The London Marathon

Yesterday was the big day that hundreds of people have been building up to for months and months, so I thought that I would watch it on TV... mostly so I could compare it to actually being there last year.

On Saturday, I asked my step dad what time it started and he said '8 something'... I chocked! Ok, well not literally but I said 'IN THE MORNING?' in a very surprised sounding voice, which was laughed at by the others who were at the table. 

I decided that I would get up at 9:30am so that I could watch the most part of it, so I set my alarm. I woke up at 11:30am, not remembering my alarm going off at all, and promptly got my breakfast and then sat at my desk, watching the marathon as I ate. 

I was up in time to see the winners of the elite races, so that was pretty good! There was one point where the people in 2nd and 3rd place were on the straight to the finish, battling to get 2nd place. I could see the 3rd place runner creeping up on the 2nd place runner, carefully watching him to decide when to make his move. He timed it perfectly and the 2nd place runner unfortunately didn't react quick enough and did finish 3rd. While watching that point, I could imagine EXACTLY what my mum would be doing. She was in the living room and I was imagining her cheering on the people and shouting at the TV, like she does with most sporting events (mostly running). I asked my sister later on... I was right!

I remember last year, I was just round the corner from the 385 yard bridge and all of the elites were still running strong at that point... wow! It's just incredible that they can actually run that far and still be running well! I know I'd be struggling at that point... but I'm not an elite so I guess it's different! 

I don't know whether the wheelchair racers were before I woke up but I don't remember seeing any what so ever! I remember them last year whizzing past us, so it was sometimes hard to get a picture! I think this picture shows their speed quite well... 

My favourite part of the marathon is seeing the wacky costumes that the general public come dressed in! Last year there were so many supermen, banana men, batmen, any super heroes really! There are a few costumes that particularly stick in my mind from last year, like the couple who had just got married, the fairy which I have an awesome picture of (see below) and Richard Branson's butterfly costume. 

I found some pictures of them: 

Just married

Awesome fairy - my favourite

Richard Branson Butterfly

There aren't many costumes that I particularly remember from this year, as the coverage on TV didn't really show that many of them really. so nothing particularly stands out other than a man with a washing machine on his back (ouch), a group that had a tea party, a man dressed as a woman and a man carrying a tiger. 

We didn't see many celebrities because we only waiting until we saw my mum's boss' son, Simon (the one in blue), who was running in memory of his mum and then we left after that as we had been there a good 3 or 4 hours I think!

Watching it on TV is so different from actually being there and experiencing the atmosphere of the real thing! It was more of a memorable experience actually watching it and I enjoyed cheering on everyone and giving them a bit of support in there last few hundred yards of the course! It was great to see people helping out each other too. Those who fell down, hit the wall, or just generally struggled were picked up and helped to the end by fellow runners, which was really good to see!

What don't I miss about being there? Well, I DEFINITELY don't miss the irritating man who was behind me for ages, almost leaning on me, pushing me against the barrier! Get there earlier, don't invade my personal space! And various other invasions of my personal space through out the day, but I guess that's always going to happen around crowds! 

I go on about the atmosphere of the experience, but I suppose nothing compares to actually running the marathon, how incredible would that be! My mum wants to do it one year as she is a very keen runner... just not THAT keen yet! I've thought about maybe doing it in the future as I think it would be an amazing thing to do but I just can't imagine myself running for that distance... I might actually die! Maybe in 2 or 3 years I'll enter or something!

The Simple Things

Sometimes the simplest things can be amazing, like a massive cardboard recycling box that turns up at school for old clothes... what could be more fun! 

This morning in my free Rachel and I helped Dan to build a big card board box that he got donated to him so his D of E group could collect people's old clothes so they can get money from them so they can give the money to a school in Africa that they are going to visit. 

Dan told me that the box was big... but I didn't realise HOW big until we went out to get it in flat pack version and the box was more or less the width of my armspan and it was as tall as my chest (ish). We started building it in the commin room and I was immediately dying to get in it! I mean, who wouldn't want to get inside a big box... 

Graeme had the same idea as me and actually did get in it. One we pushed it through the door (with a bit of force) we put it with all their other recycling stuff (minus Graeme) and after being told it was a 'fire hazard' we moved it to the IB centre later during the day! When we walked in Lauren immediately was asking to get in it... so we removed the bottom so she could get in and then put her in it... 

A little while after this we were told that is was still a fire hazard so we started to dimantle it... I of course go inside it at this point... 

But then we were told to leave it there for the time being so we then put it back up again. I thought it might be funny to get inside it one morning and jump out every time someone walked past! Perhaps we should do that!

Red Nose Day

As you know, yesterday was Red Nose Day and there was a non-uniform day at school where everyone had to pay a pound. Even though we are in the sixth form we of course payed a pound too, it's charity after all. We were told that we were allowed to wear hoodies for the day, as we usually aren't allowed. Unfortunatly, I own barely anything that is red so I decided to wear my red Christmas socks (which I wear anyway even though it's not Christmas, but I love them - thanks Santa) and my pink hoodie. I know it is pink but it is the closest thing to red. I still payed my pound so that's all that matters really. I also bought a red nose the day before (the one with the glasses) but my friend, Chloe, ripped it a tiny bit by accident :O I know... rude! But it's okay, I won't hold a grudge because I fixed it with glue :)

One of my best friends, Tim, really got into the spirit of RND and decided that he would wear everything red... so he did. He asked me to take a picture of him and I asked him if I was allowed to feature him on my blog, and of course he said yes!

His outfit consisted of:

Red Santa trousers, a red t-shirt, red jacket, red scarf, red nose and a red cap with a banner. I gave the hat to him as he asked me if I had a red cap and I did happen to have one, and it was just great that it had a banner that could be written on. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any red shoes but still.

This is a close up just to show his head better because my phone didn't show his top half very well because of the lights. We were in French in the afternoon and a Spanish teacher came into the lesson and told Tim that the local paper were in school for RND pictures and our Deputy Head had requested that he would be in the picture because he really did stand out! Nice one Tim :) 

I of course sat down in the evening with my sister, Zoe, to watch Comic Relief on TV as we usually do. I really enjoy watching things like this because they are funny at the same time as being serious. One of the best parts of the show had to be Master Chef with Miranda Hart, Ruby Wax and Claudia Winkleman. I laughed at it so much, especially when Ruby was trying to get the shell of the crabs and some of the shell hit Michel Roux in the face. When David Cameron came to check out the kitchen before the meal I think he feared for his life... but in the end I think he was quite surprised that it wasn't THAT bad. 

Another funny thing has got to be The Inbetweeners Rude Road Trip because they are so funny even though they are being their real selves and also some of the road names were hilarious. I didn't manage to see the end of their road trip because I unfortunately didn't make it to the end of the entire show. As much as I had planned to watch the whole thing, I just couldn't. It got to about 11pm and I was already feeling tired as I had a busy week this week and then by 11.30pm my eyes were just opening then closing, you probably know the feeling so I looked down at my sister, who was doing the exact same thing, and decided that I would turn the TV off because it would be pointless to try and watch the end and then end up leaving my TV on. My mum would say 'save a poor woman's electric' like she ALWAYS does when I fall asleep with my TV on. 

My sister told me this morning that the total amount of money that was raised at the end of the night was £74,360,207, which is the most they have ever raised. Wow. When I turned it off it was on £41 million I think, well that was the last total I remember hearing anyway!!