On Sunday, I beat the urge to stay tucked up in bed and went .
It was a fantastic day, the weather was kind to the supporters (though not the runners) and the sun shone uninterrupted all day. I hadn’t been before and was surprised by the number of people who turned out cheer the runners on. As a few people mentioned on my live blog, for all but the most avid fans marathons are essentially dull – one runner looks very like another. Yet for most people, the London Marathon isn’t really about the elite race at all but about the very personal achievements of those running for charity and the carnival atmosphere of the day. That was the story I wanted to tell. (Photo: Kate Day) So armed with my camera, three lenses, a laptop and an iPhone, I decided to see what it was like using social media to cover a live event. In fact, the process began a few days before the race. I knew my starting point would be great photos. So I asked my followers on where I should shoot from. They duly came back with ideas and one of them asked if I could send small pictures of each location out in my Twitter stream.
The final piece in the puzzle was getting my pictures out quickly. Normally, I come home and do some minor editing (eg adjusting the exposure in Adobe Bridge) before publishing them here. This all takes time. So I decided to take a laptop and a dongle and . It was slightly scary publish raw files in a low-res format but I hope it was worth it for the sake of timeliness.