Inspired by the London Marathon

I love watching live sporting events.  As they say, "it's only live once" and who knew a marathon could be as exciting as this years London Marathon.  49,673 had entered and very few dropped out before the race with 49,272 starting and 43,965 finishing - congratulations to you all.  What an achievement.
3 out of the 4 races were nail biting finishes.  The men's wheelchair event was easily won but it raises some questions re the equipment - not taking anything away from the winner. Kelvin Kiptum, the mens winner, put in an amazing display leaving the field behind with 5 miles to go and finishing in 2hrs and 1 minute - what an unbelievable time and about 15 minutes faster than my half marathon time!
The woman's wheel chair race had four athletes come round the last corner together for a sprint finish but the best race was the woman's.  In the very early stages the "rooky" marathon runner Sifan Hassan was in trouble.  She stopped to stretch out her thigh on a number of occasions as the leading pack extended their lead.  The commentators were saying her race was over and if she was sensible she'd pull out to avoid further injury.  But she kept going and made her way back to the leaders.  She patiently waited until the finishing straight and left them for dead - incredible race and such an inspiration.
It brought back memories of the Manchester Marathon a couple of weeks ago.  I had pushed myself and it took me at least four days to walk without pain afterwards, but my time had given me a "good for age" entry for the Boston Marathon - still not guaranteed a place.  But inspired by Sifan Hassan I checked out the London good for age qualifying time - 3 hours 45 mins.   I wasn't that far away so both Beth & I decided to enter the Edinburgh marathon on 28 May.  This has given us both a focus for our training this month and we'll give it our best shot to get under 3 hrs 45 mins which would get me in to London.
I learned a lot in the Manchester Marathon and hope I can use that experience and get sub 3hrs 45 mins but you never know what can happen on the day.  We've also entered the Amsterdam Marathon in October for fun.
But I am still under the guidance of my Cardiologist and as if I needed a reminder, sadly an experienced 45 year old runner died after completing the London Marathon in under 3 hours and was on his way home.  My thoughts are with his family and it's a reminder that you may have an underlying condition and not know about it.  I'm lucky that mine was discovered, although shouldn't be life threatening, and the medication will help.  However I have been advised not to take any unnecessary  risks by putting excessive strain on my heart, but at the moment he was relaxed about marathons.  Thank you London Marathon for inspiring me and giving me a short term focus to my training.