Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
VLM 2017 !!
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
So, some background. This was my 4th marathon since I took up running in 2013. I am 48 this May. Stockholm 2014 3'50, London 2015 3'28, Copenhagen 2016 3'14 and so qualified for this one GFA. Training had gone well, with a Half Marathon just below 1'25 mid March. Three weeks out I ran a 26.2km "simulator" tempo run at 4'18/km so around 3'02 marathon pace, and did not take gels or water with me. So I was confident going into April!
But then start of April I had a long planned week of skiing, with just a few morning 5k runs to keep things ticking over, followed by Easter where I picked up a sore throat virus, or infection. I had to miss some of the shorter tempo runs I had planned for the taper period. When I came back to London 5 days before the marathon I was very much less than 100%. Managed an hour tempo run midweek which was ok pace wise but never felt right. 5k easy the morning of the day before the marathon felt better, followed by a day of carb loading ( 2L of orange juice on top of pasta etc ) so I went to sleep feeling more positive for the first time in a couple of weeks.
So to the day of the race...I did my usual morning pre race routine. Breakfast and liquids 3 hours before, Beet juice etc. Then a carb snack an hour before. At the Green start an hour before the queues for the toilets were silly. By the time I got to the front the messages about handing in luggage bags were at the T minus 5 minutes stage. Stressful and totally broke my routine. So rushed to get the bag in and went to warm up. Felt so so, did the quick dash for a wee behind the bushes after a little jog and warm up and went to my starting pen number 2. But it was packed, and no space for everyone to get in. I was far from at the back. When the starting gun went our pen seemed to merge with pen 3 from the side, and it was the usual slow start. First 3kms around 4'30/km pace which I would have been happy with were my Heart rate not already in the 160's which is where I wanted it to be once I'd settled into a faster pace. So a little more stress, but as the spaces opened up, and the early downhill bit came in, I got to speed up a bit. Took gel every 6km or so, and maybe some water every other station. The odd gulp of lucosade too when available.
But it soon became clear I was running slower than in training for my target HR. And it also became clear about 10km in that I should have had my toes cleaned up again. Last time was early Feb and I had got slack and assumed it would be ok. I have Morton's Toe and it gets a battering on long runs as a result. The dead skin had obviously built up too much and it was a concern and a discomfort already. But what can you do. I knew that as the distance built up it would become less of a worry as other aches and pains would take over. Got to halfway at 1'34, although my Garmin was with each km beeping further ahead of the actual distance markers. My marathon predictor app on the watch was veering between 3'06 and 3'10. I was ok with that as it was clear I was less than 100% but it was still a PB in the making. My plan had always been to take it easy first 10k, then pick up to target effort until around Canary Wharf, then play the "reel 'em in" game for the rest of it. If only it were so easy. At Canary Wharf I actually felt ok but Garmin decided to log 2 consecutive kms as a stupid pace ( 3' something ) which totally threw my finish time predictor app. More mental fun and games to deal with.
As ever, things start to become almost intolerable after around 35km. It's then that you have to really fight your inner coward, and not walk or even stop as it begs you to. Just keep on rolling forward like a ball-bearing and try to keep form and rhythm. By that time it was clear that to get a PB I had to avoid slowing down much, and there was no prospect of walking even 1 minute if I wanted to be sure of GFA. So I kept going, kept below 5'/km but can barely remember running along embankment beyond the feeling it would never bloody end. Once I got into the last km ( watch distance was already beyond 42.2 ) I just did what I could to get over the line without slowing. No chance of a sprint finish. Heart Rate lower in second half of the race than the first, but second half of the race 5 mins slower. That last km from parliament feels like it lasts forever doesn't it? Made it over the line in 3'13'27 - a PB by 61 seconds and GFA
Then there was the walk to get my bag and meet the family. Almost as bad as the last part of the race
Since the race my sore throat has come back with a double vengeance and I have had a toenail removed by the chiropodist, and another maybe following it when I see her again tonight. I reckon I may not run for another week at least. Which is just fine! Have a serious bike race to throw myself into anyway in mid June. But of course, I am already plotting my next marathon(s) and have entered a couple of 10k's for the summer ;-)
If anyone got this far, thanks for reading. It certainly helped me to type it out!
The Sheraton is 120 metres from the finish line in Toronto and you are never more than 21km away at worse lol
Many have complained about such matters at lots of races. In London I feel using a simple watch and using the mile markers is enough - all the gadgets in the world and the best running kit ain't gonna get one to run any faster.
My £5.99 watch from Argo a few years back and decent training allowed me (as official pacer) to finish within 1 second of target time - although I could have run it half an hour faster just as comfortably. Just my opinion but it works for me.
I assume the (long) tunnels we went through didn't help.
Its a surprisingly common problem, and can even happen in open spaces with older devices that can only handle a few satellites at once.
I always run with a garmin footpod also connected to my watch when in a city for previsiely that reason
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1693866534
https://www.strava.com/activities/954548164
Was better in 2015 with my 920XT but still far from perfect.
Yes the GPS signal is all over the place - hence I always tell people to use the mile markers and go from them. They won't let you down. As Harmander says - a basic watch with a timer function is all you need to pace London.
Two minutes isn't a lot of time - hopefully you can hit the qualifying time again before you need to register ?
Running the VLM 2017 was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Several visions and sounds are etched on my brain - seeing William, Kate & Harry at the start, running several great miles with the 5.15 walk/runners, coming over Tower Bridge, the drummers under one of the tunnels, loud bands, people chanting my name, the final couple of hundred meters and many more all blend in with a memory of constant support and cheers, despite being a plodder towards the back.
The actual run was a disaster! I haven't trained as much as I should have and the few weeks beforehand have been difficult for other reasons, so I wasn't expecting much. Worse though was that I decided to leave the 5.15 pacer and build up a couple of minutes to go for a wee. I think that wiped me out a bit combined with it being hotter than I was expecting.
Then around half way I got a twinge in my knew which progressed to a pretty bad pain which stopped me running and in the end I was walking as much as I was running. I've never had an issue with my knee and it does feel like a twist or sprain so I think it'll go pretty quickly - it's much better already.
I got across in 6:07; which I am OK with as this was just about finishing and I was never going to do a marathon again.
However, by Tuesday morning I'd read through the first few comments from people on here and decided I need to get a quicker time. So I'm going to go away, do shorter distances for a while, try and slim down & speed up and come back fitter and faster in the next 2-3 years. Actually, now I think about it I'm going to aim for a sub-4 before I'm 40, three years and 2 days time!
Bring it on!
You got to be in it to win it - enter the draw next week and if you are unlucky then get a charity place in October..
It is never easy (otherwise every Tom Dick and Harry would be a marathoner) but always worth it.
https://forums.runnersworld.co.uk/discussion/345735/vlm-2018#latest
Cheers everyone
Sure enough, a few months later I got the acceptance magazine through the post and I'd got in at the first attempt. By this time I was going through a bit of a bad patch anxiety wise which didn't improve over the next few months so was doing very little running. So deferring until 2017 was going to have to be done - but I knew that I would have to make sure I did get there in 2017 as I certainly did not want to miss out on my place which could take years to get another chance. I worked my back into running by getting along to more regular parkruns on Saturday mornings – with the added incentive of reaching my 50th which I reached in February of this year. Longer runs were proving difficult but with the help of other runner’s I did get back up to running 10k distance but no further by the time the marathon came round. But I felt confident that whatever I couldn’t run on the day, I could walk and still get round within the 8 hour cut off time. The other thing that came about in this time was that I'd decided to raise money for Mermaids, a charity that supports young transgender people as I had recently been coming out as transgender to friends and work colleagues locally. The charity thing proved to be very important to me personally and also proved a significant incentive in making sure I got to the start line.
Before the big weekend came around I was able to enjoy a quiet Easter break and also a couple more days off work to try to get as relaxed as possible. I also got my nails done in the colours of the transgender flag to provide further inspiration and reminder of my 'Reason to Run'.
So I headed down to London on the Saturday morning and, from Kings Cross, headed across London to Excel, to collect my race number. I was particularly grateful that two transgender friends who I knew on-line but had never met in person had offered to meet me - one at Excel and the other after the finish on the Sunday. It was horrendously busy at Excel but I got my race number and chip sorted and had chance for a chat with my friend Christine there before she had to head off for work. I didn't feel like hanging round at Excel for much longer so headed back to my hotel.
So on the day itself, train journey went OK to Blackheath and was in plenty good time for the start. Anxiety levels seemed reasonably OK at this point - nervous, yes, but not overly so and felt capable of running when the time came. Which it did, after about 15 minutes of making our way gradually to the start line. I carried on running and was feeling OK - thinking I would try to aim to run the first 10k if I could before doing any walking. I heard my name called and was about to be passed early on by Laura Forbes from Witham Runners - was surprised to see she was still behind me at that point. In the end it was at 7k that I first stopped to walk awhile before starting to run again. The first major landmark was Cutty Sark at about 6 and a half miles and, by this time, I was walking again as we went past. As I moved onto the next stretch, the crowds of spectators got really busy and noisy for the first time and I was really struggling with this. What got into my mind at this point was, that the first stretch had been well supported, but it had just gone up to a level outside my comfort zone and it felt like, as we were going to move more towards central London that it was likely to stay this way for the remainder of the race. After a while though, things did quiten down again and I managed to calm down again and got running again.. During this stretch between Rotherhithe and Tower Bridge, I was passed by a girl from Bradford who made a point of encouraging me on as she'd noticed I was from Lincoln. Good to see that 32 years on from the Bradford fire, that Bradford folk still remember us and look out for us. At this point, though, the spells of running were becoming less and less and, by mile 11 onwards I found myself walking and not running. Looking at the time I had achieved at that point, it did appear that my intended 6 hours was still achievable even if I walked the vast majority of the remainder. So I kept on walking - Tower Bridge was certainly a highlight visually - but the noise of the crowds became intense again so not helping me keep on top of my anxiety and so it continued as we headed eastwards on the North side of the Thames. At this point, having just reached half way, we had faster runners coming down the other side of the road having just completed 22 miles. That actually seemed to take away the benefit of getting half way away from me - as seeing the 22 mile mark on the other side just made me think of how I'd got to go still to achieve that instead of just focussing on what lay immediately ahead. But at least soon after the intensity of the crowds let up again which helped me again. As we weaved our way around the Isle of Dogs though, I could feel the tiredness setting in and my fast walk seemed to be starting to slow a bit. Also, at this point, my Garmin was showing as on low battery. It just hadn't occurred to me that I needed to make sure it was fully charged up the night before. I had been using this to set small goals to reach but was now to be denied this and would only have the mile and km markers to aim for. So I just had to persist and push myself on. I stopped have a word with the 'Fetch Everyone' support team at 22 miles as I was registered with them and they were expecting to see someone with nails done specially - so was able to show them off. By this time, the remaining miles were feeling more achievable and finally the Houses of Parliament came into sight and onto the final spectacular stretch. It was great to see Buckingham Palace appear on the left and the final turn and that famous finish line that I'd seen on TV so many times was in view so I finally managed my first bit of running in 15 miles to make it to the finish line. So with medal received, goody bag picked up and baggage I was feeling well and truly weighed down. So I was hugely grateful to Claire S who had agreed to meet me at the finished and carry my bags. We ate at Pizza Hut then headed back to my hotel to drop my bags off before having a final drink. Claire had also very thoughtfully brought me some post-marathon supplies that she thought I might need. This is typical of the great support we receive from each other in the trans community. Surprisingly, my legs were working quite well at this time and turned out to be fine the next day. The worst problems I had were a blister on one foot and some sunburn and obviously just very tired as I didn't manage to sleep that well on the night after the race. But I headed back to Lincoln, the proud owner of a London Marathon medal that had been hard won. I felt I had coped with the anxiety and gender disphoria issues well on the day as they could have easily put be right out of action over such a long distance.
Congratulations for completing the 2017 VLM, I have done so previously and know how hard it is and the sense of accomplishment you gain from doing so. Now that you have had some time to reflect, I was hoping that some (or very optimistically all!) of you could help me with my Masters thesis. It is based on the brand personality of the London Marathon and how different levels of runners view it. As you guys have recently completed, or previously completed it, I was hoping you could take the time to complete my survey. The link is below and should only take 5 minutes to complete, and definitely no longer than 10.
https://survey.napier.ac.uk/n/zz37o.aspx
Thanks in advance for any help you can give, and feel free to contact me at 40295374@live.napier.ac.uk if you have any questions.
Kevin
Just completed the survey - when and where will we see the results?