On the 14/04/12 my cousin Jillian ran the Brighton marathon in 4 hours and 36 minuets. This is my side of the story. Her side involves a lot of what I did but at no point do I run a marathon. A while a go I had decided that I would accompany my cousin as she ran the Brighton marathon, honestly I wasn't to sure about going but at the time her flat mate was meant to still be in the country and I thought hell at least I will have someone to talk to, sadly things change and Cara (pronounced CareA) had gone back to Canada. This meant that I really couldn't back out now as she was going to need someone there for moral support and to carry the bags. The race started at 09.30 on the 14th so this meant we would have to stay at a hostel the night before as neither of us could really afford to stay in a hotel despite how much i really wanted to.
Due to the awkwardness of where I live arranging the right time to meet Jillian in London was the first issue we had, we eventually settled on 2 O'clock at Charring Cross as I had done some bad research and believed the train left there and went straight to Brighton, this was bad research and upon learning my error changed are meeting place to London bridge. This should have been better as it was closer to where Jillian lived, even thought this was the case Jill being Jill was still late. There are many levels of being late for something and Jill's level is a long way after normal girl and fast approaching the level of I'm fucking going home. Sadly she is family so I waited and brought some eclairs ( not the cakes but those little toffee things with the chocolate inside). Jillian arrived a train was just about to leave so we hugged and jumped on. This was when I learnt this might not go well for her, she had been struggling with a cold all week and was suffering with lady issues I wont go in to. The journey lasted about 45 minuets and had no problems except I kept getting angry that there seemed to be no easy way to get to Brighton from Tonbridge I mean it is just down the freaking road.
I have been to Brighton before but not for years and I have next to no memory of the place, Jillian had been there more recently and had a slightly better understanding of the land. Our first port of call was the Marathon Expo at Brighton centre, we walked out of the train station and straight down the road passing a few places that we might go back to for some food later. We also started playing a great game called look at her/his bum where you get to perv at a lady or gentleman's bottom. I played this game a little more then Jillian did but in fairness its a great game for 1 to 100 people to play, also its very easy as a lot of the people who are going to run the Marathon are fit and wear those skin tight running shorts, anyway. It wasn't to hard to find the Expo and after we got Jillian signed we looked around, there was plenty to see and do and lots of charities set up trying to get runners to sign to them next year. Of all the worthy causes there only one really spoke to me and that was the charity raising money for abandoned cats, I didn't sign up as I'm not that stupid although I did donate some cash and take a bizarre fluffy thing with www.cats.org.uk written on it. The irony not lost on me that if this fluffy thing was real my cats and probably all cats would happily rip it to pieces to see how its works. Jillian brought a cap for her dad then we found a place offer massages, Jill happily signed up for one as she thought they where free but in the end had to pay about £10 as they where only free the day before, doh! This was an awkward time as a single guy can't hang around a massage pit as that would just be odd so I walked around the expo feeling very out of place, until I remembered it was 2012 and I owned a mobile phone, so I called my friend Tom and told him about the situation and he kept me busy until Jillian finished. It was then time for the final lecture from three professional runners, who where just there to give advice about the run and eating and resting plans for before the event. Sadly the eating part was mostly ignored by Jill as she had long before decided that she really wanted a burger after we had finished there and they had said that we should get carbs as anything else was wasted. They also accidental spoke of a shuttle service that went from Train station to the start of the race and Jill had her heart set on getting that shuttle I new we where about 20 minuets walk away from the starting point at are Hostel so we should walk but Jill disagreed but more on that later.
We left the The expo in search of food and despite being in a pretty nice town with a large selection of restaurants and unique eating establishments we ended up going to a Weather spoons and getting burgers, don't get me wrong they where good burgers but it was a shame being that close to the sea and not getting fish. We ate are food discussed are plans for the evening. She had been told to relax and chill the night before so we decided on the cinema, then to the train station to find out more about the shuttle then to the hostel to get some sleep. We back down the road to the cinema and disaster struck, there was nothing but shit films playing or films that wouldn't finish till well gone 11 and the idea was to get rest that night. We had both wanted to watch pirates but sadly it wasn't playing, what was playing was Battleships but I hadn't heard a single good word about that film and couldn't justify spending money on it. Luckily there was a showing at 8.30 for a film called 21 Jump street, I heard it was funny and had this confirmed by one of the girls selling tickets. We had to kill some time before it started but hey I thought it would be worth the wait. We walked down to the coats and along the beach stopping to get some ice cream and chill out for a bit, Jill had mint choc chip and I had a plain Mr Whippy with a flake, good times. We headed back to the cinema and went to watch out films. Cinema is made for Jillian, she gets deeply in to most films and I even witnessed her cry when James Bond killed a bad guy once. This is not a negative thing and I genuinely wish I could be that invested in anything as she had a blast. Again don't get me wrong as 21 jump street is a blast and I will happily compare it my other favourite comedy this year (so far) The Muppet Movie. We both enjoyed the movie and loved the surprise cameo.
The film finished and we headed back to the station the walk up hill seemed to take a while and we passed lots of woman who Jill happily described as skanks I described them as girls out for a good time and if they wanted to wear skirts no bigger then belts who am I to argue. I had always been unsure of the necessity to head back to the station as I was sure it would be easier to walk to the even then get the shuttle but I decided to bite my tongue as it was her race and I was there as support. At the station the only person we could find to help was a bitter old man working the night shift at the ticket sales part, he had no idea about the marathon or the shuttle but Jillian still grilled him until i dragged her away. Time to find the Hostel, Jillian found the road to the hostel easily enough but it seemed to go on for ever, as I was about to give up and use the map on my phone Jill asked a lady walking past who was going that way anyway and that way anyway was just over the road. The hostel wasn't to bad everyone there seemed in high spirits and most of the people where there for the race, it bugged me we couldn't pay by card but we had cash and £20 each for a reasonably safe place to spend the night seemed like a deal. A couple of issues like given that our room was nearly empty why did one of us have to sleep on the top bunk? We had to make our own beds which isn't to bad but the pillow wasn't noticeable, we showered (separately) and settled in for what for me would be a piss poor nights sleep, luckily the running girl slept fine.
Part two coming soon.
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