This will be the last of my 'old' blog posts for a while. I wanted to give readers a view of where I've come from with my running and hopefully I've managed to do that with these old posts.
London Marathon 2010
It's taken me 3 days to make this post as I'm really not sure what's going to be in it. I've been mulling Sunday's events over in my head for three days trying to work out what happened and i'm still not really sure.
I set out at the beginning of my training program with the aim of finishing in under 3:45. I'd run 3:54 in the Edinburgh marathon in 2008 and training for that didn't really go smoothly. I kept getting niggly injuries and when I recently looked back over my training diary for Edinburgh I was hardly doing any running at all, 2 runs a week at some points!
Someone asked me at the Expo how my training had went for London and I truthfully answered that I didn't think it could have went any better. Every week from the middle of January I've run 5 days a week with an average of 32 miles per week. My maximum mileage in a week was 44 miles which I managed successfully. I ran 1:34 for a half marathon. I've remained injury free throughout this training period. Everything was pointing to me running a really good marathon.
Sadly it wasn't to be.
I was woken in the morning by the sound of the rain outside, so much for the predicted heatwave! I got up at 0600 and had my usual pre-race breakfast of porridge and honey, plenty of water and then Helen and I headed up to the train station to make our way into London from Basingstoke. We got into Waterloo around 0820. I overheard someone on the train saying that the rain was due to stop at 0930 and looking at the clouds, they were starting to break. I decided that I was going to need my sunblock after all. I must have been some sight standing in the middle of the platform in Waterloo with the rain still coming down outside with my top off getting covered in sunblock!
I left Helen as she wasn't coming to the start and made my way to Waterloo East to catch the train to Blackheath. As I got down to the platform the train was already there but it appeared to be quite busy. The guard was encouraging everyone to move down the platform as there was more space further down. I made my way down the platform but decided to give up on this train. I knew there was another one in around 15 minutes anyway. As the train pulled away though I was quite amazed to see lots of space in the carriages. Everyone was just pilling onto the train and then standing at the doors. If they all moved down the carriages then much more people would have managed to get on the train.
Hey ho, I just got the next one and had a relatively relaxed journey out to Blackheath. As we got off the train I just followed the crowds and was soon making my way over the park towards the blue start. I dropped my bag off in the baggage lorry and then made my way to the open air toilets. A bit of a queue but didn't have to wait too long. Then it was time to make my way into pen number 4.
I was quite surprised that we started to move forward quite early. Apparently they were removing the barriers from the pens in front one by one. Anyway we were soon off and running, then walking again, then running, then walking. It wasn't until about the first half mile that I got into any sort of rhythm. I had to admit I was quite surprised to pass a few runners in fancy dress during the first mile. I thought everyone knew they were meant to start at the back of the field?
At this early point in the race I knew that I was going to struggle to hit my target pace of 8 mins/mile. No matter I thought, just wait until it thins out a bit then i'll get into a rhythm and pick up any lost time. The problem being of course that it never thinned out, ever. I found this incredibly frustrating and found myself trying to pick up the pace whenever I could. After much reflection I reckon this is what did for me on the day.
The data from my Garmin shows that for mile 4 my average pace was 8:45/mile but my max pace for the mile was 7:10/mile! Most other miles were the same with a big difference between my average pace and my max pace. Trying to make up for this lost time was a big mistake. I always seemed to be going too fast or too slow and never once settled into a rhythm for longer than about half a mile.
The sheer number of people around me just never eased. I know the marathon takes in some great sights of London but I never seen any of them. I spent the whole race looking at the ground about 1m in front of me to make sure I didn't trip over anyone's feet! The fact that there are water stations every mile didn't help this either, it always seemed that someone was cutting across you to get to the side of the road for something.
I know this has not been the most positive post so far but I did enjoy some parts of the day! The crowds around the course were simply unbelievable. 5 and 6 deep at some points and so loud. Tower Bridge, around Canary Wharf and along Birdcage Walk were the highlights for me. Seeing the elites and wheelchairs athletes coming the other way on The Highway was also pretty cool. These guys just make it look so easy even though they're going twice as fast as me!
I really began to struggle from mile 16 and I had to take a short walking break. I really wish I hadn't done that as from there to the end I found it increasingly easy to give in to the pain and take a walk break. Aside from my time, this is the thing that is annoying me most about the day. I ran over 17 miles on 4 separate occasions in my training but when it came to the big day I couldn't get past 16 miles without have to walk, what's that all about?
I eventually finished in 4:01:04.
If you'd asked me at 1400 on Sunday if i'd ever run another marathon again you'd have got a resounding no. By 1900 on Sunday though I was already looking online to see if there is another marathon I could do within the next month or so. I know I can get under 3:45! And by the Monday I'd already decided to enter the ballot for London next year. I'f I do get in though i'll be tackling it with a completely different mindset. To go and enjoy the day and soak up the atmosphere, rather than going for a particular time.
| START TIME | 09:47:34 |
| 5K | 00:27:48 |
| 10K | 00:53:13 |
| 15K | 01:18:39 |
| 20K | 01:44:27 |
| HALF | 01:50:00 |
| 25K | 02:10:39 |
| 30K | 02:39:30 |
| 35K | 03:10:15 |
| 40K | 03:46:20 |
| finish time | 04:01:04 |
One other thing, I did manage to raise around £500 for the Tartan Army Children's Charity, something that I'm quite happy with given the short space of time I had to do any fundraising.
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