly slow at 11 min/mile as I was concerned I might go off too quickly. At every turn a new face would shout 'Go Debbie – you can do it' …. amazing how much adrenaline that puts into your body! 

Running over Tower Bridge was so emotional, the crowd were louder than I had ever imagined, with the BBC camera up ahead I ran the second part of it with my arms in the air waving franticly .... nope I wasn't on TV!  After Tower Bridge I felt a surge of pain in my chest and breathing became quite laboured and tight ... my hiatus hernia rearing its ugly head again, I couldn't believe it. .... today of all days!!  I kept my pace until 15 miles when I passed my friends and family then decided to split from Louisa my running buddy as she was still on for a sub-5hour time.

I dropped my pace to a comfortable speed trying not to double over too much, the only tack I found to ease the pain a little was to stop running when taking on fluids, a bit annoying but at this point the finish line was all I cared about.  Having passed a screaming group of family and friends at 21 miles it was all about passing Big Ben, strolling along Birdcage Walk, waving to the guards at Buckingham Palace and trying to look good (hilarious thought!) for the cameras at the finish line. 

The finish line was now in sight, I managed to gain a bit of speed .... then Martin Yelling's tips kicked in ... straighten your number ... arms in the air and SMILE for the camera!! Which camera I smiled for I don't know but I DID IT!  Crossed the finish line in a little bit of a disappointing time of 5:43 but most importantly I did it. 

Louisa and Debbie clutching well-deserved bottles of bubbly at the finish line

What an amazing day!  The most emotional ... painful ..... yet best day of my life so far! To top it all I turned 30 too, at about 22 miles I believe!  A birthday never to forget.

Debbie’s story was covered in the paper. Click here to read the Echo’s report while below is the ‘Thank you’ Debbie received for raising so much money for Spinal Research.

The total raised on Debbie’s webpage www.justgiving.com/Debbie-King now stands at over £3,500. Well done Debs.