Just a final post to say “thank you” to everyone who has donated.

The race was okay although very hot. I must confess to having walked a fair amount of the last few miles: bad runner! Back on the treadmill again… joy unimagined!

If you are on a diet and want to be put off your food, you can look at pictures taken on the route, here: http://marathonfoto.com/ . Just select Flora London Marathon 2009, my surname (bergin) and the running number (12809) and, lo: instantly feel nauseous. Fantastic!

On a final note, I occasionally bleat online, or ‘blog’ as it is more commonly known, here: http://vegetar-ian.blogspot.com/ . It’s not Dickens, although you might wonder what the dickens I am gibbering about.

Thanks again.

Ian

This is terrible: I turn up in good faith and expect to win the race and 5912 people have the bloody cheek to finish in front of me. Seriously, though, I got round the course in just over 3 hours 40 minutes. Which isn’t bad, largely because I succeeded in my primary aim of not dying.

I will update this at some point soon but I can confirm that my eye-wateringly expensive anti-blister socks do appear to have worked. I had one and usually my feet are riddled with them.

I’ll bid you farewell with that delightful image.

Ian

I know not what is going to happen tomorrow, but let’s not forget what this is all about. I don’t know what the weather will decide to do, how the legs will hold up or anything.

All I do know is that the people who have donated and promised donations are stars. Thank you so much (and there’s still time <cheeky grin>). It just remains for me to plod through the 26 miles to collect your donations; no pressure, then…?

The people who protect these gorillas are fabulous and deserve our support. My feet have asked for an honourable mention at this point (there’s a major disconnection between the old noggin and my feet and they keep whinging).

Wish me luck and ask your god or Dawkins of choice to get me round. The tracking thing ( www.adidas.com/running on the bottom right hand side) is now working - I think: go to the webpage and give it a bash.

I’ll get back to you when I can - assuming… you know what.

Ian

 I picked up my number and associated paraphernalia yesterday. As you can tell from the above picture, I think I need to get a smaller version.

 A couple of points: firstly, I am informed that you can follow my progress using an online gizmo. Of course, it would be stupid if this was easy. This should be the web address (according to Adidas): http://www.adidas.com/running . It isn’t there at the moment and I have wasted much of the last couple of days trying to find it. Apparently, it’s so sophicated that it can track my progress every 5km on the race and will give regular reports from Intensive Care. Next year’s upgrade will mean that you can follow the runner to the funeral directors. It’s amazing what they can do these days. You should be given the option of entering my surname or my number: 12809. Let’s see if it works…

Not feeling great today. I guess it’s pre-match nerves, or I’m a bleating milksop (soya milk, of course). Weather is looking promising for Sunday: cooler than I’d feared. I’m in the process of putting together my mp3 playlist for Sunday. To any sober, balanced person, my musical taste can inspire horror; I will hazard a guess that there won’t be too many people doing the course spurred on by bubble gum pop, folk music and a host of other genres picked up along the way. I suspect I’ll do more damage to my ear drums than my feet.

I’ll leave it there, I think. I might update this on Saturday night, but don’t expect any coherence.

Cheerie bye, Ian.

Greetings,

It’s a week until I will be reviewing the blisters and attempting (and failing) to keep the bad language to a minimum.

I believe that there will be a way to keep track of my progress, but attempts to find the online tracker thingy have thus far failed. Stay tuned…

My number is 12809, should this thing exist and actually work. The one previous successful online tracking thing was in Boston 2004 and it showed me making a reasonable stab at the first part of the race and a pathetic surrender in the latter stages. In my defence, I should state that the race was run in temperatures that would usually not make me leave the house (it was 85 degrees at the end) and I was hideously ill-prepared for it.

Still, a week to go (with 3 treadmill sessions in the offing) and then putting my feet up for the final preparation. And crisps. And, let’s face it, a few beers.

I will leave you with the news that Virunga has lost Ranger Kambale Katambiriki in the last few weeks. He was killed looking after these majestic individuals who have the misfortune of living in an area of human conflict. I hope that whatever I can raise will make some small difference to the lives of these gorillas and those who have made the incredibly brave decision to help them.

RIP Ranger Kambale Katambiriki and all who have gone before him.

Ian.

Tuesday update: the official time was 1.56.34. And my feet still hurt…

Greetings.

Just got back from a race: 16 miles, mostly along the River Thames going past Hampton Court. The view was, I’m sure, delightful but I can’t run in my glasses so I’ll have to take that on faith. (I’m one of those fortunate people who only need their glasses for seeing).

Time wasn’t great: just under 2 hours but I had to sprint to the start and I had to walk to the town in which it began due to the iffy bus service. I’m getting my excuses in early…

Cheers, Ian.

Did I mention that my feet hurt..?

Hi

It appears that either donors are extremely modest or there is no way of indicating who has been generous enough to donate. If it’s modesty: thank you very much; if it a design issue, please leave a comment so I can thank you personally. I assume that making a comment is easy enough (hopefully).

Either way, please feel free to contact me at ianbergin@hotmail.com

Nothing else to report.

Take care, Ian.

London Marathon 2009, 26th April

This is the place where I am supposed to ‘blog’. Supposed to tell you about the training regime and everything I have had to forego in order to concentrate on my training. Anyone who knows me, will appreciate that this is not the case. My career as an Olympian was never going to happen, partly due to the amount of time I spend in the ‘crisps’ aisle in the supermarket and also in the pub.

This will be my 7th marathon. Yes, I should have learned by now. I have a modest aim for this race: getting round the course without dying. I hope that doesn’t sound too cocky… If there’s anyone reading this who has some sway over the weather on 26th April in London, may I request cool and cloudy? Ta.

I could write about my training, but I suspect that a daily update of my 10km run on the treadmill will be as boring to read as it is to do.  I do occasionally do some road running: I keep that to a minimum as it hurts! I have a 16 mile race coming up so make sure you come back for pictures of blisters.

I have set a taxing fundraising target. The gorilla people kindly sent me a T-shirt to run in, so my target is to cover the cost of the shirt and postage: 10 of your British pounds should cover it. Anything beyond that is pure primate profit. (I’ll try to keep the alliteration to a minimum).

I will try to keep this updated and you can bet your bottom that I will be on here if I get injured.

I genuinely appreciate your visit here and anything you can spare for this worthy cause would be brilliant. Equally, any comments you would like to share would be gratefully received. Please keep the motivational speeches to a minimum, but abuse is always warmly welcomed.

Cheers, Ian.