Confessions of a Marathon Runner: 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 13^th 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