A Truly Amazing Day!

I was up early in Sunday morning, and went over to Elephant and Castle to feed Monty The Cat as Liz and Jon were away. Then on to the tube again and up to Bermondsey. I wore my jester hat – being [a] alone and [b] quite small, I wanted to make sure Steph spotted me in the crowd!

It worked- she saw me at Bermondsey [too slow with the camera, only got a shot of the back of her head] After she’d gone past, I got quite emotional and burst into tears of joy**. Then I went on to Canary Wharf and spotted her there and cheered, and finally Shadwell, where I saw Chris Evans as well as Steph. I met up with Steph after the race in St James’ Park.

I am so pleased for her- it was quite an achievement. A few months ago, she thought she might have to pull out due to injury. She raised over £800 for EAP – thank you again if you contributed. Thank you too, all the people who sent messages of encouragement, or prayed for her, or cheered as she ran past. I was standing on the pavement yelling “Go on Jenny!” “Keep it up Liz” etc to encourage random strangers who had their names on their shirts. I figured that if I was doing that for them, then other people round the 26 mile course were yelling “Well done, Steph!” for my girl.

I met some fantastic people during the day -

• the lovely French students on the tube, who practised their English conversation with me as we told riddles
• the bloke at Bermondsey who helped me track Steph on the phone, when the app wasn’t working properly
• Rebecca at Bermondsey, who asked why I was weeping** [Its OK, I am just happy and proud] and gave me a hug.
• the family from Beverly, Yorkshire who chatted as we walked back to the station – and turned out to know my dear friend Paul and his wife Steph
• the stewards, St John’s paramedics, Railway Staff, and Policemen – all so helpful and cheerful.

Everything was incredibly well organised, the crowds were cheerful and well managed- and even the atmosphere as people were queuing for the trains was good.

And I am just so proud of my daughter – who finished the race in under 5 hours, despite her recent injuries and leg pains [and her time was 3 minutes less than Chris Evans]

Now we can settle down and finish the wedding preparations!