At 1:49pm on Sunday 18th April I crossed the finish line of the London Marathon to realise a 15 year dream. Four years ago when I had to stop running due to problems I never imagined at the age of 41 my big ambition as an amputee would come true. My official time was 4:19 but actual running time 4:06 just outside my personal target of breaking 4 hours. My position was 15719 out of 31500 starters.

I started with the Sub 4 pacing group from Runners World as planned and the target was to finish in under 4 hours on the official clock, however the start I was on was a lot slower than usual and took 13 mins before we went across the start line. Because of this the pacer had to up the pace and we were running faster than planned. I decided to go with them but it meant that we had to work our way through all the slower runners and were constantly dodging left and right and up and down the kerbs which at the time I thought nothing of, it was like running down a crowded shopping mail. At 3 miles we merged with the other start and because they got away faster we merged with slower runners and hence continued to dodge left and right. It wasn't until beyond 7 miles that the runners started to spread out but we were still constantly overtaking. The whole course was brilliant and so were the crowds but the sight of Tower Bridge (12.5 miles) as we turned the corner was very special and so were the crowds. We went through the halfway in 1:52 (actual running time). I stayed with the pacing group until 15 miles when I decided I was not going to be able to maintain that pace and backed off to 9:15 a mile.

At 18 mile disaster struck and the muscles at the top of my legs in the groin gave out and started to hurt badly, this was the low point and I found myself questioning what I had done as I still had 8 miles to go. It wasn't until later that I worked out it had been caused by all the dodging left and right which under normal circumstance you never do when running. I pushed on and slowed a bit more, from 20 miles I walked through each water station (every mile) drinking half a pint each time. At 22 miles, mentally I felt better with only 4 to go and became very confident of finishing. By now I was averaging 11 min mile. As you near the finish there is a sign at 800m and I can tell you that's a long 800 but when you turn the corner, see Buckingham Palace and then the finish its all worth it. I was absolutely shattered when I crossed the line and never want to forget just how I felt.

My artificial leg stood the test very well and although everyone else viewed me different to the rest of the runners I felt equal. My stump was comfortable all the way and I only have one blister on it which is not bad considering I have 9 blisters on my foot. To my surprise I have had no real after effects and after a few days my legs were back to normal. Having done it once anything else I achieve is a bonus, however I personally still want to officially break the four hour barrier. I will ease myself back into training and if possible will be back next year when I shall use the experience gained this year and be even more determined to finish inside 4 hours.

On behalf of Whizz-Kidz and myself thankyou very much to everyone who sponsored me. I would like to say a special thankyou to Keith Osborne who e-mailed everyone in his office asking them to sponsor me and has raised over £500. When all the money is in it should well exceed £4500. This year Whizz-Kidz had the biggest ever team in the London Marathon with 782 runners and hope to have raised a total of £1,000,000.