Sunday, April 18, 2004

London Marathon

Hey up

Just been watching the London Marathon. Over the last few years I've been down quite a few times to watch in person (I've seen my mum, stepdad and two brothers run it on separate occasions). It's a cracking day out, with one of the best, most friendly atmospheres you ever get in London, but I think I picked a good year to stay in bed and watch it on TV - as it's been chucking it down with rain all morning.

The best story so far is of a 36-year-old optician from Leeds called Tracey Morris. She first ran the marathon a couple of years ago as a charity fun runner - but after finishing in well under four hours, decided to take her running a bit more seriously. It was obviously a good decision - today she knocked over an hour off her previous best (this was only her second marathon) being the first British woman home, in 2hrs 35mins. The really great thing is that that's inside the Olympic qualifying time, and it looks like she'll be picked by the British selectors for Athens. They interviewed her on the telly afterwards and she was, not surprisingly, absolutely over the moon. Seemed like a really nice woman too.

Just shows, you can be 34 years old and still completely change your life in just a couple of years to become a top international sportsperson. How amazing is that? I'm only 28. Maybe if I start now I can make it to the 2008 Olympics. All I need to do now is to pick my sport...

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