Following Me On Race Day

(Apologies for the radio silence - I didn't bring my computer, so it's been hard to update the blog, but here's the e-mail that I've just sent out via e-mail...if you need my phone number, get in touch.)

Dear Friends,

First of all, let me say a huge, huge thank you to so many of you for sponsoring me and donating in support of Cancer Research UK. It means so much to me and I've been completely blown away by your support, both financial and emotional!

All of the times here are UK time, so for the East Coast, subtract 5 hours and, for the West Coast, subtract 8 hours.

I know many of you have been in touch to see how you can follow me on the big day (let me have a brief EEEEEK in realising that at this time tomorrow I should be either walking from the station to the start line or at the starting area already), so that's what this e-mail is about! In terms of being able to predict what I'm doing, the race starts at 9:45, but I don't expect to be across the line much before 10, at least. My goal is to be on pace for a 4:45-4:55 finish, so there's a good chance that I'll finish somewhere between 2:45 and 3:15pm.

For the vast, vast majority of you who will be following me from your beds somewhere in the United States, or anywhere other than the course, you can track me at http://results-2012.virginlondonmarathon.com/2012/. You can log in the site from 7am Sunday and my number is 12851. I'm not sure whether it will update every 5km or every mile, but hopefully it will work! There is also be a good chance of updates on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/teamrunamok from me, before my phone goes into bag check, or from friends stationed along the route (and you're likely to get responses to questions asked via twitter).

For anyone who's going to be on the route, I am SO EXCITED to see you! Please let me know where you're going to be, either by replying to this or by text (number below) either today or early tomorrow - I've taken the decision to put my phone in bag check and not have it on the course, so I'll be incommunicado for the race itself. But, if you're looking for me, photos of my race outfit are here: http://woyce.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/ready-to-go.html. However, I've heard that it's easier for runners to see spectators than the other way around, so it'll be good if you let me know where to look out for you! It'll be so encouraging, too, to know who to look forward to seeing!

Finally, if you do want to get in touch, my UK phone number is still XXX. To text from the States, it's XXX. Sadly, my iPhone is Verizon, so I don't get anything sent to my US phone, except iMessages when I'm on a wifi network. I can read e-mail on my very crappy UK phone, but it doesn't have the memory capacity to let me respond to anything - so if you really, really want to get me, send a text! I have really appreciated all the e-mails and notes on Facebook!

24 hours, 40 minutes to the gun!

Love,
Joyce