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2:59 pacer dropout
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For those that can afford it.. I highly reccomend buying a GPS watch. I use Garmin 405 and it does the hard work for me, apart from run that is.
No hard feelings, Dan. Your pacing was great up to that point, and the end of the race wasn't going to be much fun anyway. It did make the first half of the race a lot more fun as I could relax and enjoy it rather than having to look at my watch every hundred yards. Really appreciative of the effort you put in. Big THANKS.
A Garmin is about as much use as a chocolate teapot in Canary Wharf. If you don't believe me really zoom in on the map and see where the Garmin THINK you ran, compared to where you actually did run! It loses signal quite a bit due to all the high buildings. It had me apparently crossing the Thames in 2011....
And I'm yet to meet one person who has ever had London as 26.20 miles on their Garmin. Go on the official mile markers is the best advice, cos that's the measured course and the one you've got to run!
I was quite amazed to see 26.3 on mine. Think I did a pretty good job of blue-lining it though.
According to the Garmin I ran the Isle of Dogs as a fartlek session!
'It had me apparently crossing the Thames in 2011....'
I've heard of folks catching the bus to cheat but that takes the biscuit!
wardi
And re the blue line. I had a bite to eat at marders' place on the Friday night (again in 2011) which is pretty much where the 16 mile marker is. We saw them painting the blue line for a decent stretch. I can confirm that it really ISN'T the optimum racing line that people think it is! At least not for the entire course anyway. It's basically 2 blokes hanging out of the back of an estate car's open boot trying to daub paint on the road amongst the heaving London traffic. It really wasn't scientific! Quite funny to watch though!
I spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying to distract myself from the pain by thinking about whether the blue line was in the right place (and deviating from it where necessary). There's a sort of chicane section at about 21 miles where the optimal line would quite clearly be defined by a piece of string held taut between two kerb edges about 100 yards apart, with quite a bit of curvy road in between, but the blue line was anything but straight.
Oh, then I got a stitch. Maybe I was thinking too hard?
Canary Wharf was quite good for my Garmin, it had me about 500 metres ahead of where I was entering Westferry tunnel but a lot of that had been wiped out by the time I was out of C Wharf
. And it fuelled my coping strategy of maths, lots of maths...
According to my Garmin I covered 26.6 miles. That isn't surprising with the amount of weaving I had to do since a registration balls up resulted in me starting in Pen 9.
A some points through Canary Wharf I was clocking 3 minute miles. I found there wasn't much need for a Garmin with the clocks every mile, and I thought I paced myself pretty well up until 22 miles where I faded.
Its a great job the pacers do out there to keep it going through a whole marathon while also helping other runners.
I cover 26.48, was my own pacemaker and finished ahead of 4.15, which was what I wanted. I was behind the 3.56 where we merged but sort of guessed it was to do with different starts anyway. I think they are amazing the pacemakers tbh, just I need to be in my own zone and it worked for me!
PP - I measured 26.3 too. That's the shortest London I've ever done!
My Garmin gave me 26.19 but I did follow the racing line as much as possible which I didn't find too tricky after the first mile or 2 and didn't need to do too much weaving after then either. Splits totally out for Canary Wharf of course but think it pretty much worked itself out in the end. I use autolap as don't trust myself to remember to press lap every mile and at London there's too much going on.
I'm relieved the 4.30 pacer is recovering ok, he collapsed literally at my feet - one second he looked a bit wobbly, the next he had hit the ground. It was pretty warm at that stage though (about 21 miles?) so heat exhaustion wouldn't have surprised me. I paced myself, but still think it's a hugely worthwhile thing to do and I'm sure helps many to achieve their goals.