I completed the London Marathon on 26th April. Enjoyed the race more than any other marathon I’ve taken part in, best organised, by far the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds (I have been advised many cheering locations were beside pubs which really helps).
The race start was 10:20 so I entered the race arena at 09:20 (was staying in Charlton 1 stop from the race which was lucky and convenient). It was so well organised there was minimal queues for anything (even toilets). Actually found myself bored for 30 minutes waiting for it to get kicked off as supporters couldn’t come into the race arena.
My start point was Blue club section and not too far from the front (B1 was effectively right behind the elites). Due to a niggling calf injury I stayed near the back of Blue 3 and crossed the start line about 80 seconds after start time.
From there the race pretty much went:
3 miles: Slow while fighting to get past people
3-10 miles: Constantly telling myself to slow down and not get carried away / repeatedly hitting people with discarded water bottles (got embarrassing when I winged a policeman with a Lucozade bottle ricochet off a traffic light)
10 miles: Minor panic due to sore calves
17 miles: Cruising, talking to the occasional similar pace runner
17-23 miles: Setting some faster times, waiting to hit the wall
23 – end: Realising wall wasn’t coming, passing lots of people. Obligatory sprint finish
Honestly felt good at the end, a near completely flat route and probably going too slow first half but meant I really enjoyed the 2nd half. A stat on the website said in the last 7km I was passed by 2 people and passed 702!
Biggest lesson learned was to watch the clocks on the route (of which there were many), my watch showed a sub 3:20 but it had me run an extra half mile due to not following the blue line (race route). Left me just over 3:20 which was just a little annoying.
Worth noting for supporters: was difficult for them to get to the meet and greet area due to restricted routes. Was a huge amount of runners waiting for supporters that took an hour or more to get there so worth planning in advance.
Overall great rave, the Londoners were at every point of the route and constantly shouted everyone on (2nd lesson: wear your name on your shirt!). Fantastic crowd!
Now ready to go back to shorter races for a while!
Maryhill Results :
Kieran Sullivan 3hrs 20m 48s
Scott Coulter 3hrs 49m 49s
