The Final Countdown

When I turn up for a Thursday club night at the Stragglers week after week, with varying amounts of motivation for another ten mile run, I’ve often thought how it would be much nicer to just join the three mile group and get back in the warmth of the Hawker Centre bar within half an hour.

Last night that’s exactly what I did.

A number of Stragglers ran marathons last week, Brighton, Paris and Milan, and there were many a story of tough mornings thanks to conditions being too hot. My daily check of the BBC London weather page has told me that the maximum temperature will be 19 degrees C (Tuesday evening), then as the week went on, 17, 18 and now back to 19 again. All through the week the day has been predicted as being sunny, so I’m not totally ruling out thunder storms just yet. A warm day will be good for watching, I’d be quite happy with 10 degrees and cloudy myself, but what will be will be.

As well as looking forward to the final Thursday run before M day throughout the training period, I was also interested to see what this much bigged up, London Marathon Expo was like.

Held every year at ExCel in the Docklands, this is the place where all runners exchange their place confirmation letter for their race number and timing chip. Alongside this is what is best described as a giant running trade fair, where companies providing everything a runner could possibly want are there to tempt you into buying things you probably don’t really need. Energy product manufacturers were out in force handing out samples of gels, drinks and foods, the latter seemed to mainly consist of cube shaped jellies or lumps of things not unlike cereal bars. A multitude of flavours were available which, frankly, all tasted the same and never really tasted of anything. The most exciting edible freebie came in the bag we were handed on the way out, let’s just say there must be some sponsorship relationship going on between the London Marathon and Mars and London Pride.

After wandering around the exhibition part of the event for a bit, we went and got some food at the “pasta party”. I’m not totally sold on the energising potential of what they had on offer. The pasta and mince, salad, bread roll and apple combo was perfectly nice, not to mention healthy, but I was starving within two hours, so had my usual pasta, chips and two pints at the Hawker Centre post three mile leg stretcher.

While we had our lunch/tea/whatever time of day meal you’d call 4 PM, we listened to a motivational presentation from Martin Yelling (husband of Liz), a lady from Runner’s World whose name I forget talking about pacing, and an interview with British international distance runner Jo Pavey.

Pavey, like me, is doing her first marathon. That’s about where the comparisons end though since Jo, who has finals at World and Olympic level to her name, is looking to become a contender for a place in the London 2012 Olympic marathon.

As well as much running paraphernalia to be looked at, were stands and people handing out fliers for other races, assuming after Sunday those taking part don’t think that’s quite enough thank you. Name you’re world city of choice and there was probably someone willing to give you a leaflet for its marathon. Midnight Sun in Sweden particularly caught my attention, although I expect I may have to work a little harder on my guide runner recruitment strategy for that. Berlin, Amsterdam and Loch Ness also very much interest me, but that’s a thought for Monday.

Lastly there were stands for most major charities, all of whom will have participants pounding the streets for their cause, a major part in why the London Marathon is such a fixture in the public’s imagination.

And it is this point which thousands will become very aware of once again this week. After months of piling up the miles through the winter, suddenly the media focus is on the event they’ve worked so hard to be a part of.

After the Spurs game on Wednesday I had my first hearing of the advert for Radio 5’s coverage of the event, something which I’ve listened to every year for as long as I can remember. Steve Cram and co will be doing their thing for TV, read Cram’s preview here. Sadly I didn’t see him at ExCel so couldn’t tell him he commentated on me in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

This week there was a documentary on Radio 4, looking into when, where, or if the 2 hour marathon barrier will ever be broken. I’ve just listened to the discussion of the subject from Radio 5 which you can do also on the Iplayer until Thursday April 21. It’s worth a listen, if only to hear David Bedford telling of his first experience running the London Marathon. It’s reassuring to hear the now race director say he only took part after a bet in a nightclub where far too much beer was consumed, and that his race preparation involves a curry in the early hours.

I shan’t be following his example, but do have my evening and next day pub plan already worked out, something that Martin Yelling encouraged in his mental preparation talk on Thursday.

His advice? When it gets really tough, think of your next trip to the pub.

That I shall, as I expect at some point it will.