After so nearly breaking my 15 year long standing PB last week in Manchester I wondered whether I could have another crack at it this weekend in London. As the week progressed towards the day the weather forecast wasn’t great suggesting a rainy morning. I suppose this can make for fairly good running conditions but that’s not my personal preference. Even on the Saturday it was suggested light rain so I was very pleased to wake up on the morning of the race to a find the rain had passed earlier than expected and I was going to stay dry. So this meant I had close to perfect running conditions, could a PB attempt be on? Well not really as sadly I had started with a cold 2 days earlier so decided it wasn’t a good idea but still planned to start off fairly strong and see how it went.
The atmosphere at the start in Blackheath is always electric and this year was the same. Considering the many thousands of people there it isn’t the loud. I think this due to the nervousness and anticipation from all the runners, whether it is a first timer or a seasoned runner focusing on a PB. You can almost feel the tension in the air. It is a truly wonderful colourful spectacle.
As I had travelled to London this year on my own without the families support it was nice to see a few familiar friends at the start including fellow 10in10ers Sally, Lucy, Ellan, Paul and David at Tower Bridge.
The race got under way with usual jostling for position for the first mile or two in the crowded streets packed with runners which made the first mile my slowest. I soon settled into a good pace just under 7.5 minute miling, good but not PB potential. This continued passed the brilliant band of drummers at mile 5 echoing under an underpass, Cutty Sark and over Tower Bridge getting me to half way in 1 hour 36 minutes 30 seconds. I didn’t feel like I had my usual energy levels and was putting this down to my cold and wondered whether I might fade as I got further into the race. Luckily and quite surprisingly I didn’t and enjoyed keeping the same pace going passed Canary Wharf, the London Eye, Big Ben into Bird Cage Way and finally Buckingham Palace and the finish in the Mall. As I came down the Mall it was great to pass Paula Radcliff, albeit she had already finished and was at the side of the course giving a television interview. It rounded off a lovely race to see the female world record holder and one of my favourite celebrity runners in the flesh as I came into the finish. Official finishing time 3 hours 13 minutes 55 seconds, not a PB but it’ll do.
The word I am going to use to describe the crowd is one which is seriously over used by my kids and rarely (if ever) used by me but spot on for describing the crowd which were absolutely massive, incredibly loud and enthusiastic, they were truly “Awesome!”. The crowd support all the way round the route was immense, I don’t know how but London just keeps getting better every year and to date I’ve not found a marathon to eclipse London for crowd support, not even the other marathon majors. Once again “Well done London.”
Now it is time to taper, get over this cold, let the handful of niggles I’ve got fade and hopefully go away before day 1 of the Brathay 10 marathons and 10 days challenge in merely 12 days.
