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[EN] London Marathon – before the race

I do no think I need to write about how nervous I have been since the beginning of April. The closer the race date was, the worse it was. On Wednesday, April 24, in London, I was going to collect my race number. The moment I held the printed racing number in my hand, I finally felt that it was happening, and for the first time in my nervousness, I was ultimately thrilled.

Maranoia

My friend made fun of my freaking out. She laughed that I have typical ‘maranoia’ and she was right. Maranoia shows that you are very nervous, anxious about yourself and also afraid that something terrible will happen to you before the race. I kept all possible threats to a minimum, especially the last week. If you ask how to limit such risks, for example:

  1. You do not go to eat anywhere out, or you do not have any takeaway, as you do not want to suffer from food poisoning just a week before the race.
  2. You reduce physical contact with people around. For example, I have restricted or cancelled lessons with children because they are successful carriers of all possible viruses.
  3. You don’t do any sports because you don’t want any injury.

Maybe you think it’s a little too much. Not really, because the chance was the only one and I put a lot of effort into it. Running the London Marathon was my life dream, and I did not want to lose it within a second just because of the above risks. I have done everything to be on the starting line in the best possible form and enjoy it. That was my only ambition, and I have subordinated everything to it.  

London ExCel show

I struggled with the pre-race stress, and thanks to the London ExCel show where I got my race number, the stress was all gone. If you’ve ever run a marathon in Prague, you probably know the process is similar – you go to a show, collect your race number, enjoy a big exhibition where different companies promote their products and organise various events or competitions. It was very similar in London, just much larger. There were also many various photo booths:

In one of many photo booths :)

If my wallet could make any sound, it would cry very loud that day, but it was definitely worth the joy. For example, I bought a beautiful original Marathon Queen T-shirt with the official logo from the exhibition centre. Limited edition not available elsewhere. The colours of the crown are much more vibrant:

Marathon Queen T-shirt from New Balance

Besides the T-shirt, we also purchased some nutritional supplements. They were selling many of these here, and everything tasted great. My Maranoia from unknown and untested food was suddenly gone, and I was enjoying a tasting of various goodies. With a full belly, Ondra and I done body measurements (muscle, fat, water, etc.). These measurements were done on huge futuristic machines, and surprisingly we made quite well.

There was also a booth with the Kenyans who were promoting their country. They wore colourful traditional clothes and were very friendly. When I was doing some simple competition quiz on their tablet, there was a question of from where Kipchoge is. Of course, I ticked Kenya from the list and they were genuinely happy about it; it seems people usually don’t know it. As a reward, Ondra and I got lovely handmade bracelets and a kind goodbye hug. Their marketing worked very well because I immediately added Kenya to the list of places I would like to see.

As we walked through almost all the stalls and corners, we came across a place that looked like belonging to a Hollywood makeup artist. The beautiful girl with short hair smiled at me and offered free make-up with cosmetics which is also suitable for sports. Ondra encouraged me to try it. I could not resist that sexy girl anyway, and she was pretty good with all the brushes:

SPORT FX booth, great vegan cosmetics that withstands everything

Last ten years, I have been applying make-up when going to a Christmas party once a year only, so this was a new experience for me. The make-up was so lovely and subtle that I was excited and I bought a set. Why not make myself beautiful for the marathon, right? After all, judge for yourself:

Fine make-up by Sport FX

Because of the excellent show atmosphere, all the nervousness and stress of the previous days had vanished. Ondra and I enjoyed it as much as possible, and I was riding on waves of positivity until Sunday morning so thumbs up for this great event :).

This article was translated from Czech.

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