One of our recent blogs was about motivation; this week we want to explore what comes before motivation – Inspiration. Before doing something it is often found that you are inspired by something or someone. On Pinterest we have a … Continue reading
What an experience the Dublin marathon was; I am in absolute awe of the two flockers we supported out there. Turning two very sad losses into something extremely productive, helpful and kind, cancer research has benefited immensely from the selfless behaviour of Pip and Mandy.
The night before the race the two participants were in their apartments ready to rest by 6pm and of course us supporters were very considerate and stayed out sampling some of Dublin’s evening activities. We graced a comedy club with our presence where I (of course) got picked on by a comedian, but managed to promote Cockpot™. While I was there, every opportunity is a promotion opportunity!
Afterwards we all snuck into our rooms and got rested for the busy day ahead of us.
Up at 7:30 to get ourselves a nice hearty breakfast, dressed and ready to support by 8:30. When we arrived at the marathon route I was immediately struck by pride and inspiration for people I didn’t even know. The wheelchair users had started their marathon and I could feel myself welling up at the pure selflessness of people. Each person that ran past us was running for charity, great people, the support of the small but loud crowd was lovely at this point as well, clapping and ‘woohoo ing’ all that pass, then a blind man with his supporting runner practically sprinted past us as we walked on through to find the start line – I was truly awestruck.
As we continued on, the start line seemed to be quite far away and we wanted to make sure that we had plenty of time to wave off our runners. There was a 26 strong group of us dotted around the track, we would be at the start, some at the first mile, more at the fourth mile and so on. Once we finally reached the start we were in time and the excitement just kept growing, we waited patiently and off they went, pacing themselves together while waving their flags; we each had a Cornish flag so that we could find each other in the crowds, which later became the best idea as it helped us all to find everyone when we all met up at the end. Once we had waved them off we regrouped and went on to the eleventh mile – we were in a city that we didn’t know so 40 mins later we made it!
We got there and cheered on the runners, people had their names on their tops so we would pick out the ones we could see and cheer them on personally, whether it helped or not we don’t know but we certainly got a few smiles! Along came Pip and Mandy, powering through and looking very good on it, considering at this point they had run for 11 miles they had hardly broken a sweat. As they had run past our navigator grabbed the map and devised a way for us to get to the nineteenth mile, the best way to make sure we did it was to taxi it there!
We reached our position and awaited the news that they had passed the sixteenth and seventeenth mile, they were doing incredibly well, reaching between 10 and 9.5 minute miles! I should at this point mention that to make us even more visible, we went to a souvenir shop and bought the tallest and loudest hats we could fine, a few were leprechauns and a few were Guinness, it did help – one runner even stopped to have their photo taken with us!
Along came our runners, at this point we started an ‘oggy, oggy ‘ chant so that they knew where we were, that twinned with flags and hats, nobody could miss us! I honestly don’t think they even looked tired, they must have been so high on adrenaline that at nineteen miles, to us, they looked fabulous. Now the race was on, to meet them again we had to get to twenty two miles in less than 30 minutes, this was not do easy, but much easier for us than for the runners! When we arrived there, we feared we had missed them. It turned out that Mandy had sped up and was doing 9.5 minute miles but we did manage to see Pip. This left us rather panicked as the last thing we wanted was for Mandy to pass the finish line with nobody to greet her so the race was on, we all grabbed taxis and split up again, they were running an incredible marathon and the least we could do was make sure that they were supported, greeted at the end and congratulated!
We succeeded, Pip’s boyfriend (our wonderful navigator) and Mandy’s niece made it to the finish line to welcome them through, and the rest of us were dotted between the twenty third mile and the walk out of the marathon after the very well deserved medal awarding.
They had done it! The whole group descended into proud congratulations!! We all roared as they came through the barriers having completed their 26.2 mile marathon for their loved ones, everybody was hugged and pictures were taken, it was an incredible moment for all involved. The next most pressing issue was to get them to the nearest pub with seats for Pip and Mandy and get them a large, cool pint of Guinness!
An emotional time was had by all, the months of training, the pain, the laughs, the tears, the moments of worry, the support shown by all, it had all been massively worth it and we were so very glad to have been a small part of it! I am totally and completely awestruck and inspired by two fantastic women, so much so that I would run my own marathon, although I am sure that I don’t have the strength shown by these two magnificent ladies. Well done Mandy and Pip!! Thank you for letting us come and support you!
Nest Natter 