Ben with his medal for completing the London Marathon
What a fantastic occasion, and what a fantastic effort by Ben to complete the London Marathon. Yesterday, Nita and I went to London with Ben, to watch him participate in the most famous race in the country. It was uplifting, humbling, and exhilarating to watch this amazing mass of people literally shed blood sweat and tears to get through 26 miles, all to help other people.
We saw people dressed as rhinoceroses, camels, a really tall giraffe, men on skis, a man pulling two tyres, man running in a blindfold, several blind runners, a man in an aeroplane suit, a man with a giant poppy tin on his back, how some of the people managed to even walk in their gear was amazing. And the crowd were unbelievable, everywhere we went people were whooping and hollering, shouting and encouraging all the runners to keep going.
Ben’s race was going really well, we saw him first at 7 miles when he said he’d started to feel an old knee injury. We saw him again at 15 miles, and he was in agony, almost in tears and on the verge of packing it in, here he is at that point…
Ben, in pain, at 15 miles.
Nita and I nipped into boots at Canary Wharf and met him again at 18 miles with 3 extra strength Ibuprofen, a knee support, plus water and a banana. Although the rest of him was fine he was struggling badly with his knee. Having dosed him up, we saw him again at 21 miles and thankfully the painkillers had kicked in and he was feeling better. In the last 5 miles the crowd really egged all the runners on and 5 hours after he started the race, Ben collected his runners medal. Needless to say we were very proud of him, especially having done it in so much pain. With the generosity of friends and family, and all those who supported him at work, he has raised over £2,200 for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. A brilliant day left us feeling proud of our son and humbled by the amazing generosity of spirit of the British people. A million thanks to everybody who supported him, you are all amazing too!
Ben’s donations page is on http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BenJones
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