The Marathon In Pictures.

(click any photo to make bigger)

THE DAY BEFORE
The Wall (not the one they hit at 20 miles... the message wall). We found you Phil/Leigh!



AND THEY ARE OFF!
Waiting expectantly at cheering point 1.....



wait for it.... wait for it.... he's gone.....


(if you are this annoying woman in the way - I am cursing you, I am cursing you!), unless you are also a bcc supporter in which case... GO BREAST CANCER CARE!

and here is the support team in full-on cheering mode for another Breast Cancer Care runner....



CHEERING POINT 2
Hopefully, the BCC team has snatched a photo of James at cheering point 2 - I was too busy stealing that "Keep going kiss" and all I managed on the photo front was this....


A leprechaun and a nun and James's trainers sporting his champion chip!

Never mind, onto point 3.

EMBANKMENT
Breast Cancer Care did a good job of spotting him and taking a great thumbs up photo



again, all I stole was a kiss.... but as I was there as a supporter that was my job.
Then onto the finish line and meeting him at the Post race reception.

IT'S OVER - YOU MADE IT!

Excitement (me) and relief (James)....... and again another kiss... all these public displays of affection, shocking!



Then there are the support teams (I am not sure why I am so proudly holding a bit of cake!!!!!!!)




And finally My Hero!!!!



I was just so proud as punch, and still am buzzing 3 days on.

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To read how the day went for James, go to James's Marathon Blog
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HE DID IT!

My brilliant brilliant husband ran the 2009 london marathon yesterday. SO SO PROUD. will be back to update with all the exciting photos (I managed to just catch the back of James's neck in one photo and you can just about make him out if you really really zoom in!!). I generally failed to get any good "running shots" of him, mainly because once i spotted him it was all to quick and I was all too excited to have seen him and intent on giving him a quick "keep going" kiss. That photo's went right out the window.

He pushed on through hot hot weather to make it in 4hr 24 minutes. Amazing.

As for me I had just the best day cheering him on. I had a packed schedule to get round to 3 different cheering points with my friend Cassie and we had a 100% hit rate with spotting him at each spot, and it's thanks to cassie that I spotted him at all at point 2. Oooh it happens so quickly.

He did so well, I am bursting with pride today.

The time has come!

IT IS THE MARATHON ON SUNDAY!!!!!

woo hoo. I am really excited (I think James is starting to get more nervous than excited now!).

I think I might be quite emotional on the day, I am so proud of him doing this. It meas such a lot. It might also make me quite emotional to think that I had breast cancer and I don't ever want it to come back because then I wouldn't get to see things like James run a marathon (I don't think he should do another one for quite some time though, if ever - it's real hard work!).

Anyway, It's just amazing what we have managed to achieve on the fundraising. By my calculations we have a little money to add into the offline total and I think we may have smashed through the £3000 mark. It means so much to give this back to a charity that will be supporting others going through what I went through those 2 years ago.

Thanks so much to everyone who has so generously sponsored or eaten cake to help us get there, and if you haven't sponsored yet - there is still time. Just £5 goes such a long way to helping put people with breast cancer in touch with others going through the same thing.


Biggest Biggest Thanks You's everybody.

Standing out from the crowd.

Now that James's training runs are getting shorter again, I have been out and about with him taking some action shots. His Breast Cancer Care running vest has arrived, hopefully it will make him easy to spot on the day....



Run James, Run! I love you for it.

What to do on a Sunny Easter Sunday?

Sit inside a village hall all day :-(

That's what I did with my lovely sunny Easter Sunday. But each time those pennies fell with a clank into the collection tin I remembered that it was all worth it. I took a flask of coffee and my little pack lunch and did my best to sell my goodies.

And, I think it was a success. Well over £60 for the charity pot from my stall and I still have stock to sell at the coffee morning this Saturday so hopefully that total will keep going up. It's a big THANKS to Hannah and her Mum because without their hand-made efforts I wouldn't have had much of a stall to talk about.

Battenburg Cake.

Today I have spent my time making a Battenburg cake. Just because it's got pink in it! It's such fun (and lots of faff) to make. A valiant first attempt at a not-that-straight-forward cake I thought.

Taking Stock!

Easter Sunday will be my big-stall at the Gargrave Flea Market.

Things for this are progressing really well and I am starting to build up my very exciting stock, thanks to the generosity of some busy little friends.

Hannah has gone all out on knitting and making things to sell... tote bags (which I am secretly hoping the geometric print one doesn't sell so I can have that all for myself - but I doubt it somehow), purses, rabbit teddies, key rings and pins.



Hannah's mum has also got in on the act sending some lovely hand-made bead jewelry.



Then there are the seed cards I have to sell. These cars were donated by a work collegue and they go down a storm (they have little parcels of seeds inside the card and instructions on how to sow etc).



So a pretty full up 6ft table!

Egg-stravaganza!

Someone at work is going off on maternity leave just before Easter. As a leaving treat, she decided to leave some Easter Eggs for our floor. To make it more interesting she is raffling these off, proceeds going to my good cause. How nice is that.

Pound a strip, I've got my ticket.

I will be in charge of pulling the winners out of a hat on Wednesday.

Still baking!

Nigella vs Delia - The scones challenge!
I provided scones with jam and cream at work the other day, but with a twist! I tried out Nigella and delia recipes to see which might be best for the WI cake stall.



Scones A won!
However, as a scientist I am annoyed that I didn't make this a fair test with all the appropriate controls. I now cannot tell whether the Delia (A) won because they were the best recipe - or because they had the addition of dried fruit. I should have made the Nigella with dried fruit for a proper test.

I also made some Burn't buttermilk cupcakes, there were not mistakenly burnt - that was part of the recipe where you heat and "burn" the butter to make it taste all nutty.