London Marathon 2011

I feel like I have some excuses to make.

3 hours was the dream time to complete my first marathon. With hindsight, this was ambitious.

Failing that, 3 hours 15 minutes was the next target, and one I hoped to meet. If I missed that, I thought keeping it inside 3 hours 30 would be realistic and towards the latter stages of my training, I thought of it as more of a formality (pah!).

In the end I staggered through the finish in 3 hours 28 minutes. Along Embankment my pace had slowed to a shuffle, and there were plenty of runners zipping past me. I finished in 3,787th position, and along that last stretch to Buckingham Palace and back round on the Mall, there were points when it felt like all 3,786 people were zipping past me at once. On the upside, the crowd picked me out as the runner most in need of attention and supported me so much along that last stretch.

Things hadn't really started as well as they could have. I was late. I arrived with 20 minutes to use the loo, throw my kit bag on the kit bag lorry and find my start zone. There were runners milling about everywhere, kicking back and chatting in the park and I figured I had more time than I actually did. I had just enough time to jog to the very front (I'd put myself in the 2'30" - 3'00" finish time bracket..), stretch my calves out a bit and watch Jonathan Edwards walk past to get things started before we all raced off.

The first 10 miles felt like a dream. I didn't need water, certainly not carb gels. I was high-fiving the crowd as I went. Smiling for cameras, taking it all in- the ticket tape blowing along beneath us, the pubs, the bands, the sun peeking out from under the clouds and a runner with a bright red 2'59" stick marker just ahead of me.

At about 1'15", I felt my quads starting to hurt. This hadn't really happened previously, ever. Usually they are the very last muscle to tire, since I do a fair amount of cycling to and from work and they've built up. At that point, I knew it was going to be a longer race than I'd reckoned on. The 2'59" marker started to get further ahead of me.

At somewhere around 2 hours, my legs tanked. I saw the house-mates at 18 and yelled out, 'It hurts! It hurts!', trying to indicate my legs and not really sure why. I'm not sure how I got through the rest of it. I saw people stopping to walk and thought to myself I didn't want to do that. I saw people throwing up and I thought I definitely didn't want to do that. I forgot about hitting times, or trying to calculate them. I focused on the next water station, the next opportunity to run in the shade, the next bend and mile marker.

Anyway I did it. There wasn't really a euphoric feeling- all that had come before. I cannot express how good the crowd was- the support was by far the best thing about running the marathon. There was a long, long walk to my kit bag lorry, right at the end of the line. There was a phenomenal reception by all the Oxfam staff, a long walk up some steps to the British Academy building where the charity's after-party was held, a tunnel of pom-pom girls I danced down very gingerly, a sports massage and a jazz band in one of those private gardens they usually lock, and then a bus and a cab to the pub to mull over a slightly disappointing day.

44'16"

Here's a map of a route I've been running for months:





I started on 48, 49 minutes to do this. Gradually I whittled this down to 46-something, which I took as a good time. Turn of the year, suddenly I'm sub-46 and all I can think of is sub-45.

I ran 45'02"as I stopped for a bus at the finish line for the route (a zebra crossing). Then I ran 45'00"19 and started to think I was never going to crack 45 minutes.

This morning I ran 44'16" in probably my last hard run before the marathon, in broad and brilliant sunshine all the way.

Early Lunch + 2nd Lunch

From the latest information from Oxfam:

'In the 4 days leading up to the marathon it's a good idea to try and load your body with carbohydrates. This practice is known as carb-loading...

This process takes time so you shouldn't try and carb load the day before. It's best done 4 to 1 days before the race to give your body time to store the extra energy.

You should be aiming to eat an extra 300-400 calories of carbohydrates a day. The easiest way to do this is not by increasing your meal sizes, but by adding another meal into your day. Start by having breakfast, then perhaps an early lunch, followed by a meal around 3pm and then a normal dinner in the evening.'

17 miles

17 miles hurts, but not like I thought it would.

I fell after 3 by the canal along the towpath, just at the bend where the route led up to the road, a flat road with no gravel nor puddles and a lot wider than the path beside the canal. Put a hole in my tights.

12 miles later and the guy running next to me for 6 or 7 of them tells me he's had a stone in his shoe since the towpath. It takes forever to overtake people when you're going marathon pace.

The miles ticked by.

Marathon clock

Seventy-one days

The Swan

Here's one I ran earlier.