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I loved Amsterdam. Start and finish in an Olympic stadium was epic. It can get a bit lonely out along the canal, but the smoke wafting around should make you not really notice that
TR - I was reading a piece by Chris Thompson who credited training (as well as racing) in super shoes with extending his running career. It'd be nice to have the money (or sponsorship) to have enough super shoes to train in for that to be a thing, wouldn't it?
LS21 - I'll try make the Red Lion, but we've got a play early evening to make as well, plus I've got to fit in eating my bodyweight in food at Chinatown before that, so it'll be a case of see how it goes post-race.
Got my race number - 1945 for anybody who wants to track. No targets at this stage given the last week and a bit, other than to try run it hard but controlled and hope that's enough to renew a champs time for next year.
SJ.. Amsterdam is a great city to visit, there is approx one bike per head of population and a very slick tram system as I remember.
Enjoy the spectating Wardi (though of course you'll wish you were running so my sympathies there). A chance to spot the legend Bekele also Kipruto and Kosgei in the ladies field will be some consolation and of course be able to cheer Sir Mo on his deserved lap of honour.
A little bit of Aussie podcast spotting too with Ellie P and Brett Robinson looking to improve his own national record according to this week's episode. Very interested to see how Sifan Hassan goes on debut too.
Clearly you will feel the emotion during the race TT. Go well and feel proud of getting on the starting line.
Ditto Joolska with looking forward to following along and wishing well to all Jooligan, Jock, any others I've missed.
Amsterdam is a great call for your first overseas marathon SJ. I've been to the city once in 1988, notably the weekend when Netherlands beat West Germany in the then final of the Euro's, cue a massive party where we were made very welcome.Highlights of last Sunday's Newport marathon on S4C @ 8 pm tonight, should feature as ran with the leading lady for the last 20 miles.
Wardi - sensible decision to withdraw and avoid temptation.
OO - I remember those Euros. First major tournament we ever qualified for and Ireland partied all summer!
Good luck to everybody else on Sunday and hopefully see some of you at the Red Lion afterwards if I make it.
They did forecast a wetting at last year's event as late as Saturday night. This didn't happen on the day so let's hope they've got it wrong again!
Go well everyone!
16m for me inc 20min, 5x4min, 20min. Felt thoroughly sick for most of it and then had an upset tummy by the end, and was a bit woozy. Probably still got a bit of lurgy.
Good to see you took the trainers Wardi and was able to have a trot out. I imagine lots of folks about down there as excitement builds. I've only run one London but can recall the atmosphere very clearly.
What were the paces TR? MP effort for the 20 mins then quicker for the short efforts? Nice way to break the run up. I like that idea. Hope you felt better post run after some fluids and food. Take it easy if you suspect some lingering lurg.
I'm sure you will make it to the red lion TT. Keep the faith.
Still no running here but have been catching up on some chores and partook in some wombiling this morning in local litter picking.
SJ - yes approx mp for the long stuff then a bit quicker for the 4mins, it's from the BAC stuff. I did av 6.41 and av 6.27. Trying to prepare for the shock my body has coming next Sunday, I've only raced once since IoW 1/2 in Aug, and that was December.
The rain wasn't too bad today for the runners or spectators. I did manage to spot TT's pink shorts, Charlie W, Crab, Njord, though I sadly missed the Didsbury quiff & LS21.
Good day for my club, our leading lad took his 2.39 at Chester down to 2.27 today, his splits were immaculate. Next two were 2.31 & 2.43. I had to dig deep to buy them all a beer having finished inside their respective targets. A great day out all told.
London mara have kept Brighton as April, with the offer of a reduced price entry to those unsuccessful in the London ballot. I was hoping they'd move it to September, but good idea (Not unexpected).
From the moment I felt my shin go I knew it was going to be about managing my pain to stay just the right side of it to allow me to get to the finish line. I tried to pick up the pace a few times to see if that would stretch things out, but to no avail.
Ultimately it became a very long jog to the finish, being constantly passed throughout (by a disproportionate number of grade A muppets who elbowed and shoved their way past people, me included, to stay on the hallowed blue line - I might have had one or two 'discussions' lol).
Overall it was a day/weekend where anything that could go wrong did go wrong.
My tummy was a little dodgy (food related - need to find new carb loading weekend options from my traditional it seems).
I missed my targeted train due to misjudging how busy it would be, resulting in my not getting to Blackheath until well after 9, where I found a pitiful small number of loos, the queue for which resulted in I and others having to hand our bags in at the tent rather than the lorry.
This resulted in me stood at the very back of the championship pen and having to work my way forward.
Basically a chain reaction of events.
On the plus side, my Dad was always less impressed by times than he was by effort (or 'heart' as he used to phrase it), moxy, and stubbornness, the latter being a particularly strong family trait, and one that was fully on display yesterday.
I've never been in that much pain in a race. Fighting my body for 40km+ was attritional, both physically and mentally, but I now know I can take that much pain and keep moving, so I'll take that as a positive to move forward with.
The marathon is brutal, unsentimental, and takes no prisoners, and that's why I love it (and why I'm determined to address all my obvious weak points so I can repay it for yesterday next time out).
Unfortunately with pain levels being that high I had to abandon plans to swing by The Red Lion, and my running club meet up, on the way back to the apartment, but there were some amazing runs on both fronts which was great to see.
TT.. blimey I'm amazed you ran the time you did with your body shutting down like that. Your pre race doesn't sound ideal either - I thought the Champs start was meant to be the equivalent of glamping! Kudos due for finishing after all that.
Your race experience reminds of my run in Barca a few years ago. I was blissfully unaware that I was running the marathon with low iron levels. After 8-10 miles it was like running through treacle, inevitably one of my slowest marathons!
I've JUST got home from London now (long day!)
Will do a proper report etc soon. But I ran 2'59'102 - or 3'00'42 if you're being pedantic. Despite the 42 seconds, I'm genuinely really pleased. I ran really well and got way closer to 3 than I thought. Had an absolute belter of a weekend!
LS21 - Crimewatch! Great photo's, I reckon 1 pint in. I recognise Dan, Crab and Ode, but could you let me know which one is you, and the other 2 fine fellows. A really good race and time. Very reasonable.
TR - Some decent paces there.
Back at it with a few 4 and 6m toying with entering the Exeter mara on 14th May (or 18 days time)
Bottom pic, left to right - Ode, Tick Tock, Dan, njord and Mrs njord (aka Caz and Kelvin), CRAB and me on the end (in front of CRAB).
Said this elsewhere, but I bought a round - 9 pints of Peroni and a pint of cider. Paying for that hurt more than the last 5k of the race.
My reaction to that - my mate Rich was acting as a guide runner for a blind bloke. Letting Dan pace was akin to the letting Stevie Wonder do Rich's job.
Dan had the last laugh - he paced it beautifully!
Brill to see him and Jen (and junior Dan. Well, Danette as he's got a little girl) - all were on fine form!
Glad you are pleased LS21 and for such a quick turnaround from Barca off compromised training in any case that is a fine run indeed. Great photos! With the exception of yourself, Kelvin and Caz I haven't run enough London's to know anyone else and only started posting in this thread around 2009 maybe. Sheesh... that's a long old time.
Good work on the supporting duties Wardi.
Nicely back to it OO and already eyeing up another race. I don't suppose you are ever really not 'back to it'. Impressive as ever.
Ideal prep then TR with those mix of paces. I'm sure you'll settle into a groove this weekend and lay down a decent marker, weather permitting naturally.
Still no running at this end. Enjoying the extra time and taking things super easy. The mind needs a break as much as the body I think. Plus I'm busy at work again
BTW the beer in my hometown Friday night hostelry is £3 a pint so I found London beer prices quite a shock.
SJ.. enjoy the rest, if ever there is a time to lose the marathon mindset it is the week or two after the event.
7.2m this morning, cool but very sunny so had a Trot around the racecourse.
I'm on lead bike duties at our local 10k tonight, the course isn't suitable for cars. Still dry & sunny thankfully
TR - I'm resting. No plans to run until I can put my running socks on without them leaving a mark on my shin/it stops hurting. Nice 16m the other day. Hopefully you're feeling less woozy now.
LS21 - great news re: Dan and Danette. And his pacing. Re: pacing, your splits were truly superb!
sj - splits here if you're interested. They only tell part of the story as 5km to 25km are reasonably consistent, but individual splits within that varied wildly depending on how I was faring up. Nice one on enjoying your break.
I seem to have chipped a bit of a tooth from grinding them during the race/since. It's the gift that has kept on giving; lol.
Plenty of lessons to learn and positives to take forward from this for the next one, not least the reminder that you get out what you put in (consistently), and that I can no longer ignore aging/the need to do core work and flexibility.
OO - can you leave it late like Newport?
SJ - good time for a rest, I can't afford to stop for too long, as i struggle to get going again. .....A good starting point for Sunday would for me to actually start, and then hopefully finish. Hopefully nothing breaks during the journey between the two. I worry for my hammies.
TT - that shin might need some time.
All the work im doing to loosen up must be finally having a slight effect, decent 10m inc 12x3min today, still not right but I'm getting close to the engine being the limiter rather than my niggles. In Pegs too as I'd binned my worn out flynits.
OO - I get the draw to doing another. Despite saying I should steer clear of the longer stuff for a bit, I've already been thinking about the logistics of doing Loch Ness possibly.
wardi - good news on the increasing mileage. Hopefully over the worst!
TT - we've spoken elsewhere, but bloody well done on Sunday!! I hope you can get things to settle down and get a decent block of incident-free training under your belt. Fingers crossed mate.
SJ - I wouldn't worry too much at the mo. You've had a belter of a Spring. You need a bit of downtime/tlc before you come back properly.
After a really full-on week or so at work, I was up at 5:30am on Friday to head south. I initially drove over to my Mum and Dad's (3 hours away), had a few things to sort there and then I was on the train down from Wakefield at 2:00pm with Rich (who I went to Barca with). Decent journey down and then straight to the Expo. Found that remarkably underwhelming this year. No London Mara theme music playing, a pretty poor trade area (no big brands there - so no Adidas, Nike, Brooks, Saucony etc). Zero goodies. And worst of all - no Pink Lady apple or sachet of Lo-Salt. Not to worry. Tube over to Stratford where we were staying this year - with Caz and Kelvin as per usual.
Steady parkrun Sat, (24'xx I think). Bit of pottering Sat pm.
Up early Sunday - my usual pre-Mara brekkie of 3 slices of white bread/toast and jam. Cutting the bread and I cut the end of my finger really quite badly! Bit chunk of it flapping about! Wouldn't stop bleeding. Still, it saved a bit of weight. 4 plasters later and we got the DLR across to Greenwich. We're on Green this year. Follow the signs. Massively convoluted way they sent us. Means we have to cross the road just in front of the Blue start - and they wouldn't let us cross! Held us there for a good 10 mins until the wheelchair race went by. Anyway, that's where we bumped into Dan. I was fretting though - now running a bit late as the toilet queues were massive. All was ok though, despite my panic. Got into the holding pen and found Ode, CRAB and njord. Good craic as you'd expect! They call us forward so everybody takes off their T-Shirts etc they've been wearing to keep warm. Being northern I'm just in my vest and shorts. As someone throws their discarded T-Shirt, they elbow Ode square in the face. Accidental, but really quite hard. The gun has gone by this point and we're jogging, but it wasn't great. Poor fella.
Anyway, over the line and it's really not busy at all. Lots of space etc (compared to normal) so the wave thing worked pretty well. Little bit twisty for the first bit off green, lots of speed bumps etc but all fine. Join Blue. Again, busy but fine. Plan is to run to HR - try and keep it around 150-152 and see how I go.
First 5k - 20'44. Bit quick really, but it's downhill. HR fine. Planned gel at 4. I've carried it in my hand since the start. Go to take it - dropped it. Majestic that. I'll just have 4 then (5, 10, 15 and 20). Greenwich fine, have a gel, ok, next 5k 21.27 - yeah that's ok. Cutty Sark was great - feeling good. HR a bit high (crowds etc). Get the handbrake on. Surrey Quays - not really feeling too great here. Just feels hard work. HR dropped to 148 but feels like I'm working quite hard. Hmmm - only another 18 miles to go! Could be a long day this.
Bermondsey - still feel a bit 'meh'. Am now totally ignoring the gadget and just running. There's clocks every mile anyway. Real bad spell round 10. Time to high-5 some of the crowd and try and have a bit of fun/run with a smile on my face. Have turned autolap off and am manually splitting. Miss 3 or 4 of the mile markers cos I'm arsing about. No bother - I'm paying zero attention to it anyway - it's just nice to look at/dissect afterwards.
Tower Bridge - just grinding it out. I'm ok but not really feeling it. Try to high5 some of the Police lining the edge of the road. They're having none of it!! Haha! Still struggling sadly. Feels a long way to the finish.
Halfway - 1'29'45 - oh! That's better than I thought. Mind you, I still reckon I could blow spectacularly here. Ah well, just crack on. It's not like there's timing mats every 5k and the whole world can see you unravel....
The big underpass thing at 15. Still hard going this. Keep at it son. Lucozade Sport station on the right. Not a fan of that - too strong for me. Hesitate. 'I feel shite, what have I got to lose?' Veer right, take a cup, down it. Through the tunnel, have a gel. Was it that or something else? Dunno, but I suddenly felt much better.
Canary Wharf - awesome! My fave part of the course (cos of the crowds). It was MENTAL this year. SO SO loud. Possibly cos it was raining, everyone had gone underneath the tunnel thing where the station is. But it was rocking. And I felt brilliant. Strong as a bull. Calm down son, still 10 miles to go. High 5 a whole family. Hear the Dad say 'well Lee looks like he's having a lovely time!' I was! Should have seen me half an hour ago mate. If you'd have said that I'd have roundhoused you to the temple. Well, with my hamstrings maybe the lower ankle. Anyway, onwards.
From there on in I felt pretty good. I was working really hard and I'd had enough type thing, but I'm not sure I've ever felt that strong for the last 9 miles or so of a Marathon. Passing folk left, right and centre. Couldn't really work out if sub-3 was on, largely cos I was just running really hard and not worrying about it. I was working more on 'worse case scenarios'. At 35k just under 2 hours 30. I thought 'if I drift out to 8'00 min/mile pace (5'00 min/km) that's still 3'06ish. And then the thought had gone. Just keep going. Running strong. Keep your form etc. It was that all the way to the end really. The time will be what the time will be.
Approaching Big Ben and I'd seen my last 2 miles had been 6'52ish - right on the cusp here. Am I doing enough to dip under 3? I found out when I hit the '800m to go' sign (that was the first time I'd properly looked at my elapsed time). It said 2'57'5x. An 800m rep in 2 mins flat? 3'00'xx it is then! That's good - better than I thought. So I just ran in and did a bit of showboating down the final stretch.
Scores on the doors - 3'00'42. Ran pretty much entirely on feel. My splits that TT alluded to:
20'47 (downhill)
21'27
21'33
21'33
21'31
21'33
21'26
21'32
That was just running. Ignoring the gadget really. So despite those 42 seconds I'm genuinely chuffed with my run. I've ran London a lot quicker than that (quite a few times), but I'm not sure I've ever ran it better.
Saw CRAB at the baggage lorry and we were one of the first to the pub. Charlie W was there briefly - he'd ran 2'50'30 (I think?) Then the rest came, and we had a lovely time!
Despite a few not hitting their absolute A target, everybody did what they needed to do in terms of GFA etc. So it'll be the same time next year! Hopefully with a few others there too.
LS21/TR - 2*3.00 (3.00.47 VLM 2005, felt massively disappointed & 3.00.12 Gran Canaria 2017 conversely massively pleased as in better shape than I thought) so I can fully understand your satisfaction with how things turned-out LS21.
TR - Good session and great you feeling better. Good going in Pegs as they are a bit of a trundle show and feel far different from Flyknits. They've 50 places left, so probably enter this weekend.
TT - Without that shin injury, you would have run a far faster time and had a very different take on the race as I believe you would have hit your target. Adding a new stimulus must be a good thing.
Wardi - Good your back or far closer back to normal. Hope the lead biking went well?
SJ - Yes, am displaying addict symptoms
Nice run around Plymouths' football ground last night pre-match as its located a very large central green area and musing about future running goals. Quite tempted by what Macca (PW thread) and DT (3.15 thread) did running Boston and London less than a week apart and getting really good impressive times at both though could be Manchester/ London (Madrid) in my case.