Marathon Day 3, Friday 18th March - Hull, East Park

An exciting day for me - back to Hull and home ground AND I will be seeing Ellie & Benji!!

An early wake-up and Skype to home followed by quick breakfast and loading up before departing for East Park.  The other 2 "normal" support vehicles actually left the DST Barracks before me but guess who arrived at the Marathon venue first!  Neither Barry nor Nicky could understand how that was possible!

The chaps from DST Leconfield had done a marvellous job of organising the event, giving expert positioning advice and assisting in any way that they could. Set up was so easy!!

Ellie arrived shortly after 9am and I was chuffed to see that she was able to drive again, despite her shoulder problem.  It was wonderful to see her and catch up on events at home (and Benji) even after such a short time away.

Setting the pace, 2nd lap

Plenty of runners to accompany Andy on this one with the race progressing on schedule and according to plan. (I know that it's not really a race but it's just so easy to refer to it as that.lol) Ellie begged a couple of recumbent trikes for us to use for the day and great fun was had by all - Nicky even wanted to take one of them home!!

Ellie all suited up and ready to go!

Lots of family and friends came to visit and support during the day.  Thank you Sam, Emma, Mel, Jeannie, Val, Jayne, Kathryn, Rory & Elly - it was great to see you all.  Thanks also to Pete (PT Pete) for coming in the morning and returning in the afternoon to run a few laps with Andy. Special thanks to Steve & Tracy for bringing along our little man Benji, all dressed up as a clown for Red Nose Day and an excited Finlay too.

Only negative was Benji falling off the recumbent trike and giving himself one heck of a shiner! Ellie may have already posted pics of him.

I managed to run the last full lap with Andy and he persuaded me to continue with him for the final half lap to the finish.  I must admit to feeling a bit of a fraud as we crossed the finishing line but it was also a good feeling!

Andy's finishing time was 6:47:05 and as I said earlier, on schedule.

Great coverage once again by BBC Look North and local press.

After a swift pack up, onward too our bivouac for the evening, Old Rectory Sproatley, where the challenge of reversing the RV into the drive awaited me.  Thanks to some excellent overseeing by Barry and judicious use of mirrors (and crossed fingers) this was accomplished without incident.

Considering the state the house was in due to the decorating schedule when I left on Tuesday, Ellie had done a fantastic job of knocking things into shape - Well done, sweetheart!

Ellie & I prepared the evening meal, which we always enjoy doing together, and after cleaning all 3 project vehicles, which coincided with the end of Andy's physio, sat down round the kitchen table to eat.

Finally, what a wonderful job Ian and his team from DST Leconfield did for us. The days "on the road" are extremely long and such help makes them so much easier for us.

And so to bed, MY OWN,  for the last time for a few weeks!

Tomorrow's another day and we're in Wakefield.

God Bless Ellie and Benji X

Benji's Blog

Hi there Angel,

It was lovely to see you today and you looked so great in your clown costume.  Hope you liked "Daddy's bus" and were pleased to see that Champ and Shine were looking after me.

I think that you enjoyed the fitness play area as well and I just know that the best bit for you was the swings and slides and all of the other good things that you went on.

I hope your poorly eye and cheek soon get better - what a Shiner you will have!

I love you very, very much and will be talking to you on the computer very, very soon.

With lots of love from your Daddy

XXXXXXX .

XXXXX