Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Sub 3h15
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Well done MSE good debut
Ormski - nice well done esp with 6 moths out.
Simon, great 3:15 well done
Andy - well held on for the 3:11
Great report Martin
Just back in Sheff - will have a proper read back tomorrow. Managed to spot Jase (correct Jase, that was me at about 24.5 mile point on Embankment), Martin (hard to miss, mate), Minni, and TR from sub-3. Plus a few local club runners from round here. Conditions pretty warm for supporting, so well done to all. Will enjoy reports later. Beer beckons . . . .
Regards
Edited for bold
Martin Thanks for the in-depth race report. LOVING the mile by mile blow by blow account, really gives a feel for a textbook sub 3 attempt.
Same question to all of you today who got your PB's (and to those who didn't): what have you learnt from this campaign and what worked well for you? What would you change and what advice have you got to share?
Unless I get champs q time at the GNR or Abo of course.
Other lesson - RJ is a lovely bloke - too fit looking for us lot, but a genuinely lovely fella.
Martin - congrats on the sub 3. Well battled and a great report too.
RJ - truly awsome result. Good to see you and your entourage celebrating in style.
MsE - cracking debut marathon in those conditions. Plenty to be proud about. I must have missed you in the pub.
RFJ - Shame that your day was spoilt by such an unfortunate incident. Well done on completing.
Great results from Sal, Ormski, Wokky, Simon and SteveC - impressive to hit targets in that heat.
AfE, Poacher, XPS - good to see you in the pub. I think we're agreed - it was tough out there.
Ant, Speedy - good to see you too but wont spill the beans on your results.
A disappointing run from me. Targetted 3:10 to keep the GFA (really enjoyed being on FGFA start btw). Set off too fast but settled into 7:10-7:15 pace from mile 5. hit HW in 1:34:xx but was feeling too tough at this stage. Expected 3:15 to be an easy fall-back target but by 20m this too was out of the question at which point I lost heart somewhat and trundled home in 3:22. Not my finest hour but never mind - there will be other days.
Some great runs and stories here- except for yours RFJ that's a shocker, the worst that can happen
It was warm today so I whipped off my shirt after 3 miles and kept pouring water over my head. It seemed to work and I didn't suffer particularly.
Ran the first half in 1:35 but slowed in the second. I had to get back below 7:30's for the last 3 to sneak below 3:15 and get my GFA. I spinted down bird cage walk to the finish and made it with 6 seconds to spare. 3:14:54. Happy with that. No training plan, no proper races for months and only 8 minutes down on my course best.
My Garmin reads 26.4, my pals the same which is a bit of a mystery.
Back home and watching the highlights, it hasn't really sunk in yet that I have achieved a several year ambition of doing the London Marathon and also got a PB by over 8 mins, and in the time I secretly knew I was capable of 3:12!
My garmin also froze going through the shower so my data and splits are not very useful. I didn't use any gels, instead, lucozade every 5 miles, carrying the bottle and sipping it over the 4-5 miles. I wasn't hampered by holding the bottle but did feel very quesy at 22-24 miles. I am not sure if it was down to the heat/ dehydration or simple length of time running but I was able to work through it for the last 2.4 (also got 26.4).
In celebrating as I crossed the finish line I pressed split instead of stop, when I realised after walking from the finish to the charity reception, then to the tube it already read 30.6 miles! It did completely mess up my average pace etc. so I don't really have any garmin data, but that wasn't going to spoil my day!!!
Well done everyone, bad luck RFJ but well done for finishing
Well done everyone - just a quick post tonight about the heat.
I really don't like the heat, but today I didn't feel it and was surprised to hear people talk about it at the end.
What I guess made the difference for me is that until the last three miles I was rarely with bottle of Lucozade or water in hand. Most people seem to take a couple of big gulps then ditch the bottle - which is what I've done in my two hms. But today, just by instinct, not anything I'd thought about, I just kept sipping little by little all the way round - initially I think I was aware of the dehydration risk but didn't want to gulp too much and risk having to go for a wee. I drank more Lucozade than water especially in the first half say, and after a while I realised I could squirt 1/3 to 1/2 away since instead of carrying fullish bottles.
So I reckon hanging on to bottles and sipping regularly not only avoided any hint of dehydration for me but also must've mitigated the heat. I wonder how many who felt the heat also felt dehydrated after?
Could be nonsense of course.
Not so quick a post in the end! Night
PS unless you can stick to the blue line isn't 0.2 extra par for the course?
@rj - outstanding stuff!
@rfj - that is a sickener what happened to you and top marks for carring on after what sounds like a horrific experience.
@mse - sounds like you made a wise decision and 3:27 is a great debut mara!
@purple martin - excellent sub3 and great report
also well dones to the sub 3:15s for salf, stevec1975, simonx98, speed.
that tracker tool was very useful for cyber stalking your races today - nice pace graph graph as well.
MsE Great debut. All points to a bright future. You should be feeling proud.
Sal It feels all the better, when you have a time you know you can do if all goes perfectly, then nail it.
Martin Great report. Very sensible controlled running.
O&O Great time, especially taking the training into account
AfE GFA sorted
GE unlucky but right attitude
I too cyber stalked a few today. When I saw Speedys time at 40km, I knew it was going to be close. Massive congratulations on perfect timing. You may have gone a few seconds over on the shorter racers, but you got the important one today.
Same trick for me with the drinks. I would take a swig of Lucozade, squeeze the bottle and then place in the waist of my shorts so the kink in the bottle sat nicely and took a sip every few minutes. Most of my water went over my head.
I think experience counts in these situations. Having lost out in the heat of 2007 I was much more cautious at the start as others tore away- I knew I's be seeing many of them again down the road....
One and Only - well done very nice 3:15
GE - it was hot and hard, well done for getting through
My garmin registered 26.6, was was out by about m 6 anyway, took the auto lap off, 1m was .96 and 1 was 1.08 at one point..... and that was before the isle of dogs... good job I wasnt relying on it....
Thanks for all your kind words....
As you may have read from my previous blog/Facebook updates. Training had gone incredibly well and I knew I was in great shape. I did wonder whether I had peaked a little early, and in all honesty I think I did but I couldnt let it affect me and there was nothing I could do about it anyway other than to try and learn from it and make sure it didnt happen next time. I felt if everything clicked into place and if the weather was kind there was an outside chance of sub 2:30 as a finish time.
Made it to the station where I met with all my clubmates and there was massive excitement in the air, everybody anxious but ready to roll. The trip to Blackheath was fairly uneventful, if a little slow, just a good job we had left in plenty of time. On ariving at Blackheath, I made my way to the UKA Championship enclosure, finally I could sit down and relax. In here I chewed the fat with a few of my internet running friends! There was Jock Itch, Runamok, benshearer, BR, Hilly, Charlie W, Coro, CL, WTGY, and Jamesito. I also saw and spoke to Dean Lacy and Jim Addison, two top local runners that I knew were aiming for roughly the same as me.
One thing that had been concerning me, was my tummy. It was churning away and I kept having to go to the loo. It would be awful if a poorly stomach was going to scupper my chances of a decent effort. Anyway, just crack on.
Dumped the kit bag, then did a bit of a warm up which was basically me running up and down a bit of road, not really knowing how to warm up properly! Then we were ready to go, we were slowly marched around the roundabout to the start line where the elites where doing there warm ups in front of us. The hairs were standing up on the back of my neck. I was in a race with these guys, amazing. I could see Kebede, Emmanuel Mutai, Patrick Makau, Martin Lel literally 15 feet away. Anyway, the clock slowly ticked down and we were just about ready to go. If you watch the start on BBC iPlayer you can see me when they're introducing the elites at the beginning of the race. I'm poking my head up trying to get on the screen!
Richard Branson is up on his gantry, crikey he likes to milk everything and he presses the horn and we're off. Quickly into my stride the important thing about marathons is to not get too caught up in the excitement, this is a hard thing for somebody like myself to do! Anyway, I manage it just about and post a 5:39 first mile. I needed to hit 5:43s as an average to dip under 2:30. Once you're into your running all the prior anxieties just seem to vanish and it's just you and the race, After a short while I was running with Ben and Dean and we had a good little rythm going.
Went through the next 5k in 18:01 so I had slowed a bit but still all good. at this point I really made the decision that I woudlnt be attempting to get under 2:30 and I was going to just really keep the right effort levels. Ben and Dean started to pull away and I knew they would go on to have good races. It's strange though, I always figured because there are so many runners at London that I would always be running with someone but after this point it was pretty lonely and only really ran with other people on a couple of occassions.
I saw people I knew out on the course supporting at various points and it was great to hear my name being shouted by them. Helped give me a real boost.
The next 5k was just about reestablishing the rythmn and I knew I would be seeing my family at c11.5 mile point so it was head down. Next 5k ticked off in 18:07. Up until this point I had been taking a bottle of water at virtually every water stop to poor down my arms, legs and down my back. I could tell despite the perfect weather at the start that it was warming up quite quickly and so it was absolutely vital to stay cool. I may be fairly slim these days but I'm a lot chunkier than most runners at my level and so I really did try to make sure that I didnt become a victim of the heat. I was having enough issues with my tummy! Finally went past my family and it really was amazing to see them all there. They'd all had T-Shirts printed saying Go Jason. The wall of noise was just incredible from them and as you will see when I upload the videos I coudlnt quite contain my excitement!
Went through the next 5k in 18:09 so running strongly now and in a consistent rythmn - I had barely looked at my watch since deciding that 2:30 wasnt going to be on today. Then hit half way shortly after in 1:15:46. Then we headed onto Canary Wharf and by this time, there were lots of people coming back to me, I even overtook a proper elite athlete which was pretty cool. I felt strong though and knew I was runnign a good race. Next 5k ticked off in another 18:09. As we entered Canary Wharf and went through a tunnel, it was really weird, no supporters, just the light pounding of footsteps on tarmac and muffled breathing. This was the point at which my tummy was at its worst.I didnt panic though and just told myself that I could control it and I woudlnt need to go, but it would mean stopping taking the gels as they were certinaly not helping it. Luckily I had had a good carb load the previous three days so I should be ok.
I knew half of my family were going to pop up around the 30k mark so it was head down and focus on getting to them. By now the warm temperature was really noticable and I was certainly starting to stuggle because of the heat rather than the pace, but I just had to keep a strong head and put one foot in front of the other! On getting ot the point where the Wife & co were supposed to be, I had a bit of a panic as I couldnt see them but then they appeared before me and they again shouted and cheered hard. I blew a few kisses to 'er indoors. My wife, Hania is so brilliant, she lets me go out training when there's stuff to do at home and without her support there's no way I would have reached the level I have.
Hit 30k with a 5k split of 18:11 so the pace was still alright, but I knew now was going to be a struggle and I would start to slow because of the temperature. But when you get to that point with 12k or 7.5 miles to go, it's more about your heart and spirit than your legs and lungs. Now was the time that you dig deep and think about the training you have done, perhaps think about the people that inspire you to give you strength, I did all of this and it helped keep me running on strong. I just kept telling myself I could keep going and depsite the agony that was building in evry part of my body I would make it to the end, and I was going to be proud of myself for running a great race.
Finally got to Blackfriars, once you are through this you are virtually on the finishing straight and it's about gritting your teeth up the embankment. I hit 40k with a 5k split of 18:53, so nice to duck under 19 again but I was wilting and wilting fast. I just had to keep everything together as I was nearly home. Running up the embankment was an incredible long slog, I run up there quite frequently on my lunch break and I'm sure they extended it just for marathon day! I saw another of my buddy's Birch and Paul O'Grady from my running club cheering me on and really help drive me on a little bit more.
As I turned into Parliament square I did a bit of showboating as all though I was hurting big style, I needed that boost of adrenaline to keep me going. The crowd responded with quite simply an unbelievable cheer. As I made my way down Great George Street, I looked out for the family again and seeing the pride in all of their eyes set me off blubbing again, I was a wreck but I was nearly there, just 800metres to go. One guy came flying past me here and I tried to hold on but he was moving so well. And then I turned into Mall for the most glorious sight of all, the Finish. I made sure I savoured this moment as I had just raced the best race of my life. I had tummy troubles, it was hot and I was still within a few minutes of my dream goal. I actually told a few people that I wanted to do 2:33:59 and thus be within half an hour of the World Record, but I had said it in jest really, I didnt realise how close I would end up being to this, I could see the clock ticking dangeorulsy close to 2:34 and so it was going to need one last sprint! I did an aeroplane over the line and will share the pictures when they're publlished. So I stopped my watch and it said 2:34 dead. But I didnt stop my watch until shortly after the line, so as to not mess up my finish line photo and on checking the official results and a text from Matchstick Man I had all my splits and confirmed time of 2:33:57. Absolutely delighted with 84th place, 62nd Brit and a PB by over 5 minutes. It was an amazing day, I was so pleased to have all my family there supporting me and I think they were a bit proud.
Lots of great performances, gutsy runs and excellent reports:
Steve - Well done on squeezing under 3:15
Sal - I'm not surprised the legs are feeling bad - great time.
Martin - So pleased for you on nailing the Sub 3 and in such good style. Adjusting the target mid-race was an astute move
Wokky - That's still a good time for what what sounds like a painful last 10 miles. Well done ion gutsing it out
RJ - A very well executed race and a well deserved time. Save the Sub 3:30 for another day.
RFJ - That is really tough - not what you need at 5 miles. Well done on seeing it through - hope the ankle is OK?
Poacher - A shame the legs gave way at 18m but well done on battling on for the GFA time
XPS - Sounds like a tough second half.
Simon - Well done on nailing the sub 3:15 - excellent stuff.
Ormeski - After the injury problems, that's a great result. And a negative split!
Andy - Good to nail the GFA even if you're not planning to use it
MsE - That's a good sensible marathon debut - you'll enjoy the sub 3:15 at Abingdon even more!
Speedy - Great that you finally nailed the sub 3:15 even it was a bit close!
GE - Sorry to hear the race didn't quite go to plan and you missed the 3:15
O&O - An excellent time from a very well run race.