It's all over.. and never again (surely)

At Mile 14

I type this from an extremely sedentary position, 29 hours since crossing the finish line of the London Marathon. My legs are very sore; bending down takes ten times as long as normal (which is unhelpful given that, due to general fatigue, I am dropping stuff quite a lot). I am tired!



But have a PB to show for
it - I ran 3:37:20 yesterday, which was almost 15 minutes quicker than last time out. It was hard - much like last time, it went from great, to OK, to ugh, to slog, at broadly similar places! I felt like I was crawling along the Embankment,

That's me in the top-left, crossing the line
(as captured by my Mum via the Sky
red button!)

to be honest, but the profile shows I didn't go too much beyond
9min/miling average at the end. My hope had been to do a consistent 8min/miling and shade 3:30, but I had no idea if that was achievable... and running a consistent pace is really hard! So my early place was quick, and my later pace slow... a classic Marathon running problem, of course!

It was also very hot - the sun was beating down throughout, which added a bit to the difficulty factor.


For most of the second half the main thing I was telling myself (besides "Come on for god's sake, you can do it) was "Never again" - the mental and physical trauma of mile 16 to mile 25 is something that I don't think I really want to repeat. But they do say memories fade... who knows? For now I will concentrate on half-marathons, I feel!

One of the main things that helped me get round was the amazing crowd support: despite, or because of, the events in Boston, (and, of course, thanks to the weather!) the crowds were loud and deep - pretty much everywhere. In Surrey Quays they were 10 deep each side, the wall of noise was immense and quite overwhelming.

But best of all my own personal cheer squad were magnificent - knowing I would see them at mile 14 and 21 was such a great incentive. Big thanks to them for that, and for all the drinks in the pub after!

The pub was The Warwick, where the Stroke Association had hired out the venue and there was a great atmosphere. I was one of the first ones back, so had a slightly more muted cheer compared to later runners, where the whole place clapped and hollered. Great stuff.

Thanks across the board, basically - it really is an experience running the Marathon and I'd recommend it to anyone. But you'll understand if, at the same time, I say that I have no desire to do it again anytime soon!

PS: You can still sponsor me - I'm going to keep the page open until 20 May.