By Sir Steve Redgrave Five-time Olympic rowing gold medallist

Am I glad the London Marathon is over? Yes and no.

On the morning of the race itself, I was looking forward to it and, in theory, was fighting fit and raring to go.

Steve is handed a well-deserved drink after finishing the marathon

All the family had to be on a bus by 0645am to get ready for the Flora Family Marathon, which Ann and the three children all ran in.

I kept busy starting that race and the wheelchair marathon before James Cracknell and I pushed the plunger on the elite men's race.

It was a quick dash down the podium to strip off and join the race in the middle of the masses charging across the line.

The first mile is always very slow as you are in a whole hub of bodies scrambling for space. But it was good fun, everyone was running along and live music was playing. It was a really good atmosphere, packed with spectators as well as runners.

I started running mile splits of eight minutes, 45 seconds and I knew I had a good 17 miles in me before I started to struggle.

My legs had different ideas. Coming up to the eight-mile mark, I started getting a pain in my left quad. It was a cramping feeling more than anything else but I was trying not to get tense about it.

But it didn't really go away and gradually it started to feel worse.

By the time I got to Tower Bridge after 12 miles, I was getting quite a lot of pain in my right leg as well.

The spectators kept shouting 'come on Steve' but I could not give them any response

I kept thinking back to my first London marathon four years ago and how comfortable I had felt at that stage. The anxiety started to build and I was thinking: "What's going to happen?"

I reached the halfway marker in two hours but I was very uncomfortable. I already had a plan in mind to do some brisk walking rather than keep fighting the fatigue.

I had to start that after 14 miles, which was a bit disappointing. I started walking for a minute and then running again to the end of the mile.

The change of pace broke up the feeling of pain in my legs and I was able to keep up reasonable time splits.

I did four miles like that and then at 18m I walked for a minute and then ran for six. Even by the end of the six-mile run, it felt more like I was shuffling.

Steve celebrates finishing with Greg, who ran the full 26.2 miles with him

The spectators kept shouting "Come on, Steve" and they were getting no response from me. But their support helped a great deal because I was finding the running extremely tough.

As the miles wore on I cut down the running to five minutes, four minutes, three minutes.

But once I passed the 20-mile marker I could feel the finish coming on even though the soles of my feet felt like they were burning.

In the last mile I was running for a minute and then walking for a minute. But when I came down The Mall I pegged it round the corner and charged down to the finishing line.

Once you see the big clock on the finishing tower it spurs you on and I clocked four hours and 21 minutes.

All I was thinking through the race was: "As long as I can break my personal best of 4:52 then I'll be happy just to shuffle along."

So I was delighted to to break the 4:30 barrier. Someone said to me after the race, if I keep knocking that much off my pb then I'll break the world record in 2012!

After the race I met up with my family, did some media interviews, had a massage and then sat in a traffic jam as I drove home.

I was out on the water by 10am the next day rowing in a charity event with Matthew Pinsent

I was scared to take my shoes off for ages after the race because I didn't know what state my feet would be in. So, it was a relief to find all my toenails were intact and I only had small blisters on the side of my feet.

I owed a lot on race day to Greg, who the organisers had assigned to run alongside me.

He was there in case I ran into problems and he also carried a mobile phone tracker, which I had refused to carry at first, so the BBC could follow my progress with their cameras.

He worked out all the timings and motivated me to get the best out of myself, so he was a real help.

The next day, I was out on the water by 10am rowing in a charity event with Matthew Pinsent. He had rung me after the race to find out how I'd gone on and was quite encouraging.

The Redgraves will all be back in training ready for next year

Getting into the boat was difficult, the rowing was fine but then getting out again was quite awkward and I had started to feel quite tired by the afternoon.

But I was up and back on the golf course the next day - although playing on an uneven ground really was quite painful on the soles of my feet.

Now, it is down to the business of collecting all the donations for the tsunami fund although I know we have raised in excess of �80,000.

Thoughts have already turned to next year's London Marathon when the plan is to try and smash the record for the most money raised by an individual. The target to beat is �1.13m.

I'm surprised at how confident I'm feeling about competing in 2006 so soon after finishing this one.

But for now, I plan to have a few days off running and get back on the treadmill next week.

There is no point taking a full break from training - after all Ann, the children and I have got another London Marathon to aim for.