Last London?

I treated today like it was going to be my last London marathon. Don’t get me wrong it is not that I don’t love running at London, quite the opposite. It is in my opinion the best big city marathon in the world, certainly of all the ones I have experienced. The reality is it is getting harder to get a place. My ability to get a good for age place is now extremely unlikely and the ballot doesn’t present a much better chance of success.

I have been privileged to have completed 12, more than most so I am thankful for that.

Over the past couple of days, the weather forecast for the race was potentially for lots of rain. All my friends know, I don’t like running in the rain and it was putting a dampener on my ability to look forward to today. This morning I got up expecting rain and instead it was dry and the BBC weather forecast had magically changed to dry with sun around noon, wow!

So today was more about lapping up the atmosphere and enjoying the race than running a fast time, although I am not as good at running fast these days. I love the atmosphere getting to the start. The underground is free to all the runners and we are able to walk through all the paying gates as we herd our way to Blackheath park’s three starts Blue, Red and Green. Once again, I was in the Green start. It is nice to chat with fellow runners as we all calmly walk to the start area, some have done it many times, others are doing their first marathon, there is an air of quiet excitement and nervousness in the air, which is something you only seem to get from the largest marathon events. I felt pretty calm and simply enjoyed people watching and soaking up the mood in the park. Finally, it was time to start. I was in wave 3 and started off promptly at 9:45am. It is something special having thousands of runners pouring down the closed roads of London, constantly lined with masses of crowds cheering and shouting on both sides.

Time seems to go so fast when running London. I think it is because there is always something to see, if it is not London’s sights, there are the bands and DJ’s playing music, then it is simply all the wonderful lively spectators cheering you on. I wore my Brathay 10in10 top with my name “Malc” in pink on both the front and back. I had, with no exaggeration, thousands of people shouting my name over the 26.2 miles. This is wonderful and I had some great banter with the crowd. A couple of times they misread my name and called me “Male”!

As I was taking this London as potentially my last, I wanted to take a few photos of things I like about the course. At mile 5.3 there is usually a band of drummers in around about below an underpass. Their sounds are always fantastic and acoustically brilliant under the concrete structure. I set myself up on the right side of the road to take a picture of them. I couldn’t believe that when I got there, there was construction work where they normally are so they were on the other side and I missed my photo opportunity. Even so I managed to enjoy their wonderful echoing drumming.

Mile 12 is where the course turns right and all of a sudden Tower Bridge is laid out in front of you. This is my favourite point of the course and probably of any marathon in the world. What an iconic landmark and the crowds pack the pavements and make a deafening amount of noise. No place in any other marathon is like this!

The first time I did the London marathon back in 1998, Canary Wharf hadn’t been built. It was an area bare and scruffy, the whole place was a building site about to be built on. I recall that the only structures standing were a few old pubs and there were virtually no spectators. Now the place is packed with shiny glass skyscrapers, the beating heart of London’s banking sector. During marathon day, like the rest of the course it is packed with raucous spectators and is a brilliant atmosphere.

There is no let up to the support around the course, as we run the last 10k back into the city centre, in fact it just keeps building and getting louder, absolutely fabulous! Back past the Tower of London, Embankment, London Eye, Big Ben, houses of Parliament, Birdcage Walk, St James Park, Buckingham Palace and finally the finish into the Mall.

I stopped at one point at about 20 miles. Not because I was tired just to take a photo of some lovely coloured flags as it was a lovely part of the course. The crowd thought I had stopped because I was tired and started shouting me to get going again. I turned to them and pointed my camera at them whilst cheering at them. They loved this, cheered back and put their hands in the air as I took their photo, what a brilliant moment I will never forget. The bond between the runners and the crowds at London is totally amazing!

Thank you London!

My time today was very much second on my mind. I  haven’t trained specifically for this and hardly run any road miles all summer. I have been enjoying trails and taking photos. I have done no proper paced road running since May. That said, I managed a decent first half in 1 hour 50 minutes  but slowed second half, to finish in 3 hours 53 minutes 15 seconds. Not a great time for me but fine with all things considered and it didn’t rain. Nice looking medal this year, I am very impressed and it has a bit if pink 😊