Whoo, you're right Ms Thrifty, the weather was just perfect this morning, not too hot!
It was a fantastic event, I got there quite early...actually very early so I was in the 1st wave of runners. As this is a film forum, I just have to make a reference to a film that sprang to mind as I was making my way to the event this morning. And no, it wasnt chariots of fire or anything cheesy like that...no it was 28 Days Later! Ok, I'll explain, as I said I set out VERY early this morning, by catching a bus to Westminster Bridge. From here on I had to walk the rest of the journey because all roads were closed off to traffic for the running route. That's where 28 Days Later comes in, as I walked down Westminster Bridge, it was eerily quiet! No vehicles! Ok, no zombies either, thankfully, but it felt bloody weird :)
But as for the race event itself, the amount of people taking part was breathtaking, looking behind me, the runners seemed to fuse with the horizon, there didnt seem to be an end to the tailback. 9am they began a procession of Kings guards regiments and various band playing including "God Save our Queen". Then the race began with the firing of one big frigin loud canon that made me jump out of my shorts...But the atmosphere was great, loudspeakers were installed throughout the whole route playing mix of pop and patriotic music, and plenty of spectators cheering the runners on. It was quite difficult finding my rhythm at first because of the density of runners weaving around each other but I got the hang of it!
Thanks for the best wishes, girls, I think it pa*d off as I ran it in just under 56 mins! I dont know my exact time yet though as I have to wait for the results on website (I opted to wear some sort of chip timer, just to feel like a professional runner

Well, next stop, The Great North Run in september...twice the distance., oh boy gotta keep training
Allsinging, thanks for your immense praise (maybe a tad too much, lol) and impressive use of vocabulary! I am now pausing and reflecting from your remarks on how far I've come since last November. I just ran a 10k event, and I ran it, under an hour too, its still sinking in

I'm becoming a proper runner...trust me, 7-8 months ago, none of my friends saw that coming, heck I never saw that bloody coming! But its not just me, have a look at our progress project chart and see how far many of us have come!
But all of you are a big part of my progress, you know how much it helps me to be able to share the knowledge I've gathered with you...? Well, a lot! And not to mention the endless encouragement we give each other here :)
Well its cup final day, will chill for rest of the day and watch some proper "real" athletes show us what fitness and endurance really means at kick off time!
Update Edit: Just got my official time of 55.19 mins. My new PB! And it appears I am in the top 3rd finishers.