13 April: Day Six

London Marathon - the final 26.2 miles...

We woke on Sunday morning with tired, aching legs and injured knees but we knew there was one final push required in order to complete the Challenge. John D gave an interview on Five Live from the office before joining the rest of the Team at Charing Cross for the final train journey.

The thought that our week of pain was about to end put some of us into delirous celebratory mood before the Marathon had even begun. Talk of tactics went out the window as it became clear that none of us knew how our bodies would react to this, the ultimate test.

Rhys and Giles went out early at a lightening pace with Conrad, John D, Seb, Pat and Will forming a peloton behind. Angus, Rob and Leon were around but none of us knew if they had gone early or gone behind.

The rest of the race is a bit of a blur save to say that Pat kept Seb company for half the race and then proceeded to do a negative split coming home for fear his legs would sieze up. His time for the first half was 1.51. His time for the Marathon? 3.39!

Rhys somehow continued at the lightening pace he went off and hung on for dear life to finish in 3.55 - only 3 minutes slower than Paris.

Angus kept his sore legs motoring to finish in a highly respectable 3.58.

Giles and Seb ran and walked together between miles 14 and 18 before Seb mentioned the possiblity of a sub-4 time to Giles... this was enough to inspire Giles to give it one final effort. Unfortunately, he fell just short, coming home in 4.03.

John D and Conrad were next home in 4.12 and were spotted on live television crossing the line holding hands. A touching moment.

Seb was next home in 4.21 closely followed by Will in 4.33.

Rob battled home bravely to beat the 5 hour mark in 4.54 but the real story of the day belongs to Leon.  

Leon had been suffering from tendonitis in his ankle following the bike ride and was struggling to walk properly let alone run before the Marathon had even started. He was roughly up with the pack until 10km when the pain set in. There then ensued a battle of epic proportions as he limped his way around the remainder the course. The high point was finding a cafe open to stock up on some munchies around mile 15. The low point was getting to Docklands to see his parents only to find they had left (obviously!) as he had taken so long to get there and they had presumed he had already gone past. Lesser men, in fact most sane men, would have given up this point but Leon soldiered on through the rain and the hail to make it home and officially finish the Challenge in a time of 6.31.

Special mentions to Sarah (Elite Squad) finishing in 4.04 and Chris who raised funds for our Challenge, coming home in 4.21.

At last the Challenge has been completed. Please click here for photos from our final day. There is, of course, the Auction on Wednesday still to come but the physical pain of the Two Cities Challenge has now ended... well, kind of, most us cannot move and some of us still have to see Roberto this week...