Sub 3h15

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  • OO54OO54 ✭✭✭
    Sorry to hear you aren’t in good shape Poacher. I may be well sozled by the time you get to Chandos. I think Chandos has 2 staircase. Anyway I’ll be upstairs on the left side of the bar as you look at it. I’ll be with mrsOO and 3 gorgeous daughters and a ginger boyfriend who hopes to run his 1st Mara in 2:45!
    In terms of pace I’ll probably go off at 7min miles, a tad slower than Paris, unless it’s really hot. I’ll be watching my heart rate which was linked to my blow out in Paris. 
    Wishing you all the very best of luck. My number is 25768 if you are tracking by the TV.
    Great to hear from you Freemers, sounds like you are back on track at least.
    Finally I ran Southwark parkrun today pacing Mrs OO to a new PB of 29:06. At least someone will have something to celebrate tomorrow:)
  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭
    Cheers OO, do shout or throw something if I am stumbling about like a zombie. Your family group seems to grow exponentially and every single one of them fast.

    Decision: turn up tomorrow and get round if poss; it would be a bit soft to bail when there's no fast time at stake so may as well dig deep, have a laugh and tick off another one. Mainly though, fingers crossed for those who are making an effort for 2.XX, GFA, PB or whatever is a meaningful target. Go slay it.  
  • Light drizzle in Surrey this afternoon and a rather pleasant temperature at the moment - hopefully there'll be a reasonable amount of cloud cover tomorrow.

    OO - I'll be there, hopefully not too long after you.

    Poacher - I've got confidence in you. You'll be there in a time that will take us all by surprise (in a positive way!)

    G-Dawg - 3:14 should be well within reach given how well the build up races have gone. Hopefully we'll catch up early on and keep the train going.

    I'm aiming to go off at around 7:10-7:15 pace; 7:15s equate to 29 mins every 4 miles so I'll use that as the basis for my calculations en route. Conveniently it's also close to 4:30 / km which is good news for the markers every 5K. Looking forward to just over 3 hours' worth of mental arithmetic!

    Good luck to everyone for tomorrow whether you're in London or "not London"


  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭
    I'm just having dinner opposite Chandos do at least I'll find the place tomorrow!

    Feeling quite anxious suddenly. 
  • MinniMinni ✭✭✭
    Hi Gang,

    Just dropping in to wish you all the very best of luck tomorrow.  Have an awesome day out there and enjoy that pint in Chandos.

    Me? Well, I've had a winter of just feeling under the weather and not been able to get going properly.  I mainly put it down to my long commute since changing my job, which has really interfered with my life!  I was able to defer my place, so next year!

    My FB memories today reminded me of that awesome day 5 years ago.....   :/

    I look forward to reading all your reports tomorrow.  Go well. x




  • Minni - great to hear from you. Sorry to hear that you've not been feeling so great but fingers crossed things are sorted. What job are you doing now?
  • MinniMinni ✭✭✭
    edited April 2018
    Lorenzo - I am Business Manager for an education charity in the NE and based in Newcastle.  I love it but the long commute on top of long hours takes its toll!  We're busy house hunting at the moment for something closer to town.  I have such lovely memories of us on the Mall at the end of VLM 2013.  
  • Gul DarrGul Darr ✭✭✭
    Just popping in to wish all the VLMers a great race tomorrow. And not forgetting belated congratulations to SBD - awesome stuff. Well done too to DadAgain - a tough day at the very hot office. Hope the conditions aren't too bad in London. Back home now after my extended holiday - might even go for a run tomorrow!
  • JoolskaJoolska ✭✭✭
    Best of luck and Don't Be Shit!
  • Gul DarrGul Darr ✭✭✭
    Rain overnight here and feels cool at the moment, but looks like it's sunny down south :( Forgot to make a note of people's bib numbers. 6 miles with 4@6:31 d&d and I could tell I'd had a few weeks off! Good luck everyone.
  • AndyLidAndyLid ✭✭✭
    Good luck all who are running today
  • edited April 2018
    On the train out to the start - clear blue skies at the moment. 

    I'm 26694.
  • nicko1981nicko1981 ✭✭✭
    When I was offered a place to stay "near the start line", I didn't quite expect this level of convenience. Nice morning. A bit too nice...
    el
  • BadbarkBadbark ✭✭✭

    I ran a comfortable 3:11 in the EAMS ‘Not the London Marathon’ marathon today. This was good enough to take the win. I hope the VLMers had successful days too?


  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭
    Great to meet a few guys today. I was delighted with my race management to run a pretty controlled 3.04.45 to actually equal my PB time from last year. It was brutal. 

    Well done on a win and great time, Badbark. 
  • SBD.SBD. ✭✭✭

    Great control DT19 - sounds like conditions were brutal out there today - that's a brilliant time in the circumstances and amazing consistency on the splits.

    Well done on the win Badbark - how were conditions over there?


  • Congrats to Badbark on the win.

    Great to meet up with DT, OO, Poacher and G-Dawg at various points of the day, with it all coming together at Chandos.

    A shade disappointed with 3:18:47 - started OK but realised by 10K that it wasn't going to be my day. I'm definitely not a warm weather runner. 
  • nicko1981nicko1981 ✭✭✭
    I don't really know how to sum up today. Predictably out too fast and bonked early, but ended up with a 5 sec PB at 3:12:26. Roasted to a good medium rare, will elaborate later.

    Went to Chandos with some mates, felt far too delicate to find you all though. Hopefully next time.
  • PoacherPoacher ✭✭✭
    Pic shows 3 guys with great legs (OO, DT, Lorenzo) and some bloke in trousers who wandered in off the street.

    Nicko a hot day PB is to be proud of, nice work.
  • Got a PB! Ok, a month ago I was aiming for sub 3' but that became 3'05 in recent weeks then the weather came and it was up in the air. Came in at 3'11'14 so more than 2 minutes PB from last year. Shame it won't quite meet the new GFA requirements but happy all the same. So many runners slowing after halfway today in the heat. I went out steady and once I figured out that was sustainable I just tried to stay in the zone. Water bottles saved my race, must have dowsed myself 15+ times in total. 1'34'52 first half then 1'36'22 for second, only really slowed down for the last 3k when I had realised PB in the bag and GFA gone so hard to keep pushing on.
  • SBD.SBD. ✭✭✭

    Good to see you're all still smiling - those medals were very well earned.

    Very tough conditions so getting to the finish was a major achievement.

    A PB in these conditions is a huge achievement nicko.

  • OO54OO54 ✭✭✭
    I think we all had a tough day at the office in London. Congrats to DT for topping the thread leader board. Great to meet you guys in the pub. 3:15:59 sounds like a shocker but I can’t overstate whatca tough race this was. I’m fairly happy all things considered.

  • G-DawgG-Dawg ✭✭✭
    Great to meet the gang in Chandos. What a nice bunch!

    I decided early on that all time goals were out of the question, so just sort of ran on feel. Saved myself for the final 10k and felt surprisingly strong but 24 and 24 were tough.

    Scored a 3.16 which in those conditions, I'm very happy with. Like Lorenzo, I don't do heat!!

    Well done on the times, gang, looking forward to hearing some of the more gory of details in the next couple of days.
  • Super stuff Nicko - great to manage a PB in the conditions.

    I'm not sure I'm up to writing a full report yet, but the 5K splits tell the story, bearing in mind my revised plan was to try and average 22:30

    22:15
    22:50 (hmm - sub 3:10 clearly going out of the window from an early stage)
    22:56
    23:06
    23:07 (OK - sub-3:15 is still a possibility)
    23:48 (oh no it's not!)
    24:51 (definitely not)
    25:11
    + 10:47 for the last bit so at least I managed to pick the pace up a shade

    Not a great set of splits and overall 1:36/1:43 for a 7 minute positive split which seems to be par for the course for me based on the last 3 years - something to look to improve methinks.

    My quick assessment is that I won't qualify for GFA next year - while V50 is sub 3:15 they take the time based on your age at the time; I was 49 last year and ran 3:10:00 with a GFA for 45-49 of sub-3:10. Bug*er!

    On the positive side, this gives me the perfect excuse to do Boston as the BQ time for 50-54 is a generous 3:30, while I'm already thinking about an autumn marathon to try and restore a bit of pride and get the sub-3:15 that will get me back in the mix for 2020. At least I've managed to get to 10 London Marathon completions.

    Interestingly, despite taking nearly 9 minutes longer than last year, I still finished 200 places higher than last year and a very similar position to my PB year of 2016 which goes to show how tough it was for people out there today.


  • Well done everyone and especially @nicko1981. A PB in those conditions is fantastic.

    Ended up with a debut 3:24 which should be disappointing given I was nominally going for 3:15 but in the circumstances and given I only started running 18 months ago I was pretty pleased.

    Full race report to follow tomorrow
  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2018
    Nice pic, poacher.

    Great to get a pb out there today, Nicko.

    well done also Southwark runner and Paul also. 

    Lorenzo I also had a look at last year's and having posted exactly the same time I finished over 1000 places higher this year. When you factor in I finished 1382 this year that is quite a significant climb for same time.

    so I think it's just Stevie to hear from?
  • AndyLidAndyLid ✭✭✭
    3:24:57 - all kinds of wrong throughout.  Ah well, live and learn for Berlin
  • BirchBirch ✭✭✭
    great work, everyone, especially in those conditions - and finishing positions do confirm the effect of those conditions . . .
     
    particular kudos for DT & Nicko - equal/PB s 
    OO - excellent for an old(ish) git ;)   (and following the recent Parisian effort) . . .
    Poacher loses marks for the headwear . .  but gains for another ticked off towards the century . . . .    
     
    not forgetting Badbark - nice victory . . .  
  • Right, so yesterday. Finished in 3:24:33 which I probably would have been disappointed in a month ago but not yesterday.

    I started in red start pen 3 which was based on my conservative 3:45 prediction back in October when I was a lot less fit. The first lesson from yesterday is to stop being polite and conservative in your predictions. I understand why London don’t allow you to move forward but it is frustrating.

    Got to the front of pen 3 which was the start of the second wave and set off at a comfortable 3:10 pace. Given the rest of the pen were aiming for 3:30-3:45 I was basically running by myself for the first couple of miles apart from a few stragglers from pen 2, which was a bit surreal.

    Then-the merge at mile 3. If I was to have one complaint about the organisation at London it would be this. I’d caught up with the 3:30ish runners by this stage and looked right to see the green pen merging. All seemed ok until I saw the Green 4:15 pacer and his hundreds of followers moving in front, causing a huge bottleneck. I wonder if it could be arranged that the similar pacers could meet at a similar time but perhaps this is an unfortunate result of the wave start.

    Miles 3-13 were spent trying to overtake as many people as possible. I know this is a waste of energy but if you’re trying to run a much quicker time than those around you I’m not sure what else you can do. I ended up running an extra 300 metres in the first half which is more than a minute delay. By this stage I’d slowed to such as extent that 3:20 became the target.

    Miles 13-17 were pretty good and probably the most sheltered on the course. A lot of people were moving from one part of the road to another just to stay in the shade.

    Mile 17 onwards was hard, really hard. The midday sun really zapped the energy out of me and 30-35k was undoubtedly the hardest part. I was trying to do 7:30 miles but ended up doing 7:50. Sped up towards the end but came a few minutes over the intended target. Still happy with that as a first marathon and I am reliably informed it’s not always that hard.

    A huge shout out to the crowd and the emergency responders. I passed at least 8 people on the floor collapsed and hope they are all ok.

    So in conclusion, it would have been nice to run in cooler conditions and with people running my pace for some of the time but these were largely out of my hands. There is anecdotal evidence that some of the pacers missed their time which I suppose is a sign of how tough it is. My time would have had me outside the top 5,000 last year but finished 3,500th or so this year

    That said, 3:15 might have been unlikely even in perfect conditions. I’ve only averaged 40 miles a week since January thanks to a couple of injuries and other distractions. I really need to be more consistent and run more to get sub 3:15. I may stick rigidly to a P&D plan next time.

    I hope you all enjoyed the day and that first beer afterwards.
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