And They All Lived Happily Ever After

I started this blog before Christmas 2010, and have posted over 50 entires, with at the time of adding this one, nearly 2000 page views.

Below is how race day went, and below that, is the story of how I got to the start line on April 17th.

I came, I saw (well I didn’t but just go with it OK), I conquered, and in doing so have never felt so tired in all my life.

The basic stats are that I completed the 2011 Virgin London Marathon in a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes and 40 seconds, coming 5927th out of 34,710 listed finishers. Should you wish to see the full list, which stretches to 1389 pages, dive in here.

My target was to try and run a time between 3 hours 30 and 3 hours 45, so success there, however had the time been slower I’d have still been satisfied with completing my debut marathon.

I reached half way in 1 hour 44, so at that point on target to run 3:30. We were still on for that at 17 miles, but then a combination of the heat of the day, fatigue of having never done a marathon before, and perhaps some inexperience with regard to the best hydration strategy (in other words, I probably didn’t take on enough water early on), meant the last 8 miles became a real tough it out exercise. The fuel issue in a marathon is something which can really only be learnt through experience. I didn’t want to take on too much for fear of stomach cramp, which I did get a little of around the 10 mile point, but take on too little and you’re in trouble.

I, Simon and Jim, travelled to Blackheath on a coach provided by another local running club, friendly rivals of the Stragglers 26.2. This meant we were at the start with over an hour and a half to spare. There was much anxiety on show, but for me, I felt more relaxed and awake than I would before a Parkrun. That said, my alarm did interrupt my sleep five hours before the race begun.

Among the runners we saw that fall into the, that was a great idea in the pub but you’re so going to regret that by mile 5, category, was a man carrying a model Spitfire on his back, a full brass band and of course, numerous animals. I’m told there was a picture of Dangermouse in the paper but sadly I didn’t meet him. Mr Testicles was nowhere to be seen at the red start either.

It took us about 6 minutes to get over the start line and I’m sure we’d ended up surrounded by people that were too far up the field for the time they were expecting to run. That said our first mile was 8:25 which I was happy with.

The London Marathon start is divided into three, red, blue and green, all converging at around the 3 mile point.

Amusingly when I received my number a few weeks ago, I’d been given Blackheath blue. Simon, my official guide, was sent Greenwich red. Although I asked for him to be moved to blue with me, they did it the other way round, but never mind.

This did mean we were in with slightly slower people and that extra work to get through people probably contributed to fatigue later on. That said, if you don’t like running in crowds, don’t do the London Marathon.

On the fancy-dress front, we passed a teddy bear and a rhino that had gone off way too fast. We also passed a man walking backwards who I think got round in 4 hours 20-something which is some achievement!

I had prepared myself for a day of struggling to hear both Simon and Jim because of the crowd noise, but actually for the most part it wasn’t as difficult as I expected. That said, the wall of sound that hits you as you cross Tower Bridge does take your breath away. The other really loud part of the course is the last couple of miles, which is like running in a football stadium, and even though you don’t think so at the time, certainly helps you push yourself to the limit.

We turned right after Tower Bridge to head down the Highway, just as the elite runners were coming back. We would learn later that a course record of 2 hours 4 minutes and 40 seconds would be set, just a mere 1 hours 39 minutes ahead of us. Having seen Jo Pavey at ExCel on Thursday, it was good to see her run a World Championships qualifying time.

While the fast boys were heading for home, we still had our circuit of the Isle of Dogs ahead of us.

I’d say it was around 19 miles where things became really tough. Although I felt terrible, I was still running reasonably strong through a field that saw loads of people walking by that stage.

The low point of the race was at 22 miles, when I’d lost track of where we were in my head, and was convinced the next mile marker would be 23. The final miles are a bit of a blur in my memory. You actually forget where you are and why you’re there, you just know you can’t stop.

Having taken on water whilst running up to this point, in the last few miles I decided it would be better to walk for 10/15 seconds, allowing me to rehydrate myself better and in doing so, mean I would run stronger than I might otherwise.

I remember the last 1k, with the distance to go being counted down by the 100M. Once over the finish line, I don’t recall ever feeling tiredness like it.

The only aspect of the whole marathon process, from securing my place in November to crossing the finish line in April I found really tough was the last 4 miles of Cranleigh 21, and the last 8 of London.

For the most part the training has been really good fun. Sure there were days when I’d rather have been doing something else, but that’s the case with running anyway.

All this means that I’ve already entered my next 26.2 miler: Loch Ness in October.

I’m pretty confident heat won’t be an issue up there.