Arrival

I arrived at Cologne airport way too early and had a lot of time to kill. So I waited first in a cafe with the Queen (how appropriate)

and then in the proper waiting area with Nick

Airports are actually very interesting and entertaining. There is a lot to be seen and fascinating conversations to be overheard (*cough*). I think, I would actually enjoy air travel it it wasn't for the...

I survived the flight cramped into one tense muscle and as usual vowed to take the Eurostar next time (I won't - next flight to London is already booked; business trip).

I have been to London many times in my life. After school I worked here as an au-pair and a couple of years later I came back to work for an English company. I still regularly come to the UK on holiday or to visit friends. But I have never before arrived at Stanstead airport. And to be frank... I will never do so again, if I can avoid it. It takes ages to get from the arrival terminal to the main building and luggage collection point. You actually have to take a train that stops at least once on the way. And the train into London also takes longer than the Heathrow or Gatwick express.

The schedule for the day said that I was to meet Uli and the rest of the runners in the hotel at 3 o'clock to go to the marathon expo and collect the running number and kit bag. I arrived in the hotel lobby shortly after 3 o'clock, out of breath and slighlty freaked out thinking they might have left without me. But they were still there and Uli kindly agreed to wait until I had checked in. So I went to face the receptionist. She checked her computer, checked some papers, checked the computer again and finally went to get a form for me to fill in (and I am sure she left silver patterns on the floor like a snail when she moved). Then she announced that my room wasn't ready (3 o'clock in the afternoon!) and that I should leave my bags with the receptionist. I put her on the top of my "most annoying people of the day" list, went to get rid of my stuff and off we went.

The London Marathon expo takes place at the ExCel exhibition centre, which is situated in the London docklands. Apart from the stands where runners can collect their running number and kit bag, there is a large number of exhibitors like Adidas, Nike, organisers of other marathons around the world and of course the charities that have runners in the marathon raising money for them.

Next to the pasta party there was a stage and while I was having my pasta and tea, Paul Tergat was interviewed. I have to be politically incorrect now. The picture was the best I could do. The man is just too black to be interviewed in front of a black background. If it wasn't for his white shirt, you wouldn't know he was there.

He is a very likeable man and was surprisingly cheerful given that he had to pull out of the race only a few days before due to an injury. But his accent is very difficult to understand. The audience was invited to ask him questions and most of the time I did not get half his answer. I hope, the people who asked the questions understood more.

It was a good thing we left after little more than an hour. I had already spent a lot more money than I wanted to on a pair of Nike Free, a London marathon t-shirt and a mug (if anyone in the office dares to use it, my wrath will be dreadful!).

Back at the hotel my room was finally ready. This is the view from the 12th floor of the Millenium Hotel Knightsbridge:


I took a Stephen style self-portrait


and one of my kit bag, running number and champion chip (which is black instead of yellow like they normally are). Remember: No chip - no time!

In the evening we went to the another hotel, where a second group of runners from Germany is staying. Uli gave a presentation about the London marathon with lots of tips and useful information (he is running for the seventh time this year, so he knows all there is to know). He also gave us some interesting information about the charity runners. The charities have to pay the organisers of the London marathon 250 GBP for each running number and they have to buy at least three running numbers for five years (or was it five for three years?). So they expect their runners to raise a lot more than that, usually around 1,500 GPB. That's a lot of money! Uli's theory is (and he may be right) that in the UK people are giving more money to charities in general because the social security system and the NHS are not as good as they are elsewhere in Europe. In return for the money raised the charities offer their runners a lot of support before the race and especially during it. Uli told us that most of them stand along the course in larger groups and cheer their runners on. Looking forward to that.