So London Marathon is done. 4:46. Over an hour slower than Edinburgh. But, I made it to the start line AND I ran every single step.
Too much stress the week before was not good timing and I felt exhausted before even getting down to London. I had also noticed that I was a bit anaemic which I tried to compensate for my restarting my vitamins and iron. It was probably due to my bout of flu combined with the extra stress of the other stuff in my life.
Friday was great though. K and I set off for the train with our million bags because we were also flying out to Abu Dhabi and Dubai the day after London. We met up with Nicky and Kay and we all managed to sit together on the train which was great. Kept me calm.
When we got to London we got a taxi to the hotel and I got a huge hug because John had already arrived from Abu Dhabi and been able to pick up some paperwork for me from the UAE Embassy. Having not seen him for 7 weeks it was so lovely to see him again.
The expo was great fun. Having not been to anything like that before, it was very interesting. K won a tshirt and a Club La Santa voucher which I hope I get the chance to use. I bought myself a lovely green VLM 2011 climalite jacket. Picked up loads of free stuff on the way round and got some t-shirts from Breakthrough Breast Cancer for K and John to wear on the Sunday. Bright pink in the hope that they would be easier to spot in the crowds.
Saturday morning Kay, John, K and I went to Brockwell parkrun in Brixton. Having been determined to do a parkrun because she is trying to get her 50 t-shirt before we leave, K created all the way round. It's at times like this I swear to myself I won't run with her again!
Saturday afternoon I had a nap and put my feet up for a bit. We went out for tea on the Saturday night with Kay, Nicky, Chris and Liz. Didn't feel panicked at all, which is most unusual for me.
Sunday morning and up early for porridge. Then downstairs to meet Kay, Nicky, Chris and Liz. Liz and Chris were running a bit late so Kay, Nicky and I set off to London Bridge station where we were supposed to meet Harp. When we got there, Harp wasn't there so Kay and I left Nicky to cram ourselves onto the train.
It was a long walk from the station. Kay was at a different start so I left her after about 10 minutes and carried on. Immediately, I spotted the lady walking next to me had a Brass Monkey top on so I got chatting to her. She was also from Leeds and runs for Valley Striders. It was nice to have someone to chat to because it was at least another 10 minutes before we got to the Green start.
The Green start was tiny and not very busy. I put my bag in and went to the loo. The queue was short when I started queuing, but by the time I came out of the loo the line was massive! I sat down and got chatting to another lady. I heard people shouting for Tony and seeing as K loves Tony's Trials on Marathon Talk, I went to get a photo of him for her. There was also a Corrie actor she likes so I took a pic of him for her too.
The start came round really quickly. I didn't feel nervous, but had a weird wave come over me that definitely wasn't nerves. I ignored it and focussed on the start. Over the line in less than two minutes and we were off.
I was quite good with my pacing and kept it between 9 and 10 mins although it was probably a little too close to 9 in retrospect. My legs didn't feel good and I knew it was going to be tough. I kept my fluids up and think I got my nutrition right.
I had a tracking app on my iphone which allowed me to post to a website where I was at various points meaning that John could see roughly where I was and hopefully get to various points to cheer me on. I had my phone on my arm but used it for the gps and so John could send me texts telling me where they would be. It worked and I ended up seeing them at all 3 points which was lovely.
By 8 or 9 miles I was struggling. It was a warm day, but not as hot as Edinburgh and I didn't need my sunglasses on (I was sunburnt, but didn't feel it at the time). I couldn't understand why my legs weren't working. I ran 10 miles in November for Guy Fawkes and it didn't feel as hard as this race! I checked my heart rate and it was so high at 174 (I normally run a half in low to mid 160s). No wonder. I realised that the raised HR was probably due to not being fully recovered from the virus.
So I began a new strategy of damage limitation. This involved not walking under any circumstances because I knew I would not get going again along with trying to keep myself cool and well hydrated. It seemed that I must have looked worse even than I felt because other runners kept asking me if I was okay and a couple of people threw some water on me to cool me down. I have noticed that if you want the support from the crowd you must look in difficulty because the harder it got the more times I heard people shouting my name!
Apart from seeing John and K, I also saw Rich K twice and got a lovely hug from him at mile 22. Apologies to him and Jaz and Tess who I was also pleased to see not long after mile 22 for the sweaty-ness of my vest at this point although a lot of it was probably the water I threw on myself! I was also so pleased to spot my mum and dad in the crowd. They had never seen me run before and I couldn't see them at the charity cheering points I had said they should wait at so I could spot them. It was about half a mile after the second cheering point I spotted them and got another hug.
The last couple of miles was really me putting my determined head on and just aiming to finish. Which I did. Managed to stagger to the charity post race venue put had some nasty toilet issues. Obviously marathons affect me badly in that way. Forced myself to drink the protein shake I had put in my kit bag because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat probably for the rest of the day.
So I did it. I did London. But I actually hated every minute of it. I just wanted it to be over. It was lovely seeing people, but the race itself I hated. I don't want to do another race where I suffer like that. So I am back to my original marathon premise that I started with when Tom initially suggested to me that anyone can run a marathon: I will not do one again unless I have the time to train properly. Running a marathon when you know you are not trained properly is not nice. I did say I would NEVER run a marathon again. It certainly will not happen next year. Maybe not the year after. We'll see.
Next target = get my half marathon time down.
PS The positive point btw to not running as fast is that I could walk the next day and have been able to spend the whole week walking (a LOT) and apart from tired legs, there has been no muscle soreness. So I can get back to it quicker this time.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported me during this London Marathon journey.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Too much stress the week before was not good timing and I felt exhausted before even getting down to London. I had also noticed that I was a bit anaemic which I tried to compensate for my restarting my vitamins and iron. It was probably due to my bout of flu combined with the extra stress of the other stuff in my life.
Friday was great though. K and I set off for the train with our million bags because we were also flying out to Abu Dhabi and Dubai the day after London. We met up with Nicky and Kay and we all managed to sit together on the train which was great. Kept me calm.
When we got to London we got a taxi to the hotel and I got a huge hug because John had already arrived from Abu Dhabi and been able to pick up some paperwork for me from the UAE Embassy. Having not seen him for 7 weeks it was so lovely to see him again.
The expo was great fun. Having not been to anything like that before, it was very interesting. K won a tshirt and a Club La Santa voucher which I hope I get the chance to use. I bought myself a lovely green VLM 2011 climalite jacket. Picked up loads of free stuff on the way round and got some t-shirts from Breakthrough Breast Cancer for K and John to wear on the Sunday. Bright pink in the hope that they would be easier to spot in the crowds.
Saturday morning Kay, John, K and I went to Brockwell parkrun in Brixton. Having been determined to do a parkrun because she is trying to get her 50 t-shirt before we leave, K created all the way round. It's at times like this I swear to myself I won't run with her again!
Saturday afternoon I had a nap and put my feet up for a bit. We went out for tea on the Saturday night with Kay, Nicky, Chris and Liz. Didn't feel panicked at all, which is most unusual for me.
Sunday morning and up early for porridge. Then downstairs to meet Kay, Nicky, Chris and Liz. Liz and Chris were running a bit late so Kay, Nicky and I set off to London Bridge station where we were supposed to meet Harp. When we got there, Harp wasn't there so Kay and I left Nicky to cram ourselves onto the train.
It was a long walk from the station. Kay was at a different start so I left her after about 10 minutes and carried on. Immediately, I spotted the lady walking next to me had a Brass Monkey top on so I got chatting to her. She was also from Leeds and runs for Valley Striders. It was nice to have someone to chat to because it was at least another 10 minutes before we got to the Green start.
The Green start was tiny and not very busy. I put my bag in and went to the loo. The queue was short when I started queuing, but by the time I came out of the loo the line was massive! I sat down and got chatting to another lady. I heard people shouting for Tony and seeing as K loves Tony's Trials on Marathon Talk, I went to get a photo of him for her. There was also a Corrie actor she likes so I took a pic of him for her too.
The start came round really quickly. I didn't feel nervous, but had a weird wave come over me that definitely wasn't nerves. I ignored it and focussed on the start. Over the line in less than two minutes and we were off.
I was quite good with my pacing and kept it between 9 and 10 mins although it was probably a little too close to 9 in retrospect. My legs didn't feel good and I knew it was going to be tough. I kept my fluids up and think I got my nutrition right.
I had a tracking app on my iphone which allowed me to post to a website where I was at various points meaning that John could see roughly where I was and hopefully get to various points to cheer me on. I had my phone on my arm but used it for the gps and so John could send me texts telling me where they would be. It worked and I ended up seeing them at all 3 points which was lovely.
By 8 or 9 miles I was struggling. It was a warm day, but not as hot as Edinburgh and I didn't need my sunglasses on (I was sunburnt, but didn't feel it at the time). I couldn't understand why my legs weren't working. I ran 10 miles in November for Guy Fawkes and it didn't feel as hard as this race! I checked my heart rate and it was so high at 174 (I normally run a half in low to mid 160s). No wonder. I realised that the raised HR was probably due to not being fully recovered from the virus.
So I began a new strategy of damage limitation. This involved not walking under any circumstances because I knew I would not get going again along with trying to keep myself cool and well hydrated. It seemed that I must have looked worse even than I felt because other runners kept asking me if I was okay and a couple of people threw some water on me to cool me down. I have noticed that if you want the support from the crowd you must look in difficulty because the harder it got the more times I heard people shouting my name!
Apart from seeing John and K, I also saw Rich K twice and got a lovely hug from him at mile 22. Apologies to him and Jaz and Tess who I was also pleased to see not long after mile 22 for the sweaty-ness of my vest at this point although a lot of it was probably the water I threw on myself! I was also so pleased to spot my mum and dad in the crowd. They had never seen me run before and I couldn't see them at the charity cheering points I had said they should wait at so I could spot them. It was about half a mile after the second cheering point I spotted them and got another hug.
The last couple of miles was really me putting my determined head on and just aiming to finish. Which I did. Managed to stagger to the charity post race venue put had some nasty toilet issues. Obviously marathons affect me badly in that way. Forced myself to drink the protein shake I had put in my kit bag because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat probably for the rest of the day.
So I did it. I did London. But I actually hated every minute of it. I just wanted it to be over. It was lovely seeing people, but the race itself I hated. I don't want to do another race where I suffer like that. So I am back to my original marathon premise that I started with when Tom initially suggested to me that anyone can run a marathon: I will not do one again unless I have the time to train properly. Running a marathon when you know you are not trained properly is not nice. I did say I would NEVER run a marathon again. It certainly will not happen next year. Maybe not the year after. We'll see.
Next target = get my half marathon time down.
PS The positive point btw to not running as fast is that I could walk the next day and have been able to spend the whole week walking (a LOT) and apart from tired legs, there has been no muscle soreness. So I can get back to it quicker this time.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported me during this London Marathon journey.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
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