sport news OLIVER HOLT: So much of life is about division. The London Marathon is a ... trends now
I cannot lay claim to any athletic prowess for my part in running the TCS London Marathon on Sunday.
It took me until Narrow Street, in Limehouse, more than 15 miles into the run, to catch up with a man carrying a fridge on his back and when I got to the finish, I noticed I had been beaten to the line by a couple who had spent the entire race bent double in a camel costume.
I thought about taking some pride in a time that was a couple of minutes quicker than Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new personal best but then I remembered that Sir Jim is 14 years my senior. He also went straight from the finish to Wembley to watch an FA Cup semi-final. I went straight from the finish to my hotel bed and did not move for several hours.
I still felt lucky when I woke up yesterday morning, though. Partly because I felt proud of myself for running 26.2 miles without stopping and, partly because I felt as if I had conquered a small encounter with what laughingly counts as physical adversity in a life where I have not had much of it to endure.
But most of all I felt lucky because running the London Marathon might make old knees creak and legs cramp and the brain protest but it also gives you the equivalent of the best seat in the house for one of the greatest and most life-affirming events you will ever witness.
Our man Ollie Holt beams at the finish line, having completed the gruelling 26.2 mile London Marathon
Miles of road closures were in place across the city with security railings lining the 26.2 mile route, with police along the roads amid the the threat of disruption from protesters
A competitor dressed as a Minion as runners leave the start of the TCS London Marathon
I have run marathons — slowly — in New York, Chicago and Berlin and even though they have all been wonderful in their own way, none of them got close to the atmosphere on the streets of our capital city on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon.
This is a sports fan talking, obviously, but I haven’t experienced an atmosphere in this country as positive and happy and exultant, an atmosphere of such togetherness, since the London Olympics.
So much of modern life is about division and antipathy. The London Marathon is a glorious antidote to all that.
The level of support along the route, from Blackheath, down past the Cutty Sark, through Southwark and the bedlam of the crowds on Tower Bridge and round Canary Wharf and home to the finish along the Embankment and through Parliament Square never seemed to drop.
The support that so many people give to so many strangers, the encouragement they shout, the Jelly Babies they hold out
