London Marathon
It’s taken me 6 months and a couple of attempts to write this post. It took some time to process it all amid a lot of other things I had going on in my life at the time, but here it is, my London marathon experience.
Similarly, to Berlin marathon last September, London marathon was 3 years in the making for me. After my success in Berlin, going sub 3hrs for the first time, I had high hopes for London.
Unfortunately for me, there were other similarities to Berlin in that I once again didn’t have the best build up. In fact, this time around it was even worse. I didn’t have the best start to the year, training wise, after being unwell and not exercising at all for 2 weeks and then struggling to get back into it all over the next few weeks.
I had a great time at my first ever CrossFit competition at the of January, but I wasn’t doing much regular strength work, something which would contribute to my undoing in London.
February and March were fairly solid months in terms of mileage but during March I had a lot of personal issues. Why do these things always seem to happen when I’m trying to train for marathons? Life tends to get in the way when you least expect or need it to.
Long story short, over a protracted period during March, I lost my job. A job I had held for nearly 13 years, so to say it was unexpected would be an understatement. As a single parent with a mortgage, this obviously brought on a substantial amount of stress. There’s no good time for this kind of thing to happen, but it’s especially bad timing when you’re trying to train for a marathon!
Being bloody minded
Running for me is my main passion and hobby, but sometimes life has to come first. April was a disaster for my running. Before travelling to London, I’d run just under 40 miles in April. Not what you want in the build-up to a marathon and due to my temporary work situation, coupled with a lack of childcare, I barely ran at all in the 2 weeks before the race.
I can be pretty stubborn and bloody minded when I want to be. Could I have decided not to run it? Yes, I have a GFA time so could have waited until 2024 but I’d already waited 3 years. Besides, I also have a Boston qualifying time so plan to be running that in spring 2024 instead.
So, despite being nowhere near where I needed to be with my fitness, and not running a proper long run for over a month, off to London I went.
I’d booked a really nice basement apartment in Greenwich. It had off street parking, a lovely jacuzzi bath and was about half a mile from my starting area. It was the perfect base. I drove up on the Friday and travelled over to the Expo to pick up my bib number etc. and treat myself to a few bits of merchandise I probably couldn’t afford, but you only live once right!
Once done at the Expo, I travelled back across London, grabbed some food and chilled out for the evening. Oh, I forgot to mention that I’d also come down with a stinking cold that week and my shake out run on the Saturday morning was not the best. Full of cold, heart rate sky high, it was a reality check for what was to come the following day.
Race day
That shake out run was a sign of things to come but I’ve trained through colds etc. plenty of times in the past, so what difference would it really make? I’d find out the answer to that question later on.
The morning of the race I was oddly calm. I think I knew it was likely to go one of two ways. I’d either fluke a performance, or it would be a disaster. In Berlin, despite not having had the best build up, I had a really high level of base fitness. I’d achieved that through running when I could and complimenting it with gym work. Specifically conditioning classes which really helped both mentally and physically.
I knew I didn’t have that luxury this time around though. After a leisurely walk down to the start areas, and bumping into Chris, a friend from IG, I joined the toilet queue. Whilst queuing, the heavens opened. The day before was a nice sunny day, race day was the opposite. It was a lot cooler and soon became very wet.
After dropping my bag off, I headed to my start pen and sought out another friend from IG, Beejay. He was targeting a time around 2.45 – 2.50, something that I had hoped to be going for had I had better training. Alas, that wasn’t to be the case for me, but I still wanted to start the race with him.
It wasn’t long before we were off. After 3 years I was finally running London marathon. I started out running with Beejay, but the pace was soon too quick for me to handle. I was being somewhat sensible but definitely not sensible enough.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail
Despite letting Beejay, and countless others from my starting pen slowly run off into the distance, I still started too fast. I convinced myself that I felt comfortable, so it was it was fine. It wasn’t fine. I was running faster in the first 5 – 6 miles than in Berlin. This was unsustainable, and I knew it.
I was in for a world of pain later in the race but refused to slow down. Again, bloody minded *insert eye roll! Before the race I knew a PB, or anything close to it, was out of the question but I still arrogantly thought I might be able to finish in around 3hrs. Maybe even sneak another sub 3. At that time, I was 100% on for such a time.
However, going into a marathon undertrained is not advisable. Although I did genuinely feel pretty good up until the halfway mark, not long after that, the wheels started to come off and they would do so in spectacular fashion. I was fit enough to run a half marathon at a decent pace, I think I went through halfway in about 1hr24, but I wasn’t fit enough to run a marathon at that pace.
The effects of my cold were kicking in, I was starting to feel fatigued, and I was getting stomach cramps. I was feeling the lack of miles in my legs and inevitably, my pace started to drop. Around mile 16 I reluctantly stopped to use a toilet. I’m glad I did as the cramps subsided but getting going again after a brief stop and sit down was tough. I’d have happily stopped there if I’m honest. There were still 10 miles to go though, and nothing was stopping me from finishing this race.
Getting far too acquainted with the pain cave
The next two miles were a bit of a struggle. My pace had dropped from below 7min mile pace to 7.17 and then 7.36. The wheels were starting to buckle. At mile 19 they well and truly fell off. I stopped to walk for the first time and as soon as that happened, I knew it was going to be a very long rest of the race for me.
At first, I was demoralised, angry, upset, frustrated and a million other things at my inability to keep running, even at a slower pace. I did mile 19 in 10.05. I managed to pick it up a bit for the next few miles, keeping the walking to a minimum, but the walking breaks were becoming more frequent. I’d never been in this position before in a road race and it was tough to take at first. Eventually, I just thought fuck it, my race is done, let’s just focus on finishing.
I have to say, the crowd support was amazing. Every time I stopped to walk or stretch out my ever-tightening calves, I’d be encouraged by complete strangers to keep running. It was the same for other runners in the same boat. It’s why the running community is the absolute best.
I was in a world of pain and if it wasn’t London marathon, and I hadn’t waited so long to run it, I’d have probably quit. I’m made of sterner stuff than that though and quitting wasn’t an option. You go to some dark places in times like these, when your whole body is hurting, every forward step is a struggle, and you question yourself mentally. I knew I’d had a tough 2 months personally before the race and I was coming out the other side of that stronger. I knew I had it in me to get this done.
Humbled, but not broken
At mile 23, I saw two more friends from IG, Kirsty and Vicky. I had a big hug from both of them as they could see I was struggling and I almost burst into tears. Marathons break you down emotionally too and you feel everything. After a solid pep talk, I was on my way again and tried to run as much as possible to the finish.
Once I got to St James Park and Buckingham Palace etc. I pushed the pace as much as I could. Which wasn’t much in all honesty. When I crossed the finish line in Berlin, I was euphoric. This time around I was just relieved to be finished!
My biggest takeaway from this race is that you can never underestimate running a marathon. If you’re underprepared or undertrained, the marathon will eat you up and spit you back out. There’s also some kind of masochistic nature to running a marathon. I mean, why else do we endure such pain and turmoil of running 26.2 miles if a part of us doesn’t secretly enjoy it? Not to mention the months of training we go through, in all weather, just to make it to the start line.
I was humbled on that wet day in April. However, I’m a big believer of learning more from the bad runs or difficult life experiences. So, this is 100% being chalked up as a learning experience and is an example of how not to train for and run a marathon!
Despite my obvious disappointment, I wasn’t overly surprised at how it went. Once changed into some dry, warm clothes, I headed back to my apartment to chill out before heading out with friends in the evening.
Sunday night was a good one. Food and a well-earned pint in St Pauls and then more beers with others across London in Camden. Being able to hear everyone else’s stories was great and I met some lovely people.
London may not have been the life changing experience I had in Berlin, but it certainly taught me a lot. Overall I had a great weekend away. I had previously felt I’d be one and done with London but one day I’d like to return when in better shape. Since running London marathon, my running has been plagued by injuries that resulted in me having to defer Chicago marathon in October. Now I’m just about to enter a rebuild phase that will hopefully have me ready for Boston marathon next April. From the ashes and all that!
