The London Experience - some unfinished business

After 4 months of being a bear with a sore head and running numerous miles in weather conditions that made me question my sanity, the marathon weekend was now here!

For anyone contemplating entering the London marathon I would thoroughly recommend it, just for the expo and the build up alone. From the minute I arrived at the excel conference centre and the marathon theme tune piped us runners into the hall, the months of anticipation were wiped away in a second and reality gave us all a huge slap in the face. London was here and now! The expo was a runners paradise, lots of new gear you don't really need but you know you are going to buy it anyway. Lots of freebies and most importantly free advice from some of the experts.

Contents of the expo goodie bag

Once marathon day arrived, it was a case of sticking to the tried and tested ritual. Wash, get the gear on, breakfast of porridge, honey, blueberries and a cup of coffee followed by a cup of water. Get the rucksak ready - protein bars, isotonic drinks, energy bar, spare t-shirt, track suit. Quick visit to the loo to banish the possibility of a visit from the gingerbread man! Any deviation from this religious ceremony would surely result in disaster? Up to the station to catch the train. All running smoothly as the train pulls into Blackheath. Here we are - the day of reckoning. Once inside the runners pen at Greenwich park it was time to soak it all in and stay relaxed (I wish - the butterflies would stop performing their version of the riverdance in my stomach).

The build up to the start!

After an hour of chatting with some fellow runners and sipping some water (punctuated by a few trips to the urinals - much better than queuing for the porta-loos) It was time to get the get ready and zip up the man suit.

The Start

A very nervy 15 minutes were spent in the holding pen - coupled with the urge to go pee again! But then we were off - the worrying, planning and thinking were over - lets hope there was enough in the tank to complete the mission.  Being in a decent pen on the blue start meant it only took 2-3 min to cross the start line so it wasn't long before my plan A was put in place. Plan A was to get close to 3hr 30m, which would be achieved by taking it easy for the first 13 mile and keeping the 8min/mile pacer in site. Plan A lasted until mile 2 when the urge to pee became too much. To avoid doing a "Paula" I queued politely at the porta-loos and promptly lost 2 minutes from my target. Never mind - no panic - just stick to 7m 55s / mile and everything would soon be back on target. All went well for the next few miles and plan A was back on track.

Having trained up to 20 miles on a long run, at the back of my mind was "the wall"! As this was likely to appear around 20 - 21 miles I figured on being prepared by fueling up on jelly babies and gels from around mile 6. However after mile 8 and 3 jelly babies, the sickly taste of jelly babies was becoming slightly nauseating. Time for a gel me thinks (obviously remembering to keep sipping water in between), however I had the misfortune to select a gel sachet that was hell bent on not opening. After about half a mile of trying to rip off the lid (while trying to appear "cool" to surrounding runners), the sachet finally decided to open. All over my arm and vest, leaving me to frantically lick the remains off the outer wall of the foil sachet. Ok some sugar now on board, lets just keep it easy to tower bridge and half-way!

The support of the crowd as I reached tower bridge was overwhelming and my emotions were running high. As we were now approaching mid-way and midday I started to notice that I was feeling quite hot and not as full of beans as I did in the first half of the race. Ok maybe time for plan B, ease off the gas, take on some liquid and gel and aim for 3hr 40m. Straightforward enough, the rest of the race should be manageable, right? Wrong, by around mile 17 the stomach had had enough of gels and sugary isotonic drinks. The sweat was now going from a slow trickle to a fast flowing stream and to make things worse, the garmin watch threw a wobbly when surrounded by canary wharf etc, so any idea of how I was pacing myself was much more difficult to manage. By miles 18 and 19 I realised that I was now down to 9m 30s / mile and the legs were becoming stiffer and heavier. By mile 20, the old toe injury had come back to bite me on the bum and by now I could sense the wheels starting to fall off!! Not quite time for plan Y, which was just to finish, (plan Z was find the nearest St Johns ambulance, or pub, and call it a day), but we were now looking at Plan C which was to keep going, dig in and duck in under 4hours. After a couple of miles of shuffle, then stop to swig some water and stretch toe, then shuffle for another 5 minutes, the garmin was working again, there were only a few miles left and I was starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I was just hoping it wasn't a train coming the other way! As the crowds started increase as we approached the embankment and Big Ben and the London eye came into view a little (very little!) spring appeared in the step. Knowing that there were thousands lining the streets and millions now watching on tv, not to mention Sue Barker waiting on the mall, it now felt impossible to stop. Not to mention the shame of having everyone you had bored the pants off over the last 4 months, about how great your training was going, now able to watch you walk, hobble or crawl over the line. The overwhelming emotions you feel as you come on to the mall are very hard to describe. Crossing the line (in 3h56m) was a real mixture of joy, relief, achievement, exhaustion and frustration. Yes, frustration. After feeling like hell over the last 6 miles and telling myself that this was my first and last marathon, on crossing the line I started to think about how the race had gotten the better of me, could I have trained differently or run using a different pacing strategy? Was my fueling strategy to blame? My frustration at not running the race I had planned in my head, quickly turned to determination. No 26.2 miles is going to get the better of me. I'm going to train harder, run better and whip the marathon's ass the next time I see it. Oh my god, after one race I'm now hooked!

A few days rest under the belt and now and it's time to focus on Chester in October.