Thursday 17 April 2014

London Marathon 2014 Race Report

Part two - The Race

I woke up ridiculously early on the Sunday morning, well before my 5.30am alarm went off.  It took a few seconds to remember why I would wake up at 4-something-am on a Sunday morning, then remember it was of course Marathon Day.  I ended up doing exactly what I had done a week earlier, and lie in bed with my iphone on Twitter, joining the conversations with other London runners who were clearly also unable to sleep.  Eventually I got up, had my pre-marathon pain au chocolates and cup of tea, got dressed and then had another sort out of my gear to make sure I had not forgotten anything.

Got the first train from St Albans, and there were already other runners waiting there!  I chatted to a few of them – all very sociable for 6.50am! – and we talked about the different marathons we’d run and what our plans for today were.  It was a nice train journey down to London as we were joined but some of the early spectators who were going to set up spots as early as possible along the best parts of the route, such as Tower Bridge and Westminster.  I changed at London Bridge, and joined a full train of runners down to Greenwich for the red start zone.  It was great fun, and bought back memories of arriving at Blackheath last year and all piling off the train and platform and towards the start.  One of my favourite memories from last year was walking up the street with helicopters already buzzing overhead, past cafes and pubs which had opened early, filled with runners having a quick coffee or nipping in to use the loos.  It was similar this year, although as most of the walk was through Greenwich Park we did not go past cafes and pubs.  We had to show our race numbers before being allowed into the starting area, and it was quite familiar as I had done the Run To The Beat half marathon which started from the same place back in September.  I also recognised the famous gates through which the runners pass just before crossing the start line.  Almost time!

It was only about 8.30am, so I killed time by sorting my gear out, phoning my parents to see where they planned to watch me, queuing for the loos (very long queues as normal!) and putting my bag on the baggage lorries.  It was a great atmosphere and there were huge TV screens up so we could watch the BBC show the live action from the elite’s tents and other start zones.  Got to see coverage of the Wheelchairs, IPC and Women’s elite races set off, that was good, then finally made my way towards the start.  There was music playing, and at one point they were playing Starlight by Slash, one of my favourite songs.  I got me a quite emotional as this song has always reminded me of a friend who died a few years ago very suddenly.  I had that song somewhere on my iPod so if that came on I decided I would run that mile in his memory.   

I was in pen 9, which I think was the biggest pen, and was at the back for the not-quite-so-elite runners.  It was a beautiful Sunday morning, very mild and sunny.  Great for a day outdoors, but I hoped it would not get too hot for running 26 miles.  I chatted to another lady, Liz, who was running for the same charity that I did last year (Shelter).  She was aiming for 5 hours, I said I was just aiming to get round having just done Brighton!  Around us were loads of crazy fancy dress outfits, including rhinos and a very feathery Big Bird.  Mostly people wore charity vests.  I’d not got a charity vest as Look UK are very small, but instead I’d printed out and laminated two signs to wear on my front and back, so everyone could see the charity I was running for.  At 10am, the gun went, and way, way ahead of us, the first runners crossed the line!

It took a while to shuffle forward, and it was about 25 minutes before we finally came out of the gates and there it was, the start line, just in front of us!  I said good luck to Liz, tuned on my iPod (I took it, but I didn’t listen to it much as the crowds are so loud and motivating), made sure my Garmin has picked up the GPS, and set my spare stopwatch (yes I bought two plus a 5.45 pace band) then shuffled forwards some more…. before finally crossing the start line!  It was every bit as electric as last year, the crowds we great as we set off from Greenwich, and even better this year, we could see down the hill towards the green and blue starts at Blackheath – us running down Charlton Way, and the blues and greens down Shooter’s Hill Road.  I tried not to go too fast in the first mile – I was still stiff from Brighton but it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement!  Around me people were sprinting past in various degrees of fancy dress and brightly coloured charity tee-shirts, and I wondered at what point they would crash and hit the wall.  I couldn’t believe when I passed the first mile marker – a huge arch made up of hundreds of red and white balloons – I’d been running for just eleven minutes already yet it felt I had literally just began!

The first few miles were more undulating than last year, and it felt strange to be running a slightly different route.  I’d heard about this though, and I knew it would be very flat from 3 miles onwards.  Soon we joined up with the blue/greens and I vaguely recognised the route.  Having been right at the back of the biggest start zone, there weren’t many people left of on the blue route now so there wasn’t as much of the good-natured booing and hissing that there was last year when the slower blues joined up with the middle masses of the reds.  Still good fun though!

For the next few miles, I just ran slowly to shake out my legs and make sure they were not going to start cramping.  I hadn’t run at all since the Brighton Marathon and with my hamstrings having been so tight the day before I hoped they would hold out.  This part of the route was mainly through residential areas, so most of the spectators were locals who were out in their gardens or walking to the shops.  I recognised some of the route, but not all.  We passed the Vineyard Church – I remembered them from last year! – they were playing loud, upbeat music and dancing outside!  Plus every pub seemed to be packed with people, with those right on the route having posters, banners and balloons up outside as they were “official pubs” of the marathon.  Hope they were having a few pints on us – they certainly had the perfect weather for watching, but us runners were getting a bit hot in the late morning heat by not!

The first big sight – and crowd-puller – was Cutty Sark, just after 10k.  Definitely one of my favourite parts from last year but a drawback too.  I remember coming up to about 6 miles last year and realising I had gone out much too fast, and falling way behind the 4.58 pacer, never to be seen again.  It was still a great part of the route though, and it was even better this year as I had no target time in mind so could just enjoy it.  Just before the crowds got really big, I found a song on my iPod to play as I remember hearing that song being played at a pub along this part of the course last year, and now I always associate it with the Greenwich section of the marathon (Bonfire by Knife Party), and I wanted to hear it again, while I was actually running it a second time.  Of course in no time, the crowds were so loud I couldn’t hear the music, but that was good.  We ran all the way round Cutty Sark, it looked spectacular in the bright sunlight and the crowds were bigger than last year.  Everyone was waving to the television cameras here, too!

A few more miles through Deptford, not the most interesting part of the route, and annoying here I felt a bit of a blister coming on.  I couldn’t believe it – I was wearing trainers I’d worn well in and no new gear, so why now!?  I had to stop three times to sort it out, firstly to loosen the laces, then to tighten them up again, and finally to remove the shoe and check there wasn’t a stone in there, so all that faffing about used up time and meant bending down having run 8 miles.  Luckily after that, the blister did not develop any further and it didn’t really bother me after that.

I was looking forward to the 9-11 mile point, as somewhere along this section my friends from skydiving would be watching.  It was also where I’d gone to watch the 2012 London Marathon with them, when I’d decided I really wanted to run it next year.  My parents might also be watching somewhere around here as well – I’d told them to go to Canada Water station and  watch from either outside the Decathlon store or the church that gave our free drinks to spectators.  I was looking out for Dennis’s Union jack flag, and at about 11 miles (I think!) I saw them!  The first people I knew, spotted!  I was really happy, and high fived them all as I ran passed.  I think it may have been easier for me to spot them by now, as the crowds had thinned out a lot, with most of the masses having already passed through with the 4 to 5 hour pacers.

At mile 12, I knew that one of the best parts was coming up – Tower Bridge!  I’d remembered being totally taken by surprise last year, having done a very sharp right and suddenly, there it was in front of us!  This year I knew it roughly where it was, and as we rounded the corner, yes – there is was, looking amazing!  It was basically just a wall of noise, with hundreds of people on both sides of the bridge and leading up to it, mostly charities hoping flags and banners.  I definitely couldn’t hear my music at this point, so I took my iPod off and enjoyed the full atmosphere.  There was a BBC TV camera up ahead, interviewing someone, and I ran passed wondering if I too would get on TV (I did!!  I saw the coverage later and there was about two seconds of my running passed Karaoke Guy!).  Even better, as we came over Tower Bridge and towards the half-way point, I suddenly saw my parents out of nowhere.  They weren’t close to the barriers, so I couldn’t high-5 or hug them, but I waved and shouted hi to them.  They told me later it was by total luck they had seen me hear as they had got trapped between two huge crowds  unable to get back to the Tube easily, and had only just decided at the last second to go up onto a platform to see if they could spot me – which they did, almost immediately!  That was really good to know. 

At half way, I still felt good, although aching quite a lot by now and took a minute to walk at the drinks stations.  Although slower than last year, my pacing was far better, as in 2013 I’d been feeling totally worn out by this point and knew I’d screwed up any chance of getting a sub-5 hour.  This year I still had plenty of energy and could just enjoy it a lot more.  I watched the faster runners on the other side of the road go by, they were already up to 21 miles – nearly done!  Mo Farah was long finished though.  The miles between 13 and 16 did seem to drag a bit though, plus it was really heating up now and I had to pour water on myself to cool down.  Lots of people around me seemed to be struggling.  I was glad I’d made sure to do some long runs at midday this year to help acclimatize.  I was having the dilemma of what to do with my iPod; the earphones were bouncing around after taking them off at Tower Bridge and were annoying me.  But I didn’t have the energy to try and take it off completely, wind up the cords and find somewhere in my pockets to stuff it.  So I decided to leave them on, in my ears, with the music playing but fairly low so I could still enjoy the cheers.  When things got really painful (or if people started saying that old chestnut, “not far to go now!” with still 10 miles left!) I could just turn the music up and zone out.

 Somewhere around 16- 17 miles, on the Isle of Dogs, I saw Mary from work and waved.  This was a real boost, as I was feeling the miles seemed to be getting longer and longer, and I was having to have more short walking breaks.  Annoyingly, my Garmin battery was getting very low, again!  This happened in Brighton, when it totally died at mile 21.  It is meant to last at least 5 hours and it generally lasts closer to 6!  Must contact them about this!  I decided to stop the GPS at mile 17 and just use the timer instead so at least, it wouldn’t run out completely and I still had an idea of my time.  I’d got my second stopwatch anyway just in case.  The 18 mile point was good, as you run through Canary Wharf, which is quite spectacular and filled with spectators.  It’s all a bit twisty-turny, so I was quite disorientated and wasn’t sure how far was left before we got back out on the final 6 mile stretch to Westminster.  I was glad I hadn’t put my iPod away now, as there were some times were I really needed music as a distraction from the pain.

Finally, at 21 miles, we were back on The Highway, where the route turns back on itself.  Here I saw my parents again!  This time they were right at the front of the barrier and I got close enough to give them a hug.  My dad even ran alongside me for a very short distance while my mum took photos!  That was awesome.  There were virtually no runners at the half way point any more, just sweeper trucks clearing up the road and one person who looked like they were still taking part – just very, very slowly.  I picked up a couple of Lucozade energy gels here for the final hour.  I’d taken a few already of my own, but good to have a couple spare in case I crashed.  We passed Tower Bridge (I think, it’s a bit of a blur now!) and the Tower of London (which I do remember seeing) and finally came up to the Embankment, whoohoo – on the home straight!  Last year this part seemed to take forever, and I’d totally forgotten that you don’t come right onto the Embankment, next to the Thames particularly early.  We were running parallel for a while, with building between us and the river, but all I kept thinking was “when are we going to reach the Embankment!”.  Eventually I started seeing signed we were coming up – first, the mile 23 arch.  Then, the start of the Mini London Marathon (if the kids can run this – so can I!).  Just a parkrun to go…. I was determined to run the last bit and not walk any more.  I was also looking out for the tunnel soon afterwards, which is a very weird, surreal section that Lucozade totally take over, I think it was called the “Lucozade Tunnel of Yes” last year although I think it was shortened to just #mile23 now, presumably so you can tweet a selfie halfway through and hashtag it.  And then I reached it – you leave the crowds behind for a few minutes as it’s runners only down here, so you finally get a bit of privacy and most people but this point were walking (or peeing up against the wall!).  I carried on running as best as I could.  They play Eye Of The Tiger here and have these huge glowing balls with motivating words on them (i.e. the tunnel of YES), and with the darkness, glowing balls and the smell of thousands of sweaty runners, it’s all a bit trippy.  Even coming out the other side is bizarre, back into the bright sunlight and hundreds of screaming spectators, it takes a few moments to readjust and work out where you are.  I am sure people come out really disorientated!

Mile 24 and well onto the Embankment now.  The crowds were epic, and I saw Ben, Wai Meng and Richard here!  Just 2.2 miles to go, it was well within sight.  I was just over 5 hours now, and I was really happy to see that I might get a reasonably respectable time of about 5 and a half hours, when the day before I’d have been happy with anything under 6.  I was still running – slowly – and passing just about everyone else.  Many people were waling the rest of the way now.  I found out later on the results page that I passed 979 people in the final 7km and only over took me!  I got loads of people shouting my name here which was great, I guess because I looked like I was still going strong but more likely because it was simply less crowded and there was no’one to hide behind anymore!  All good though, I was glad I had written my name on my vest after all.

At 25 miles I was actually, for a second, really disappointed that the race was almost over.  I only had less than 14 minutes left of running to do and then it would all be over.  I even caught myself wishing (just for a moment, mind you!) that the race was an ultra, so I could carry on for another couple of miles and make the most of the crowds!  But not for long, I now couldn’t wait to finish.  Soon Big Ben was well in sight, we passed the London Eye and turned a sharp right onto Bridge Street and Birdcage Walk.  Here, you are so close to the finish, and you expect to be able to see the finish line – but this road is deceptively long and seems to go on forever!  It’s actually a good half mile or more from when you go past Big Ben, which feels like another 5k after all the miles you’ve done so far.  I told myself this, and made sure I did not kid myself into thinking there was only a minute of running left, especially when passing the 800m To Go sign, which you assume is the 26 mile marker!  Or when you turn another right at the top of St James’s Park – I was nearly there, but not quite!  But I was loving it, and was taking in so much more than last year.  When I passed in front of Buckingham Palace, it felt like I was in the Olympics, the crowds were bigger than anything I’d seen until now.  Last year I’d barely noticed Buckingham Palace, but this year I knew it was there and just as you carry on turning to the right, there is the 385 Yards To Go sign.  26 miles done, could I manage a sprint finish?  Well not quite a sprint, but just about a slight quickening of pace, and over the finish line!  I looked at my watch – just gone 5 hours 28, I was so happy.  Two marathons in one week and they were within about 22 minutes of each other.

I hobbled through the finishing funnel, and had my timing chip removed.  Then, my medal!  Behold the beautiful, shiny bling.  It was very impressive this year, a huge, round medal with a very detailed engraving of London and Tower Bridge from the air on one side, and a route of the marathon and the Thames on the other.  I tried to keep walking, as my legs were so tired and they were starting to seize up.  I managed to pose for the finisher’s photo and then went to collect my goody bag and baggage.  The goody bag contained a few basic items, mostly I just want food so that was fine.  A finisher’s tee-shirt (great colour but about 5 sizes too big), an apple, a bottle of Lucozade, a bottle of water, can of adidas deodorant, an energy gel and some other bits and pieces.  I ate the food and drank the drinks, then stuffed everything else into my backpack.  Once out in St James’s park, I finally sat down on the grass – bliss!  It was really busy and extremely crowded so I text my parents to say I’d finished and to meet me at the J meet-up zone.  I then had to attempt to get back up again – with the help of a tree! – and make my way slowly to the changing tent where I got into clean clothes and felt a bit more human again.  Finally I met my parents and gave them a big (sore) hug.

After a rest – my parents needed it as well! – we wandered back along the Embankment watching the later runners.  There were still quite a few going, 6 or 7 hours later.  We had a cup of tea in a nearby cafĂ©, then slowly made our way to Blackfriars to catch the train home.  It was really strange being back in the “real world” – with non-runners milling about everywhere, but got plenty of “well dones” from total strangers on the way home!  When I was finally home I ate a huge pizza, a chocolate milkshake and a glass of Bailey’s delicious!  Even better was having the day off work on the Monday, so I could enjoy a lovely long lie in, a bath and watch the high lights of both the Brighton and London Marathons on the TV with a huge bowl of Ben & Jerries ice cream.

What a day!  I really want to run London again, it's such an incredible race.  The ballot for the 2015 race opens next week, so I'll be setting my alarm to ensure I get my application in.  I would love another chance to run this excellent marathon again.  I'm also thrilled to have just hit my fundraising target for Look UK, so a huge thank you to anyone who has sponsored me.

Until then, there's just Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Kent, Berlin, the Royal Parks Ultra and another Brighton to go!


My race gear, laid out, ready to go

Marathon Breakfast

Selfie at 5am

At the Red Start

Lots of runners at Greenwich park

Starting zone selfie

Me and Liz at the start


Spotted on TV - on Tower Bridge in the background!

21 Miles in, Mum taking a photo at Limehouse


Mile 24, Wai Meng's photo


Still just about running at mile 24!

The Finish Line!

With my medal at the mile 25 marker

Beautiful day in London

Mum and me

Me and Dad


The medal!

London Marathon medals from 2013 (left) and 2014 (right)


Results showing my 5k splits, nice and even

Where I came in the race - at least I had a strong finish

Average Pace and speed for the race

Wednesday 16 April 2014

The Expo! London Marathon part 1

Well, the second marathon of the Grand Slam – and the biggest, most famous, is now completed!  London Marathon done on the 13th April.  Here’s my race recap, while it’s all still fresh in my mind.  Part one is the expo, part two to follow soon!

I love the London Marathon, and was absolutely thrilled to get a last-minute charity place meaning I could run for a second year in a row.  It would be my second London, and seventh marathon in total.  While I love all my marathons, there’s little that London can’t offer, and the fact that the whole city comes out to enjoy the day and it’s all broadcast live on BBC1 means just about everyone you speak to is aware of it, even if they don’t normally follow running.  This made the week in between Brighton and London rather surreal.  I had some very confused people (mainly of the non-running ilk!)  ask me how on earth I’d managed to already run the marathon when it hadn’t taken place yet, or which marathon was I doing as they weren’t sure, how far was Brighton compared to London, and all the usual questions like that!!  I like to think the running a marathon outside the capital is a bit like having your birthday – your friends and family know and will celebrate, but the general population has no idea.  Running London is like Christmas – everyone’s heard of it and has a vague idea of when it takes place, and you can get away with saying “I’m running the marathon” and they’ll know what you’re talking about.  (I try NOT to use that phrase though, as I think it plays down other marathons!).  I think the only other races you can class alongside with London in that way would be Boston, New York and the Great North Run.

So Saturday was all about the Expo.  I love the Expo, even though it’s crowded and I’d probably wear myself out walking around all day and spend too much money.  I went very early on Saturday morning (missing parkrun!) and allowed myself little peeps at the roads around Tower Bridge and in Greenwich, which were already being prepared for the race – barriers going up and Lucozade stations being erected.  It was a lovely spring morning and London really did look good.  At Tower Gateway, I began seeing lots of runners (easy to tell!), some even leaving the expo and heading home with their bright red baggage bags.  The DLR to the ExCel exhibition centre was packed with runners, and the driver knew it!  At every stop when welcoming passengers on board, it was clearly aimed at the runners.  The best line was “I’d like to wish you all the best tomorrow, but it’s not too late to change your mind!” – a lot of us tried to suppress nervous laughs here and clearly some people thought she was right!  I felt sorry for anyone who was not a runner and only wanted to get from A to B as their train had totally been taken over.  There were even posters everywhere warning people about how busy it would get this weekend.  It’s good to hear/see things like this though as you start to realise the scale of this huge event and how the capital really does come to a halt for  the day just to let a bunch of runners trot round the capital for the day.

I got to the expo at about 10am and went to collect my number.  Finally, my race number in my hand, it was official!  Next came the shopping.  I didn’t enjoy the expo quite as much as last year, perhaps because back then it was all new, but there didn’t seem to be as many discounts this year.  Probably a good thing, as it stopped me spending too much.  I did wander round the huge Adidas zone for a while though, trying on loads of VMLM gear.  Eventually I decided on a pair of bright orange running shorts and a cotton souvenir tee-shirt – blue with the numbers “2014” made up of the names of different landmarks along the course, and a graphic of the Thames in the background.  I’d already bought some of the gear earlier in the year when the new London Marathon Store opened and they had a big sale on - so didn’t want to go overboard again at the expo!  So now I am the proud (skint) owner of the fleece, blue long sleeved running top, blue singlet, orange shorts and cotton tee shirt.  I also tried on some other gear as well including an awesome pair of striped tights, rather loud but amazing all the same, but discovered the material was a bit thick and they had non-flat seams running right down the inside of the leg, which would annoy me after a while so I decided against them.  Sadly there was no decent celebration jacket this year – last year I bought a lovely windproof jacket in black and yellow, but this time they only had the more basic versions, in either blue with reflective stripes, or bright orange (which they’d run out of) or the track jacket (zipped tracksuit top).  The orange, and track designs were very expensive at £60 and they were not as nice as last year’s so I passed up on these.  I was also a bit disappointed that they didn’t have the final-day sale on the 2014 range.

After the first shopping spree, I wandered round the rest of the expo for a few hours.  I tried not to buy too much, but inevitably did..  A box of energy gels from High5, two new medal displays to go up on the wall, some cartons of coconut water from Vita Coco (which I had to lug home in my backpack!), a London Marathon keyring and two tops from Do Running.  Collected some freebies – some #boostlondon Adidas shoelaces, lots of samples of food and snacks, a water bottle, a London Marathon lanyard and some magazines.  I also picked up some pacing bands, for 5.30 and 5.45 finishing times, to wear the next day.  One of the best stands in the expo was the Running Imp and Bespoke Medals stand.  They had a wall entirely filled with medals!  It was amazing!  I stood there are ages looking at them, and jotted down the races of the races that gave out the biggest and best medals.  I was excited to see the new Kent Roadrunner Marathon medal ready to go – I’ll be earning myself one of these in May – and it was very impressive and one of the biggest there.  My legs were still tight from Brighton, so I tried to queue up for a massage, but the queue was very long and would mean another hour (at least) of waiting around, so after listening to the talks on the stage for a bit I headed home.  I was quite hungry at this point too – I’d bought food to eat there and had quite a few snacks but I was thinking I would buy a bowl of pasta from the expo’s pasta party.  So I was surprised there was no pasta party this year, just a noodle bar and coffee shop.  Maybe they didn’t have enough takers last year – I seen to remember it was expensive, at £7 for a bowl of pasta, a bottle of water and an apple.  I did eat the breakfast bar in my pre-race goody bag though (not quite got the idea of a PRE-race goody bag, but oh well!).  There wasn’t that much in it, but that was just as well as I didn’t want to have to carry home a big box of dried pasta and a bottle of energy drink as my backpack was heavy enough already.


Once home, there wasn’t much to do apart from have dinner and rest.  I had a simple baked potato with cheese, and a soya chocolate milkshake and watched EastEnders for a while.  Then sorted out all my gear for the next day – which was an hour or two of panic!  Finally a bath, and an early night, although I didn’t get to sleep for ages as my mind was still buzzing and I kept remembering random things I needed to do or find (such as a sachet of recovery powder, or to check my Garmin was on charge), so must have got out of bed three or four times!  Eventually I fell asleep, knowing in less than 12 hours I’d be running the London Marathon!

Collecting my number


The Adidas #boostlondon zone


Photos of all the runners with messages


The Bespoke Medal stand



Race gear, ready to go!



Wednesday 9 April 2014

Brighton Marathon Part 1


Part 1 – the Day Before

After three months of training through a very wet and miserable winter, the day was finally here – it was time to run the Brighton Marathon!  The days before, I was really hyper with nerves and energy, having tapered for the last three weeks.  I was really just ready to run!  It was great to finish work on the Friday, knowing that I had an extra day off on the Monday, and I rushed home quickly to pack my gear as the next morning was going to be very busy.

Saturday morning, I went to Parkrun to marshal with Ben and Wai Meng as we were all running the next day and didn’t want to run the 5k.  During parkrun, I was approached by a lot of walkers and Sunday morning strollers in the park asking about the run – and one couple, hearing me shout encouragement to the runners, said “easy for you to say, standing there!”  I replied back (kindly, but with a bit of smugness) that I was going to be running a full marathon the next day!  Think they were a bit shocked by that but wished me luck!

There was no time for coffee and cake after parkrun, so I rushed home to grab my bag and then got a lift from my brother to the station.  Had a couple of panic moments when I insisted I check for essentials such as which running vest I’d packed and did I have my Garmin!  I met Ben at the station, and we got on the train to Brighton.  It wasn’t a very pleasent journey – the train was delayed and was absolutely packed – we had to stand for the first 20 minutes until people got off at St Pancras International.  Even when we did get a seat, it was a crush as everyone seems to have suitcases with them.  Once through London it was a bit better and we reached Brighton with no delays – and immediately met up with Wai Meng and her mother who had just got off the other train.  We walked down to the Hilton where we were all booked in and dropped off our bags, before going to the pub for a light carb-loading lunch with others from running club.  Had a very tasty goats cheese ciabatta, delicious!  After lunch we headed for the Expo, to pick up our race numbers.  It was busy, but we still spent a bit of time looking around the stands.  I got a pack of gels from the High5 stand. 

Back at the hotel later, who did we spot?!  None other than Paula Radcliffe!  We even managed to get a photo with her – that was awesome and totally made our day!  Think that is the first time I have ever had a photo with a famous person!  It was actually a great hotel to stay in as it was where all the elites were staying, so we got to see many of the top runners.  We also got treated very well by the hotel staff, who were fully intent on catering for runner’s needs all weekend!

We had dinner at a local Italian – which was packed with runners – and I had a very simple macaroni cheese (it was very nice, but a huge helping, so I left about half of it).  I was a bit cheeky and had bought my own drink, a chocolate soya milkshake, as I did not want to risk fizzy soft drinks, fruit juice or alcohol the night before the race.  Headed back to the hotel, and we wished each other a good night’s sleep before the big day.  I decided to go for a quick dip in the swimming pool and spent very relaxing hour or so in the pool, Jacuzzi and sauna, mmm bliss.  Managed to quite sleep well that night – dropped off early but then woke up at about 5am – the only problem was the room was really hot and stuffy.  Even with the window open and fan on it was hot, and the cold water tap even came out warm so I couldn’t even have a cold shower or drink cold water!  I watched TV for a while, as my head was spinning from thinking about the marathon, but finally managed to fall asleep and sleep reasonably well until morning.

Coming up - part two, the race itself!

Brighton Marathon - Part 2

Part Two – The Marathon

I woke up sleepy, forgetting what day it was for a few moments.  When I realised, it was like a mixture of Christmas and pre-exam nerves!  I couldn’t wait, but the pressure was on!  I lay in bed for ages, with my iPhone on Twitter, following all the other Brighton, Paris, and Manchester runners who has also all woken early and were on the internet to distract themselves too.  Eventually my alarm went off anyway, and I got up.  It was like auto-pilot then – get washed and dressed, then eat my two croissants for breakfast, and a small cup of hot tea.  Pack my bags, then repack because I had left the gels in there.  Obsess about everything, check everything, fill up hydration pack (with that warm water – had to let it run for a few minutes to try and let it go cool!), basically just have an hour of total OCD.  Even when I was dressed I realised I hadn’t printed my name on my vest, so quickly took it off and wrote it on in black marker pen.  Finally, I was ready and went down to the lobby to check out and put my suitcase in the cloakroom, before waiting for the others to come down (eventually!!  They had also obsessed!).

There was a bit of an urgent atmosphere among us all as we set out for the couple of miles to Preston Park, the venue for the start of the race.  We hardly even mentioned the marathon (for the first minute or two anyway), it was just get going, get walking and make sure we were all set.  Quite amusing, like we had an important business meeting to get to!  Once we were all on our way, we joined up with lots of other runners making their way (no’one knew the exact way to the park, so there was a bit of herd instinct as we followed anyone who had vaguely a rough idea).  It was soon clear the closer we got though, as there were just thousands of runners all over the place!  We finally reached Preston Park, and here we got separated for a bit as I wanted photos of the convoy of Harley Davison motorbikes which would ride alongside the elites, and Ben and Wai Meng had spotted a photo opportunity somewhere else.  The next hour was the typically pre-race scenario – sort out our bags for the baggage bus, stand in the queue for the looks for ages, and wrap ourselves in foil blankets and bin liners to keep warm.  It started raining for a bit too, but luckily soon stopped.  Over all the weather seemed ideal for running – cloudy and cool, which I liked as it was better than the mini-heatwave we’d had recently.

Soon we were lined up on the start line, ready to go!  I was in the green pen, which was the 5 hour plus group, but as I wanted a sub-5 (or as close to that as possible) I made sure I was as far forwards as possible.  I tried to look for the 5 hour pacer, but couldn’t see him – turned out he was slightly behind me at the start.  The saxon went, and we started shuffling forwards.  I made sure my Garmin had picked up the GPS signal, dumped my foil blanket, put my sunglasses back on and off we went, over the start line!  Paula Radcliffe was high-fiving runners on the start line, that was pretty cool.  I was a bit too far over the other side of the road to high five her though.  The first mile was very slow – crowded and uphill, but at least it meant I didn’t go off too fast.  The first mile or two is always weird, as my body couldn’t quite decide was it was going to do – having tapered, I knew I had loads of energy, but I also felt a bit sluggish.  I told myself it would soon settle in a few miles, and I’d get into a nice pace.

I took the first few miles slowly, and enjoyed the atmosphere and running past some of the sights of Brighton – although I was totally lost, weaving through the city centre, I think I saw the Pavilion two or three times but we seemed to be zig-zagging all over the place!  A few miles later we began the first main stretch along the seafront to the east and here I began to settle into a better rhythm.  I was slightly concerned about making up my time though, as the first few miles had been quite a lot slower than my target pace of 11.25 min/miles.  This long stretch out was slightly undulating, and I did get some faster miles on the downhills.  It was mostly uphill in this direction, so I was hoping for faster miles on the return.  On the other side of the road were the faster runners, it was amazing to watch them!  There was also an interesting sight as we went over the bridge over the main road leading down from Preston park - I saw a huge long queue of lorries slowly driving down and I realised they were the baggage buses on their way to the finish line.  That was cool.  

We turned round at Ovingdean, and now we were the “faster” runners on the return stretch!  Apparently Wai Meng saw me here, but she said I had my head down and looked focuses (in pain?!) so I didn't spot her back.  Here I very gradually tried to make up my time on the gentle downhills.  I was still a bit worried about losing out on my time as my body still didn’t seem to have found the “fire” I sometimes felt in a really good race.  During the Berlin Marathon, I felt great the whole way round, and was lucky enough to experience a few of the “runners highs”!  During Brighton, I was running fairly steadily, but it was an effort to try and speed up, and when I tried to it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.  The miles that were on or faster than target pace were very challenging and difficult to sustain.

Coming back into Brighton, the atmosphere was fantastic!  Huge crowds lined the streets along the marina, and it was a real boost.  Felt very motivated and spurred on here, plus I knew I was nearly halfway and was still feeling pretty good and no where near the “wall”.  We could see the elites running their final mile here two, which was awesome.  Outside the Hilton hotel (what I’d have done for a nap back in my room!) we passed through the half-way point.  My Garmin was slightly ahead, and marked 13.1 miles a bit too soon.  It was another minute before I officially passed halfway.  My Garmin has just passed 2.30, meaning I was just about scraping my target pace for the sub-5 hours, and had about half a minute to catch up.  But would I be able to sustain the pace for another 13.1 miles? 

After the half-way high, things got tough, but mostly mentally.  I think I ran some of my faster splits between miles 10 and 14, but up to mile 20 they were slowing down – although not terribly so.  I was doubting that I’d run the sub 5 now, as the miles run faster than target pace were not fast enough to make up for the slow miles, they were only 3-10 seconds faster than target pace while the slower miles could be up to 11.50 minutes.  I wasn’t quite as steady as I hoped either, although every mile except for miles 1 and 21 were between 11 and 12 minutes, I did yo-yo between faster and slower paces quite frequently, rather than have a nice steady pace continuously.  However my 5km splits were all fairly even though, definitely slower later on but not by that much, but no negative splits this time.

Miles 14 to 18 were a long out-and-back through the residential areas, and here I think I got a bit obsessive with taking on gels.  I had bought several with me, and took some from the feed stations as well.  I probably had too many, as I could feel them sitting in my stomach.  I made sure to have plenty of water.   After 16.3 miles I started counting DOWN the miles – it’s great when there are finally less than 10 miles to go!  Miles 20 to 23 were pretty grim, as you pass through the power station.  It was not attractive and smelt of fish.  I was looking forward to getting out of that part of town!  Worst of all my Garmin battery ran out at 21 miles – just over 4 hours in.  I was really annoying with myself for not checking it was fully on charge!  I did see Wai Meng though, on the other side of the road, she was about 10 minutes in front of me.  That was a bit of a boost.  I was also getting a bit emotional from watching the other charity runners as many of them had names and signs on their back saying who they were running for.  Lots of them running in memory of someone close to them.  I remembered my charity, Look UK, and thought about how today was very hard work, but at least it was soon going to be over, but for the kids with visual impairments and disabilities every day was a battle and I should carry on running for them.

Finally out of the power station and just 3 miles (a parkrun!!) left to the finish, and it was on long stretch all along the sea front to the marina.  In the distance we could see the pier and wheel dominating the horizon, although they seemed like a life-time away then.  It was difficult to know what pace I was doing now, with no GPS or even a stopwatch, so I really had little to go on except by judging my effort-levels.  I just thought, there’s only 5k left do I was just going to push through, drain the tank and finish as best as I could.  As tempting as it was, I pushed out any thoughts of walking whenever I felt the urge, and carried on running (well, shuffling/jogging by now!).  I was really feeling it now, my hips seems to be the most sore of all my body, my shoulders and back ached, my calves were stiff and my thighs felt like they were burning.  But I was still managing to move along faster than those walking, so I told myself not to walk unless I cramped up or really hit the wall.  Looking at my 5k splits later, it seemed the final 5k was indeed the slowest.  It was at least positive to know I was passing so many people who had gone out too fast and were now having to walk.  I recognised lots of people from earlier on, too.  The crowds were good here too – along mainly moving as people walked up and down the sea front – we were still quite a way from the finishing area anyway.  At 25 miles, we went back onto the main road, but carried on running east, and the pier that had seemed so far away less than half an hour earlier was now behind us.  Here the crowds really got massive again, and the best part was passing the 1000 meters to go marker.  The crowds were so big that a temporary bridge had been erected to allow people to pass over.  It was really noisy, and very exciting.  I had no idea what time I was going to make it in, or my time since my Garmin had died, but I tried to pick up the pace in that final kilometre.  There was a nice bit of downhill, and just after that we went round a bend and I knew the finish line was about to be in sight.  I was going as fast as I could maintain for those final few hundred meters (i.e. not very!!) not yet ready to start an attempt at a sprint finish – but the adrenaline had really kicked in and I just loved it!  And there was the finish line!  A wall of noise and crowds 5 or more deep, it was amazing.  I just about managed a sprint to the finish, crossing the line smiling and giving a massive thumbs up!

I was totally shattered, and had to immediately go and lean on a lamp post gasping for breath – a volunteer from St John’s Ambulance gave me a concerned look!  My head was spinning and my legs just didn’t seem to want to move, but I staggered onwards slowly, and collected my lovely shiny medal.  It was large and very pretty, with a detailed engraving of a carousel on it complete with seagulls in the sky – every year it shows a different themed picture of a Brighton landmark.  Next came the tee-shirt, foil blanket, and then the goody bag with a biscuit bar, water, a banana and Powerade.  To be honest, I could have done with some more food, maybe with something salty, as that got eaten very quickly.  I picked up my baggage and managed to pull on my tracksuit trousers and jacket to try and keep warm.  It wasn’t cold, but I always cool down very quickly after a marathon, so I wanted to keep as warm as possible.  I even tied the foil round my legs like a towel to protect them the most.

Finally I found out my time, after phoning my Dad – I finished in 5.05.43.  So it was indeed over the 5 hour dream, and it was not a PB either, but I was still happy.  It was one second faster than my Loch Ness Marathon time which I found amusing.  So officially my second-best time and not even that far off the PB set at Berlin which was 5.03.00.

I then had to make a decision – Ben and Wai Meng would have already finished and headed to the pub again for food, but I was desperate to go back to the hotel for a shower so I went back there instead.  I got to see loads of the later finishers too – many still going after well over 6 or more hours.  At the hotel I got my bikini out of my baggage and went to the spa again.  This was total bliss!  I sank into the warm Jacuzzi and did not want to get out, even though the bubbles felt too strong on my sore legs.  I stretched gently and talked with other runners about how we all got on.  When I got dressed and dry I felt human at last and went back to the pub.  They’d eaten already, and I was tempted by another goats cheese ciabatta, but it was getting late and we had a train to catch.  So I just had a Red Bull and ate some of the snacks in my suitcase and we chatted about times.  Both Ben and Wai Meng had got PBs which was awesome!  We then said goodbye, and caught the train back to St Albans.  Luckily it was far less busy, and we got a seat on one of the nicer trains.  When I got home I had a takeaway pizza in front of the TV then slept like a baby that night with my medal on the bedside table!

Now, 6 days to recover, then time to do it all over again in London!

Stats
Brighton Marathon
Bib number: 4143
Time: 05.05.43
Average Pace: 11.39 minute miles

My 5k splits


Split time
Split pace
Total time
5km
00:36:38
11:47/mile
00:36:38
10km
00:36:01
11:35/mile
01:12:39
15km
00:34:42
11:10/mile
01:47:21
20km
00:35:43
11:29/mile
02:23:04
25km
00:36:11
11:38/mile
02:59:15
30km
00:36:02
11:36/mile
03:35:17
35km
00:36:45
11:49/mile
04:12:02
40km
00:38:02
12:14/mile
04:50:04


My Garmin stats for the first 21 miles, before the battery ran out


112:15.11.0012:15
211:29.91.0011:30
311:20.21.0011:20
411:38.01.0011:38
511:11.01.0011:11
611:40.21.0011:40
711:28.81.0011:29
811:22.01.0011:22
911:23.31.0011:23
1011:16.11.0011:16
1111:22.31.0011:22
1211:00.51.0011:00
1311:03.21.0011:03
1411:31.21.0011:31
1511:35.31.0011:35
1611:44.81.0011:45
1711:35.31.0011:35
1811:47.61.0011:47
1911:27.71.0011:28
2011:48.71.0011:49
2111:49.90.9912:01

Harley Davidson motorbikes by the start line!

My lovely medal!


After the race, with my finisher's medal and tee-shirt