Running in the sun

Today was the London Marathon. We watched from Waterloo Bridge, a couple of miles from the finish. It was the hottest on record - and apparently water ran out at several points.

The view towards our view, at the other end of the bridge in front of Somerset House -

The crowd - and runners - stretched all along the riverside
(click photo to enlarge)

We got there just as "the fast guys" were passing -

The first of the elite men goes by, with cameras
on motorbikes and the roar of the crowd

A louder roar for Mo Farah, third in the race but breaking
the British record with a time of 2:06:22

With a background of cheering and clapping, thousands of runners passed through the dappled shade of the new-leaved trees and threw their shadows onto the hot, glaring pavement. There were bright colours, and there were costumes - including lots of tutus, some vegetables, a caveman, and Big Ben; sorry no photo of that one, but it must have been hell to run in ...

 and an endless stream of runners, some of them walking for a while -

We walked along the South Bank and over Tower Bridge to find that the barriers were being packed up -

But "runners" - now walking - were still en route - the people with less training, perhaps, but lots of determination -

Quite a few costumes...

... including these guys from Gotham City

 There comes a time when the route has to be closed and the signage taken down -

 Time for all the rhinos to head home ...

There's a lot of cleaning up to be getting on with ...

Of the 40,000 runners, more than 38,000 finished, 386,050 had applied for the race, a third up on last year.