Flora London Marathon 2008

We went to Central London quite early today to join thousands of spectators lining along the marathon routes. We chose to wait around Victoria Embankment near Temple Tube Station after getting our sandwich at the Starbucks near the Monument tube station. My other half catched a mild cold since yesterday but he insisted this morning that we should not miss this year marathon. Close to 11am, the first group wheelchair marathoners reached our route. Among them were David Weir - GB (won first place), Kurt Fearnley - AUS (won second place) and Denis Lemeunier (won third place). We also cathed a glimpse of a female wheelchair marathoner who first reached our route.

Then half way through the midst of excitement, the rains started to pour. We had to change our location because we forgot to bring an umbrella. We moved under the bridge to take shelter from the rain. I was still excited, and shouting and clapping under the bridge to give a moral boost to the runners. We watched a group of female runners passed through. We managed to take a photo of Gete Wami-ETH (won third place) but we missed Irina Mikitenko - GER (won first place) and Svetlana Zakharova - RUS (won second place). Then few well-known male marathoners such as Martin Lei-KEN (won first place), Samuel Wanjiru-KEN (won second place) and Abderrahim Goumri-MAR (won third place) reached the route. We stayed for another 20 minutes before taking a tube back to Ealing Broadway.