Watch the Paralympic Marathon

Sure, our city will be just as good, and the year 2012 actually goes on for a few months yet, but the event which has billed itself for more than seven years as London 2012 basically ends today, with the Paralympic Closing Ceremony. Before then, there's another chance to witness sport on the streets and for free with the Paralympic Marathons.


There are actually four different marathons taking place today, with the men’s T12 and T46 events kicking off at 8am and the men’s and women’s T54 event beginning at 11.30am. It's an eight-mile looped course, starting and finishing on The Mall, and as far as your author can work out it's broadly the same as the Olympic one.

For more, see http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/venue/marathon/visitor-information/

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View the Olympic Park from Westfield's Observation Deck

They don't seem to want us to find it, hidden as it is at one end of the third floor of what is laughably called the "Official Department Store Provider to London 2012" - John Lewis - in the huge Westfield mall in Stratford. However, on a clear day the views over the Olympic Park from the observation deck are absolutely stunning.


It's probably as close as your author will get to the park for some time, having been thwarted in trying to buy tickets for both the Olympic and Paralymic Games, and whilst it is clearly not as finished as Boris makes out, the scale of it all is pretty amazing.

It's a shame you have to walk through acres of tedious shopping space and ask about five members of staff to get here, but that didn't deter a coach party of happy pensioners who had come to see the park, and were pleasingly dismissive of the shops. Just a shame a better camera wasn't to hand.

For more, see http://londonist.com/2011/07/john-lewis-2012-shop-olympic-stadium-view-revealed.php