Womens Olympic Marathon: the Gamesmaker’s view

I have up till now, arrived at the tube station before the driver and before the newspaper, but today, my shift started so early that I was there before the station was even open! Yep, the glorious night busses. Again.

What seemed like quite a helpful lady driver chatted to me about how odd the folk are that she sometimes sees on her bus, before we were off like a shot. This woman was not hanging around. We SPED down the roads, round the roundabouts, frequently arriving at key stops before the scheduled time, causing a delay while she waited for time to catch up with her! Unfortunately, due to it being a Sunday, it was nowhere near as easy getting from A to B, and I needed to change busses at Hounslow. I had no idea what Hounslow was like, but now I do! It is not a place you want to be hanging around!

She told me to get off at a stop on the high street, because the N9 came past here. I felt a little uneasy, as my app said the ‘bus station’. I was stood at this stop on the high street for a good 30 minutes. Within one minute, I had already noticed a disturbance. A flock of birds all scattered, and from just around the corner a man appeared flailing his arms and screaming loudly. A little alarming at 5am! I turned the other way in case he made eye contact and came to talk to me! Another man came and joined me at the bus stop, which was mildly reassuring, but it was a further 25 minutes after I expected it that the bus finally arrived. This driver was considerably more sedate than the last, and it seemed to take quite some time to complete the second half of the journey.

Total, 2 bus rides of 45 minutes each and a 30 minute wait in Hounslow: it took me 2hours 15 minutes to make the journey that the tube usually takes me 50 minutes to make. I was extremely unimpressed. There is no way I intended to do this next week, I will simply wait for the tube to start. I might be a little late but tough, I am not sitting through that again! I didn’t need to be there at that time anyway, I sat for 40 minutes waiting for my team to arrive!!

The start finish ticked area on the Mall.

It was pretty cool to walk down the empty Mall, and through Admiralty Arch to an already building crowd. Our crossing was directly after Admiralty Arch, so the public crowded here as it was as close as they could get to the start / finish without a ticket. We had a team of security people, the police, and a roll of yellow tape to create a pedestrian version of the road painted yellow box junction. All this in mind, the crowd were still quite a challenge, and at one point I got flattened against the barriers as we were unable to prevent the inevitable crowd surge as the runners came past for the first time.

our crossing point: PERFECT!

Mel and fellow gamesmaker Holly

We learned though, and with each passing we got better at managing the very busy and demanding crowd. We also ended up managing the police, event staff and security staff too, so that when the runners came past the last time, we were turning into a dream team. We heard every ‘I need to get through’ accreditation excuse under the sun, I think, which is always amusing!

Good old British weather!

Its hard work though, when it rains so hard that the plastic poncho lets in water, and you are soaked right through every layer of clothing. We didn’t move from our marshalling positions for 8 hours: no comfort break, no coffee, nothing. I didn’t think a crossing could be busy enough to warrant TEN staff; now I know different! The weather didn’t deter the crowd, which were 30-40 deep, from the barriers right to the monument in the centre of Trafalgar square. As for the runners: the women got the same weather as the women cyclists: torrential rain. Can’t have been much fun at all, and some of the athletes, despite arm warmers, looked freezing. The Africans ran away with it at the front of the field, after two laps as quite a big bunch. A Russian athlete began to lose the lead group going into the last lap, but she must have run for her life, because after she passed us, (8 miles to go) looking out of contention, she ran them down to gain bronze! The most magical moment of the day though, is reserved for British runner Murray, who was way down the field, mid pack in around 54^th position and looking like she was struggling. As she ran through Admiralty Arch, the crowd ROARED into life cheering her on with the usual British gusto, and her pain face turned into a smile. Beautiful.

AMAZING crowds!!

I was totally blown away with the size of the crowds, and am expecting even more for the men’s Olympic marathon next Sunday!

If you are coming down to watch, I will be at Admiralty Arch, come say hi, and I will give you money to buy is both a coffee!

When I got back to where I was staying, I was just in time to put my feet up,  (energy drink to keep me awake) and turned the telly on to see Andy Murray win Gold!