London Marathon - Full Report

It’s time for the full London Marathon race report.  It already seems like it all took place an age ago.  

A week ago today, at about this time, I set off for London to spend a whole weekend in the capital.  Friday night I met up with Ruth, who had been in London all week on a training course.  In the evening we went to a family run Italian restaurant in the King’s Cross area, close to where we were staying.  Being a bit bored of the usual pasta fair I opted to eat a sea food platter with chips and side salad.  In hindsight this might have been a mistake, although it was delicious.

Saturday 16 April was my 43^rd birthday (although I’m in denial about my age).  For me there would be no big celebration of the occasion.  Instead, I would be spending the day getting to and from the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands District to register for the marathon and enjoy the expo. 

Once at Excel I found my registration desk and cued to collect my race number, along with many other fast good for age entrants.  I exchanged a few words with a runner behind me in the queue, who made me feel very ordinary when he told me he was aiming for a sub 2 hour 40 minute marathon.  That’s a six minute mile pace for 26 miles.



London Marathon Race Registration & Number Collection

After collecting my number it was time to then pick up my timing chip, and making sure this was securely tucked away with my information pack.  My number and timing chip would be my most valuable possessions for the next 24 hours.

Number, check; timing chip, check; pace band, check.

I then headed into the marathon expo and headed straight to the T-shirt printing desk to get my name printed on my charity race vest.  I’m amazed more runners don’t do this.  It can give you an amazing lift on the day to have complete strangers shouting out your name to cheer you on to the finish. 

I also picked up a marathon pace band for a 3 hour 10 minute marathon finish.  This was what I’d decided would be my worst case scenario for the marathon.  I was really hoping to finish in a time of around 3 hours 5 minutes.  I was pretty sure that a sub 3-hour marathon was out of the question this year.  Having already run 3 marathons I was bound to be a bit fatigued.  Plus the process of running a marathon, resting, doing some training, tapering, running the next marathon and so on, meant that my training was not focused enough on achieving a good time in London this time round.

About an hour after my arrival at the expo I received a call from some friends who had just arrived.  I met up with Shelley and Jo, and Jo’s husband, Dan.   All were curious about the state of my neck and shoulder, which was starting to feel much better.  Dan would be performing the task of spectator and one of our cheerleaders, whilst the two girls would also be running the marathon. 

Cheers - Lucozade Cherry

We made our way around the expo and jokingly toasted my birthday by downing shots of the new Cherry flavoured Lucozade sports drink.  Once we’d prowled every store, tried every sample energy bar and visited the information desks for other major marathons, we headed off for some lunch, eschewing the somewhat over priced pasta meal available at the expo itself.  Surprisingly, none of us were feeling that hungry, despite the fact that we really should have been stuffing our faces ready for the next day.

After lunch we said our goodbyes and wished each other good luck for the marathon.  We also confirmed our meeting point for after the race, as this would be the next time I’d see the girls.  Hopefully, I would see Dan and a few other friends at roughly miles 13 and 22.

I returned to my hotel to get some rest before heading out and meeting Ruth for my evening meal.   Back at the hotel I decided to be super organised by getting my running kit ready for the next day.





Race kit ready

 

Running shoes ready

That evening I met Ruth at Leicester Square where we went to an obligatory Italian restaurant for a bowl of pasta.  Pasta joints in the capital must love the London marathon. 

Pasta polished off, we headed back to King’s Cross to attempt to get a good night’s sleep.

In the morning I met just one other marathon runner staying in the same hotel.  I’d stayed in the same hotel the previous year, at which time it seemed that half the hotel was made up of runners and their support teams.  We swapped a few marathon anecdotes and then went on our separate ways to the start.

The train I was on to Blackheath was fairly quiet.  I enjoyed the last bit of peace and quiet I’d get before the storm.  Once at Blackheath the streets were a heaving throng of marathon runners making their way to their respective start points on Greenwich Common.  I’m always overwhelmed by the sheer scale of London Marathon and the level of organisation that must be involved.  Walking across the common you can see runners of all shapes and sizes.  I also find it surprising how few are in fancy dress.  The TV coverage of the event gives the impression that running in fancy dress is the norm, and this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Runners heading to the start zones



The Fast Good For Age Enclosure

I headed off to my starting zone; the Fast Good For Age enclosure at the head of the red start.  I’ve started from this enclosure for the last two years.  This year there seemed to be lots more runners who had qualified to start from this selective group of runners.  The queue for the toilet was certainly a lot longer than on previous years.  I immediately joined the back of the line and got myself ready for the race whilst the queue slowly moved along.  In the process I forgot to slap on any suntan lotion and I also forgot to take my gel belt out of my kit bag.  I only realised once I’d handed my bag in at the baggage lorry.  It was then too late to do anything about it.  At that time there were a few clouds in the sky so I hope that forgetting to apply any lotion wouldn’t prove to be a problem.  I also resolved to make use of the two Lucozade gel stations on the course.  Not that I had any other options at my disposal.

As soon as the race started I settled into a comfortable pace, trying hard not to go off too fast.  My aim was to run at a 7 minute mile pace, which would have me finishing in about 3 hours and 3 minutes.  At the first mile marker I was 10 seconds ahead of pace, “no drama,” I thought, “lets slow it down a little”.  The next mile was then run at a 6’45” pace, 15 seconds faster than target pace, and the third mile at 6’40”, 20 seconds up.  I kept getting faster not slower.  Fourth mile was 6’28”.  “Damn! Slow down,” I kept telling myself.  The pace was feeling easy, but I knew I’d pay the price later on if I ran the first half too fast.  This is the big down side of London, the crowds of spectators and the number of runners can result in a rapid increase in adrenalin levels and lull you into setting off too fast, which seemed to be happening to me.

I tried my best to slow my pace and to just soak up the atmosphere.  Wherever possible I ran close to the side of the road, where lots of children put out their hands to high five the runners.  I high fived as many children as possible, which would get a good cheer from the crowd and shouts of “go Alan, go”.  This helped to settle me and my pace seemed to even out at a 6 minute 45 second mile pace.  Faster than I’d planned, but at the time it was feeling comfortable.  I started to convince myself that I could maintain this pace to the finish, resulting in a time a little less than 3 hours.

Cutty Sark is the first of the famous land marks on the route of the marathon at the 6.5 mile mark.  Here the crowds swell and the noise of the cheering is immense, causing the heart to beat a little faster and the pace to rise a little without you even noticing.  It’s always a great feeling running round this part of the course.  You can’t help but feel as if you are a part of an amazing national event, especially with TV cameras on huge booms hanging just a few feet above the runners' heads.

Once past Cutty Sark it’s time to focus once again and to settle back into a manageable pace.  The next major land mark is Tower Bridge, which is just a little short of halfway.  This has to be my favourite part of the course.  I always get a fantastic feeling running under the towers of Tower Bridge.  The crowds here really go for it on the cheering front.  Of course, I have no idea how enthusiastic they are by the time the 5 hour finishers make it to this point.  I always separate myself slightly from the pack of runners at this point to wave to the crowd and to try to encourage them to cheer even louder.  I love the Mexican sound wave it generates as I cross the bridge.

Just after Tower Bridge I spotted friends standing where they said they’d be.  I didn’t spot everyone, but I did clearly see Mike and Suzy on the opposite side of the road.  It’s at this point that I always see a few of the elite female runners, who started 45 minutes earlier than the main field, heading in the opposite direction with just 4 miles to go for them.  I’d have another 9 miles to go before reaching the same spot.

Three miles further on my legs started to feel heavy.  I managed to maintain my pace, somehow, for a further 3 miles, but I knew I was about to start paying the price for running the first half too fast.  I don’t normally feel heavy in the legs until about mile 20 or 21, by which stage I know I can just knuckle down and get the job done.  Feeling the effects from mile 16 instead dealt me a hard psychological blow.  I started asking myself how I’d be able to keep on for another 10 miles.  By this stage the temperature was starting to soar and I felt as if I was over heating.  I tipped water over my head whenever possible, but I tried to resist over doing this as I know that in previous hot years some water stations had run out by the time slower runners were going past.

I kept thinking about the friends waiting at the mile 22 point, and I used this to spur me on.  I wanted to at least look as if I was running strong when I passed them.  I did slow to a walk at one point, in order to cool down a little and to compose myself for the miles ahead.  Then as I approached mile 22 I got into a relatively strong running pace.  I spotted Dan and a couple of other friends and gave them a quick wave.  Seeing friends provided a much needed lift.  A little further on I also saw and heard Andy cheering me on, this was an unexpected pleasure.

I was determined to do my best to run strong all the way to the finish from here on in.  However, with 2.5 miles to go the course dips into an underpass, where the air felt unbelievably cool.  Many runners slowed to a walk here, and I decided to copy them, taking the opportunity to cool off a little.  As I came out of the underpass I made a resolution to run strong for the last 2.5 miles to the finish.  My pace from mile 19 had slowed to about 7 minutes 30 seconds per mile, but I managed to get this back up to 7 minutes per mile for the last two miles.  In the end I crossed the finish line in a time of 3 hours 3 minutes 21 seconds.  I hadn’t exactly followed my race plan, but in the end the result proved to be about the same and my target was achieved.  I also found myself crossing the line just a short distance behind the Olympic legend that is James Cracknell.  I did find myself being slightly over awed by his presence, but I also really wanted to shake his hand.  The TV crews were approaching, but I reached him just in time to congratulate him and to shake his hand.  At the time I remember thinking what a bloody big bloke he is to be running marathons in about 3 hours.  Given the recent struggle he has had following his bike accident in the States, I was amazed by his achievement.  I felt very ordinary once again.

From the finish line I made my way along the 800m of The Mall and through the various reception points along the way.  First having my timing chip removed, then collecting my medal, picking up a goody bag and finally arriving at the baggage reclaim lorries.

Baggage reclaim

Here I met up with Guilio, who was beaming all over his face.  After years of trying he had finally cracked the three hour marathon.  I was really pleased for him, and shook his hand to congratulate him.  From here we made our way to Horse Guards Parade where we were waited for the rest of our friends to arrive.  Slowly they all came in one by one.  First to join us was Shelley, followed by Jo, then Tony and Andrea.  All of my running friends had finished with respectable times.  Only Guilio had managed a PB, but everyone was delighted to have finished what was quite a gruelling event in the early spring heat.





Marathon number 4 completed (Tony to my right)

Andrea, Jo, Me, Shelley and Guilio in front

Overall I was really happy with my time, and I was also happy to be a third of the way through my overall goal for the year.  There were times when I wondered how I’d cope with running marathons during the summer months, given how hot it felt running in London in April.  Those bridges will have to be crossed come the time.

Since London Marathon I’ve spent four days at Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest with Ruth’s family.  We’d gone to celebrate Ruth’s mum’s 70^th birthday.  I had a couple of days of rest followed by a couple of days of fairly gentle activities: kayaking, badminton, archery, some swimming and a tree top trekking experience.  It was great to be with Ruth’s family in one place and to do activities other than running and kettlebell training.  If I had lost any weight running London marathon I’m pretty sure that I’ve eaten well enough to put it all back on.

Tree trekking at Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest

London Marathon - Brief Report

I'm home after what felt like quite a gruelling London Marathon.  It was very warm out there today.  I'm very happy with my time of 3 hours 3 minutes.  My goal had seemed simple at the start.  Complete the marathon in under 3 hours 10 minutes and run a negative split.  The first goal was achieved, but the second wasn't.  I ran the first half too quick in a time of 1 hour 29 minutes.  At the time the pace felt easy, but I paid the price later on.  The last 10 miles were a hard slog.  I'll right more in a few days time and add photos. 

I'm off to Centre Parcs for a few days R&R with my in-laws.  I'm hoping to have Wi-Fi access so I can do a longer report whilst I'm there.  If not, you'll have to tune in next weekend for the full race report.

Two Days To The Biggest Marathon Of The Year.

I'm feeling a bit more positive today, but I'm still not 100% recovered from my stupid shoulder injury.  You might be wondering how on earth a damaged shoulder can be debilitating to running.  You don't need your upper body to run, do you?  I suspect if I'd heard someone else making a fuss about shoulder pain affecting their running that I would have dismissed them for being a bit of a wimp.  Well yesterday I went for a short run whilst waiting for a client, and on every foot fall it felt as if someone was jabbing me hard with a screwdriver in my right shoulder.  The pain I felt at the time will definitely make running 26.2 miles more of a challenge.  On a positive note, the discomfort in my shoulder might mean I don't notice any pain in my legs.

Whatever happens I will complete London Marathon, I just might have to settle for a slower time than I'd been aiming for.

I'll be off to London shortly and collecting my race number tomorrow.  Let's hope two more sleeps is all I need for my shoulder to get better.  Next time I update my blog will be to write my London Marathon race report.

Did I mention that it is my birthday tomorrow?  I'll be celebrating with a big bowl of pasta and an early night.

Feeling Low

I'm going to keep this brief as I'm feeling pretty miserable today.  After feeling like I've been running at my absolute best for the last couple of weeks, I've suddenly had a bit of a disaster this week.

I didn't mention in my last update that on Sunday afternoon, following my 9 mile run, I went on a 3 hour training course organised by the Managing Director, and ex-kettlebell client, at Cambridge Kung Fu.  The course was on circular strength training, a system of strength training devised by Scott Sonnon, a leading light in the world of martial arts.  I won't go into too much detail.  The course itself was great, using a mix of bodyweight exercises and Indian Clubbells.  The bodyweight exercises were almost a mix of martial arts' moves, with a twist on the usual bodyweight exercises, and with a bit of break dancing thrown in.  Needless to say, all quite different to what I'm used to.  The Clubbell workouts weren't too dissimilar to kettlebells.  Overall, I coped with the three hours of training quite well, but could tell that I'd had a good workout.  I was pleased that I wasn't as much of a sweaty wreck afterwards as the younger participants on the course.

The following day I had my usual manic Monday, culminating in three kettlebell classes.  All was going well until my final class of the evening, during which I demonstrated an exercise and felt a sudden spasm in my neck.  I didn't think too much of it at the time.  I managed to bluff my way through without any students noticing, and got to the end of the class without having to do any additional demonstrations.  However, by Tuesday morning I could hardly move my neck.  As the day progressed my neck seemed to get worse, to the point that even walking became painful, especially if I had to walk upstairs.   I had to cancel half of my day and booked myself an osteopath appointment for as early as possible this morning.

The osteopath did a great job, but I could tell he was unable to give my neck the real big crunch that it needed.  I left feeling slightly better and with a lot more mobility than I had on arrival, but it still didn't feel great.  As today has progressed my neck seems to have deteriorated again.  I'm hoping that a good night's sleep will now help, but at the same time I have my doubts.

I am so annoyed that I've gone from feeling like a finely tuned distance runner to an absolute wreck in a couple of days.  I'm putting it down to overworking myself with the culmination of trying a new training system followed by a busy work day.  Hindsight is great, isn't it?  Don't I now wish I'd gone a little easier on Monday.  I keep asking myself why did it have to happen this week?  I was so looking forward to running London in close to 3 hours.  If the pain in my neck doesn't ease, that is going to be impossible.  Right now I'm just hoping to be able to finish.  I have no idea if I can even run at the moment, I certainly couldn't have yesterday.  I'm really hoping I feel better tomorrow.

This is one really pissed off runner signing off.

Countdown to London Marathon

I'm pretty sure that almost everyone running the London Marathon next weekend will be thinking the same thing about the recent warm weather, i.e. "Very nice, but can it be a bit cooler next Sunday, please?".  This is the biggest problem with training for a Spring marathon.  You train all through the cold of winter, and then the big day itself can turn out to be a scorcher.  Great for spectators, miserable for the runners.

The weather has been great all week.  Temperatures have crept up just as the weekly mileage totals are tailing off.  In an attempt to acclimatise I went for a 7 mile afternoon run on Thursday, running at a speed slightly faster than my marathon pace.  I started my run from Brooklands Avenue and ran alongside the River Cam through Grantchester meadows and then on through Grantchester and Trumpington back to my starting point.  I practically had the meadows to myself.  I felt very liberated bounding along the river banks, dodging tree roots and ruts in the baked earth, and practically skipping over the footbridges due to the degree of bounce in their wooden structure. 

I was fairly lazy earlier in the week.  I did a bit of kettlebelling on Monday.  Then on Tuesday I had an early morning sports massage and used this as an excuse to rest for the day.  My old personal training tutor, Mike Power, has just set up a sports therapy practice very close to home, so I've started seeing him for my massage treatments.  He's currently teaching part-time whilst his business takes off.  I can highly recommend him to anyone nursing any sports injuries.  You can find him at Greens gym or check out his website:  http://www.optimise-fitness.com/. 

On Wednesday I squeezed in another kettlebell session in the sun just before meeting with a client, which was then followed by a run with the Sweaty Betties.  I had my usual Pilate's session on Friday.  As the weather was so great I also took my kettlebell in to the garden in the afternoon and practised the Turkish Get Up over and over again.  A very tough exercise to do that works the whole body. 

Earlier in the week I had wondered whether I should take part in Cambridge Park Run on Saturday and to run it at marathon pace.  However, I knew that I'd never be able to achieve this and that instead I'd run for a good 5k time.  So I reined myself in by volunteering to be a marshal instead.  It was actually lots of fun seeing the race from a marshal's perspective.  I was giving the task of helping with the time recording.  They have a very clever system.  One person holds a device that records the finishing times.  As runners cross the finish line they simply press a button.  I was then one of two people who would pass a tag with a barcode to runners as they crossed the line.  We'd have to be careful to ensure we handed the tags out in the correct order.  Not as easy as it may sound, as sometimes runners would come to an abrupt halt right on the finish line before they even reached us, and other times runners would sprint right past us without taking their tag.  When you have a group of five or more runners finishing very close together it can be quite frantic making sure they get their correct finishers tag.  Once runners have their tag they take these along with their own personal barcode to the registration desk where all the barcodes and tags are scanned and results automatically collated and uploaded to the Park Run website.  All very efficient.

This morning I wrapped myself up in a long sleeve top to go for a 9 mile run at marathon pace.  Once again I was hoping I could run in warm conditions and wear warmer clothing than I'll be wearing in the marathon next week to help acclimatise to the heat.  Unfortunately, I went running before the temperature really picked up, so my plan wasn't too successful.  Once again I ran along the Cam towards Waterbeach and back.  The river was eerily quite making me feel as if I was out earlier than I actually was.

So now there is just six more days before the biggest UK marathon of the year.  I hope to get out for three more short runs between now and then continuing to practise my marathon pace.  Following last Sunday's 21 mile run, I've decided that I'm going to try and stick to a 7 minute mile pace.  This will have me finishing the marathon in 3 hours and 3 minutes. So far, I've failed to maintain this pace for any more than two miles.  I keep finding my speed creeps up.  So on Tuesday I aim to run 6 to 7 miles at marathon pace and to do my best to stick to my target pace. 

Tales of Caballo Blanco

In distance running your brain can be your biggest ally.  It can also be your enemy in equal measure.  Today my brain was well on my side thanks largely to a truly inspirational book I've just started reading. 

I'd highly recommend Born To Run by Christopher McDougal to every runner out there.  It is the best book on running I have read (although, just in case I've jumped the gun, I'll  just add that I am only a quarter of the way through).  It's largely about Christopher's search for a secretive Mexican tribe called the Tarrahumama who seem to have amazing feats of endurance.  The book describes how the Tarrahumama stage 48 hour foot races, running in little more than home made sandals and fuelled by alcoholic corn beer and home made energy drink called iskiate. It also tells the tale of many endurance athletes, including a mysterious runner known as Caballo Blanco (white horse) who is either a fugitive running from the law, or an ex-boxer punishing himself for killing a man.  Caballo Blanco is an American who lives amongst the Tarrahumama and seems to live simply to run from place to place eating nothing but beans provided by countless 'Mamas' throughout the land.

With tales from the book fresh in my mind, I set off on a 21 mile run this morning, conjuring up images of Caballo Blanco as I ran along the Roman Road to Linton water tower.  Despite the fact that I spent yesterday on a 7 hour training course that required performing various workouts with a piece of training kit called a ViPR (which stands for vitality, performance and re-conditioning) and waking this morning with buttocks of steel as a result, I felt really loose and energised once I was into my run.  I'm convinced it's the inspiration that I've taken from the book that had me bounding along tarmac and trail with ease.  I was fully aware that my pace was considerably faster than normal for a Sunday long run.  I managed to run 21.28 miles in 2 hours 30 minutes, an average pace of about 7 minutes per mile.  The lap pace shown in the photo below of 7 minutes 43 seconds per mile was my cool-down pace.  My slowest pace on the run was 7:31 per mile, on a stretch that was all uphill!  My fastest pace was 6:39 per mile towards the end of the run.

I'm sorry for boring you with all of these stats.  The point I'm making is that I was running amazingly well (without sounding big headed), and I'm convinced it's all down to the power of the mind.  I know for a fact that it's not down to doing any real quality training of late.  Sure, I've put in the miles, but I haven't put myself through a hard interval training session for weeks.  I had aimed to do at least 8 x 800m fast intervals on Thursday, but bottled out in favour of a steady run along the river. 

Today I wasn't even aiming to run at a good pace.  The only goal was to run all 21 miles and to try and enjoy the run as much as possible.  I managed to achieve this, no doubt also helped by fantastic weather which had me running in vest and shorts for the first time this year.


Back home after running 21.3 miles

The only issue that I have now is whether I should revise my goals for London marathon.  Up till now my goal was simply to finish in less than 3 hours 15 minutes, the cut off point for a guaranteed entry to next year's marathon for someone of my advanced years.  I'm now wondering if I should aim to run a sub 3 hour marathon.  I do have to ask myself why I feel the need to do this.  I'm sure I won't improve on last year's PB of 2 hours 55 minutes.  I should, perhaps, be keeping my eye on the bigger picture, which is simply to complete 12 marathons this year.  Maybe I'll see how I feel on the big day.  The only good reason I can come up with for aiming for sub 3 hours is because I can.  Who knows how many years of good marathon running I have left in me.