Hurts so good

Too little too late: Jade Goody sources some
last-minute energy before the marathon.
Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
The look from TV chef Gordon Ramsay said it all. When Jade Goody, interviewed before she started yesterday's London marathon, said she'd done little training and hadn't swapped her curries for carbo-fuelled bowls of pasta, you didn't need to be a genius to know what Ramsay was thinking - it's going to hurt and it's going to hurt bad, writes London marathon veteran Liz Ford.

In the end it did a little more than that. Goody, the Big Brother "star" who has made a subsequent living from appearances in Heat magazine and, ironically, releasing fitness videos, collapsed in exhaustion 18 miles into the course. It was on a stretch along the Isle of Dogs that is notoriously difficult for all runners (even Paula Radcliffe admitting to feeling a little rough at this stage on her world record-breaking win). It's a time when those months of training on cold, wet evenings kick in and you start guzzling Lucozade drinks and sucking on energy sweets like there's going to be a shortage.

It appears that Goody made the rookie mistake of believing the crowds alone are enough to get you around the 26.2-mile course.