WOW. What an experience. From October 2018 to 28th April 2019 its been one hell of a journey.
The training took me through the Illuminator (PB), the Marcathon (in December), long runs through Newcastle, Finland, Nova Scotia and Tenerife. What a great block of training. Oh and the early months of my new born baby … Wee Benji.
If you follow the blog, you will know I got the privilege to run for Mental Health Aberdeen. They supported me through the full journey. Running for a mental health charity has definitely made me aware of my mental health, and the importance of acknowledging that mental health is a huge part of training for an event.
So the big weekend came around. Flying into London Town on Friday, I travelled to the Expo on the Saturday. The amount of stalls and shows were amazing. It was like the who’s who of running brands all vying for your attention…it was a warm up for what the next day would be like….people everywhere. It was tiring, both physically and mentally. After the expo, I was able to get back to the hotel and put the feet up before trying to get sleep before the big day.
Sleeping before a big event is hard, you run every scenario through in your head, check the alarm a million times before somewhere in the night you drift off to sleep – I did during Kenny Rogers “The Gambler” in my headphones….after the whale music made me need the toilet more than it made me tired.
I woke just before the alarm. I was feeling great. Not nervous – I had a great training block, the fitness markers on strava backed up my thoughts that I was in a good place. I made my way to the start of the race, Into my starting pen and eventually only 3mins behind the start the wave was off – uneventful.
The course was starts with a little hilly section – but running with a couple dressed as Bananas in Pyjamas and Big Ben – later struggled to cross the line – it was a party atmosphere, I was relaxed….in hindsight a little too relaxed.
The first three miles were quick – a lesson I hadn’t learnt from Stirling – but I quickly settled into a pace I felt achievable – but still ultimately too fast. The crowds were amazing. Noisy, supportive, and funny. I have been at football matches where you are able to block out the shouts from the side lines but some of them were too funny to ignore:-
“you are running this better than our Government runs our country”
“You look like you have stamina – call me”
” Run like you have stolen Mo’s wallet”
I was enjoying it, its easy to get carried away when you feel fresh. The first area I noticed that I was starting to struggle with the noise and crowd was at Cutty Sark, mile 5. The boat was huge and a fantastic landmark – here the crowd was remarkably busy and the noise, signs, shouting, whistles and cow bells were an overload for the senses. There was too much to take in – some love this but I struggled with it all.
Still holding my pace, the marathon route twisted its way to the next pinch point over Tower Bridge (mile 13) – if you have ran London you know the charities all position themselves here and its a wall of sound. The noise was phenomenal – nothing I have ever experienced in my life. The support for the charity runners was unwavering and really made the heart rate increase (as well as the speed) and running through here left me with every hair on my back standing at attention – which is a lot of hair.
From here the route continues past half way where I was lucky enough to clock Mo, Kipchoge and the two Scots Callum & Robbie pass at mile 22. We had a little way to go to catch them but seeing them fly effortlessly on the other side of the barrier was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Canary Wharf (18 miles) came and went, the Island of Cats and Dogs was where the initial pace started to take a little toll on the legs and the effort to maintain the pace was increasing. The whole way around I must have increased the 26.2mile distance by another mile. My watch and the GPS weren’t working as well, especially on the miles with the under passes, I was a little confused with where my race tactics had gone. I tried to use a pacing band at 3:20hrs and 3:25hrs – the 3:20 one was ripped off at 22 miles and eventually the 3:25 one at 24miles.
At mile 24 was where I felt the wheels come off … I had a quad pain / adductor pain which stopped me from bending my left leg. I had to reduce the pace to a walk and instantly tried to increase fluids/ lucozade or anything else the supporting crowd would offer – cider/beer/red bull/ a cigarette …I choose to stick to the lucozade.
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The hard thing for me was that I felt exhausted. Physically ( apart from the afore mentioned quad) I wasn’t bad but my head was fuzzy, dizzy and just full of thoughts of failure after struggling to get my A (3:20) and B goals (3:25). My C goal (PB) was slipping away and physically I couldn’t get the chains turning again.
I was able to regain focus for the last 1km and crossed the line in 3:35:20. Completing the London Marathon.
Completing London is something only a fortunate few get to do. Although I am slightly disappointed in my time I am very honoured and privalidged to have run for a great charity in a fantastic race…something that will live with me forever. Its so easy to be hard on yourself when you don’t achieve but on reflection over this week the positives are:-
- I was able to train through 26 weeks and not get injured
- It was an unofficial PB over a marathon distance (3:27:15) but I ran 27.07 miles on the day
- I have learnt valuable lessons over the marathon distance that can help me in my preparation for future runs
- I have to respect the affect sleep deprivation has on my body both physically and mentally
- I am hungry to go again and driven to get the elusive sub 3:30
Final thoughts – wonderful atmosphere, wonderful course, wonderful supporters and wonderful experience.
Its better to shoot at your goal and miss, than to not take a shot at all.
Thanks for reading
Run Long and Prosper
James
