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Excellent race and write up ES.
Hope you can get back on the road soon TR. I see Abingdon hasn't sold out in a frenzy this year.
Thanks OuchOuch.
I think the compostable cups are fine if it's not a hot day, if you're not pouring water over yourself 330ml is too much and I hate the fact that I take a couple of sips and throw a bottle (if no one nearby wants the remainder) as it's such a waste.
Al_P - outstanding effort, true class in that heat. My clubmate who was in sub 2:30 shape finished in 2:41, so you did incredibly well.
CD - Well done for toughing it out to the end
selbs - 2:52 is a very solid effort in the circs, well done
DanA - you and London don't seem to be a good mix, but at least you can blame the conditions this time, sounds def like dehydration. Well done for getting round, and to CRAB for assisting.
ES - probably the best paced / least drop off in 2nd half I have seen (wish you'd been my pacer - see later). Great report. Enjoy a well earned break from running
Jools - tough day at the office, the post finish stagger for baggage proves you gave it everything
JB-BR - very good pacing too and fine result
TickTock - ditto! (nicely alliterative time result)
CW - what can I say - huge respect, got to be one of your most impressive results. Your eccentric strategies never fail to produce a result. Have you thought of writing a training book?
SC2, TippTop - good job on spectating, must have been almost as hard as running in that heat.
Wardi - sensibly run and well done for hanging in there
UDS - good job managing the clean up
OK, I'm just about ready to face writing up my race report...
Had to get to the start about 2 hours earlier than I usually would to get checked in with Guinness World records for the attempt on the fastest lifeguard record and barely slept on Saturday night.
Started on the very front line of the Green start with a load of other fancy dress freaks, an interesting experience. Needed to break 2:55 for the record so went of at around 6:25 pace aiming for 2:50.
Joined a clubmate when green and blue converged who was already struggling at less than a mile! Ran with him till mile 10 when I knew I had to press on. Huge crowd support for my lifeguard outfit prompted a bit of obligatory showboating at cutty sark and tower bridge.
Felt pretty good and on pace and not too bothered by the heat.
Passed half-way in 1:25:50, pretty much on target pace but not quite as much time in hand as I'd hoped for.
Just focused between miles 15 and 20 and managed to pretty much hold pace, but felt things slowly getting tougher.
In the last 5k I knew it was starting to get very close with the record as my couple of minutes in the bank gradually started to ebb away. Just took 1 mile at a time, and tried to keep pace which was difficult as my GPS wasn't coping very well in the city saying my mile lap pace was 6:40 when in reality it was more like 7:00+.
My brain was really struggling to do the maths to work out what pace I needed.
It was the block headwind in the final 2 miles along the embankment which finally zapped me. I just couldn't hold the pace into it and my legs started to feel like lead.
That last 800 meters up birdcage walk was interminable. Another record chaser in a wedding dress who I had passed a couple of miles earlier re-passed me and I somehow new that I would have to stay with him in order to get my record.
The dreaded turn onto the Mall came and I saw I had about 20 seconds to cover the 200 yards to the finish (where's Usain Bolt when you need a tow from him!).
Finally crossed the line in 2:56:20 (26 seconds off the record).
I was absolutely physically and mentally exhausted and gutted to have come so close to my goal.
A paramedic had to assist me to get to the medals and nearly blacked out several times trying to get to my baggage truck.
I'm afraid I just didn't have the strength to get to the Red Lion, I was completely wasted. Just about managed to stagger to some grass under a tree in St James Park where friends and family bought a picnic and beers. I was with you all in spirit.
Turns out most of my clubmates had bad days as well (the guy I had been running with early on dropped out at half way) and my 5% slower 2nd half was actually only bettered by our best runner, most were 10-20%.
Any disappointment is put into stark perspective by the very sad news of Matt Campbell's tragic death.
-------------
Little things that all added up to missing my goal:
Never had the wheels fall off in a stand alone marathon before (I've run a lot quicker in hotter conditions in IM). Interesting experience. Have to be honest and say in a dozen or so attempts I'm not sure I enjoyed any of the actual race, even before half way. Still a great day and new GFA rules willing I'll be there again next year.
As you were.
Hope to see you there next year Crab.
Lmh. I’m not sure I’ve got it in me to try again- maybe pick one that’s 4 hours! Serves me right for always thinking those records are a complete joke and that anyone with at least 1 leg could get one :-/
Crab - Well done for giving it a go, you were 'on' at half way. Would love to know what your first thoughts when you saw Dan.
VLM 2019 - April 28th - Hoping to be there, just the small matter of Mont Blanc, Berlin, Malaga, Las Palmas and Paris to deal with. Possible room for another in October all going well.
LukeS -- so sorry you missed the record! I don't know what your costume was like, but I guess it can't have made things any easier, so you did really well to get so close. If you haven't heard it before, a good trick with your watch is to display average lap _time_ and do a manual lap at each mile marker, so you get accurate average min/M regardless of GPS reception.
UDS -- I'm known as a tree-hugger but hated the cups. The first one I grabbed can only have had about 1cm of water in the bottom so I nabbed a second one, but didn't get enough to make myself very wet. I only recall one drink station (not two as billed) with them though. In that weather, I was using every drop of every bottle at every station.
CRAB -- sympathies, but good call on the Dan prediction ;-)
From the Runpix stats, I passed 161 and 2 passed me in the second half (one of them Njord's mate, complete with Mohican). That means I overtook more than half of the field who were in front of me at half way. More extreme than usual perhaps, but it's always a bit like that -- I feel my secret to even pacing is the full-distance training runs. I think "conventional" marathon training with long runs often topping out at only 23M, and no seriously long run for a good 3 weeks before the event, is just wrong -- for me at least.
DOMS not too bad this time, either... not that I'm planning to run yet. Normally I say I'll have a week off, then crack on about the Friday and regret it!
CRAB: we must have been pretty close throughout as I went through 5K in 20:41 & I remember a Green sub-3 pacer going past me somewhere after half-way. He was confidently saying they were about a minute up thought about staying with him but knew effort was too high so tried to minimise the damage but still to no avail. He must have bailed soon after. I crossed the line at 13:25
Reading all the tales of woe (& feeling cold the last 2 days) confirms my feelings of frustration with events this w/e but also means I'm not going to blame myself.
DOMS not too bad here either, and the plantar fascia is already a lot better which is good. I managed a 30 min very easy session on the wattbike this lunchtime (160W and HR 113).
I had a bad, if not disastrous, day at the office. Well aware that I don't run well in the heat, I set off a good 10 seconds per mile slower than my training was geared towards.
Even so, the feeling of smugness that I'd be passing hundreds of people along Embankment subsided before 10km, with my heart rate already at 163 (usually 5:40 pace in training vs the 5:5x pace I was running).
By 15km I was trying to calculate how slowly I could run to still achieve a sub 2:45 Berlin qualification. Calf cramp started to bubble away and I was forced to change my gait to more of a heel striking shuffle.
Around 20km I decided that it was not the day to flog a dying horse and made a voluntary drop in pace to about 6:05-6:10 in an effort to survive / salvage any possible enjoyment (the crowds were awesome, even by London standards). Though in my head I was still calculating when I was close enough to drop to 7 min mile pace for my 2:44.
Had an old friend drop in at 25km and ran together having a good catch-up all the way to the Red Lion. My pace declined slowly to about 6:25 pace by 24 miles. It was not aerobically hard, but a combination of the cramp and strong signal from brain telling me to hold back were doing a good job of stopping me from doing anything silly.
Thought I may be in trouble during the Blackfriars underpass - said friend took a selfie that came out quite blurred. When I looked back at the road everything else seemed blurred, but guess it was just my eyes adjusting to the light. Calf cramp was quite bad in the final 2 miles and pace dropped further to 6:40ish.
Was very glad to see the finish line - crossed with plenty of energy and big smile (relief rather than happiness); the 2:41.41 chip time is below somewhat below my ego.
Anyhow - good to be back in the (marathon) game after an 8 year drought, and great to catch up with so many people that I've competed with many years ago. The Champs start was like a school reunion (except that everybody is just as skinny as you remember).
Interesting hearing all the experiences and reactions to the race. The only frustrating thing about supporting generally 'faster' runners is trying to stay ahead of the annoying general public hordes (Oh I know I'm a terrible running snob
). Also how hard it gets to look out for folk..I did have the list handy (BEJ can vouch for that) but as you get nearer 3 hours and the blob of people around the 3 mile pacers it's a nightmare to try and see individual people..and it can make you feel a bit ill - I did make the mistake of supporting with a hangover once, NOT a good idea!
Luke - Surprised I didn't see you, as I saw the two brides run past. Sooo close! nightmare.
Luke - I think I might have seen you at the finish, but you were with some medical people and I didn't want to interrupt.
Wrote up a report myself on the blog if anyone wants a read; https://spragginsblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/london-marathon-24-04-2018/
Perfect marathon conditions yesterday; absolute sods law.
Depends how long it took the green pacer to cross the line as to whether he was a minute up at h/w. I was within 10 metres of him and a few seconds down. Not that it matters as within a mile he stopped.
Pretty sure I haven't retired yet. I've entered one marathon today and might be entering another one tomorrow.
As you were.
I ran a gloriously crap 29 minute PW of 3:37 - blew up totally at 20 miles and then spent 3-4 miles walking and re-hydrating, before the legs came back to have fun on the Embankment. But it was still a great day out, and days like Sunday make me appreciate the good marathons even more. I have an entry for Abo and may try and redeem myself there.
On paper cups rather than bottles - not good and maybe not safe on a day like Sunday when people suffer in the heat. Harder to drink from and also means no supply throughout the course - when walking at 23 miles I was very glad for the discarded water bottles to pick off the floor and drink from, not possible if its cups that spill everywhere.
Over 2nd half - you passed 6 runners; 3052 passed you.
Surprised it was so few. Though considering one of the six was a fatality, I think I can see things in the correct perspective.
More well toughed out races from Luke, Bej and pisc.
Charlie - you were able to do 5 long runs in 5 days, your ability to run the distance was never in doubt. The back to back long runs are probably better for you than the full distance runs. You are 1 or 2 campaigns away from all long runs being full distance and all medium long runs being 20s.
The small races are suddenly looking like thread turn-outs.
Hope everyone has recovered and headware doffed to those who got anywhere near their aims. By far the toughest marathon i've done. On to next year, I guess!
JB - awesome race report. I couldn't believe you actually wore the flat cap. Until I saw the trunks that is
Ooof - they are some second half stats Dan!
Hope to see you at the end of April next year Crab - are you thinking of running Yeovil?
Feel free to 'bore' us Strangely - I'm benched at the moment and am happy to be entertained (though the London marathon cheats thread is doing a good job of that).
I agree about the cups piscator. Do you have another marathon planned?
TR - having read all the vlm reports I'm itching to go again but am resisting the urge and will focus solely on abo. Did consider NF as logistically works well for obvious reasons but remember it being a bit lumpy only time I ran it (first marathon) although course has probably changed since 2007.
UDS - well done with the support/clean-up. These things are not possible without people generously devoting time and energy.
LS - bad luck on the record attempt. Were you sporting the Baywatch-esque outfit complete with red life bouy? If so I think you appeared next to a club mate of mine in a pic a friend took.
CRAB - well done and despite not really enjoying it you did help Dan so massive respect.
OO - wow busy schedule. I need to enter some races !
CW -enjoy the break Charlie... Resist temptation
BEJ - enjoyed the report and well managed race. Congrats on the Berlin quali
Pisc - tough day but glad you were able to enjoy the day.
Dan - puts things into perspective.
SB - well toughed out and ditto on the leg turnover. I'm in the same boat and will be working on that over the summer.
JB - as others, great read.
LMH - hope you get off the bench soon, I missed that as I thought you were going along well post Boston.
Good blog Joe and those tan lines!
piscator -- another casualty, glad you still enjoyed the day.
TR -- without some major experiments, I'll never know for sure which aspects of training did it and which didn't. The 5 consecutive long runs were new this time; the full distance runs were not. What argument can you make that one aspect helped and the other didn't? All my recent campaigns have gone pretty well, so I'm taking that as evidence that the full-distance runs help me as they've always been there. The consecutive long runs definitely helped my weight come down when it had been a bit on the high side this time though. You're right that I am almost getting to the point where I do a full mara by default of a Sunday.
In fact I've been hilariously consistent. Admittedly cherry-picking a favourable starting-point of 2013, and correcting for the gun time I ended up with on po10 in 2015, my target road marathon times have been:
02:38:46 VLM2013
02:39:43 VLM2014
02:40:05 VLM2015 (twanged hamstring in mile 25)
02:38:56 VLM2016
02:38:30 York2016
02:38:53 VLM2017
02:38:54 Chester2017
02:39:22 VLM2018
Average=02:39:09 Standard deviation=32 seconds! And I swear I'm not holding back, every time I am totally pushing it -- I think I've just found my physiological limit, and my training gets me to it every time (famous last words). Obviously age will win eventually though.
I am going to have to check out that cheater thread. The comments reminded me that I saw someone dart off the course up a grassy hill on the right hand side quite early on. It was just by some toilets, so I remember thinking he can't have been disappearing into the bushes for a call of nature. Looked like a cheater for sure.