The Marathon – Part Two

Around 11 miles in was the first “big” landmark as the course crosses the river via Tower Bridge. The crowd was huge here and it was a great feeling to run up the slope of the bridge in the sun – I remember having a huge smile on my face. Unfortunately someone had collapsed on the bridge and an ambulance was blocking half of the road, but this was definitely my favourite part of the whole course. Colin Jackson was doing some interviews for the BBC so you might have seen me waving at the camera behind him.

It got tougher from this point on. The course loops back on itself at this point, so we could see some of the elite runners running in the opposite direction on the far side of the barriers. Psychologically it was very hard to know you were running away from the finish line and to see other runners so far ahead of you.

The crowd was more denser around this area and a lot of the charities had set up their cheering points here so you would pass through a section of guys in bright green tees and wigs, then a bright orange area, then yellow. There were firetrucks spraying their hose over hot runners, cheerleaders bouncing around and live bands playing from pubs and rooftops – the weather was perfect for the spectators. All around the course kids would hold their hands out to high five you as you went past and lots of women had bought jellybabies and sweets to give to the runners as they went past.

Although I started to feel a little tired around the halfway point it wasn’t until around the 18 mile mark that my running started to be affected by the distance. But once it started going wrong it went wrong very quickly – its definitely called “hitting the wall” for a reason! My pace started to drop dramatically and my legs stiffened up.  I was paying the price for the stop-start first half of the race and the 20th mile seemed to take as long as the 19 miles that proceeded it. I’d been prepared for this to happen – I definitely wasn’t expecting to get through the London Marathon without a bit of pain – so I thought I could push on. There were still over 6 miles to go though and I realised that at my current pace it was still going take about an hour to finish. I started trying to pick landmarks about 50-100m ahead of me like billboards, lampposts and bridges that I could reach easily, before picking another little goal. I repeated the process dozens of times, but I still felt like reaching the end was an impossible distance. My stomach was starting to cramp, I felt sick from all of the Lucozade I’d drunk, and the heat was making me thirsty even though I was bloated from all the water. I felt completely beaten and I wasn’t alone – there were probably as many people walking as running at this point. Every few hundred metres there would be someone who had collapsed and was being treated at the side of the road. I came up with a new plan – every mile I’d let myself walk for ten steps and then run the rest of the mile. This seemed to work a lot better – it slowed my pace don’t even further but at least I felt like I could get round without quitting. I can remember Canary Wharf looking incredible as we ran through it but by this point I wasn’t enjoying it at all, I was just desperate to get through it.

The crowd were fantastic all the way round. When I stopped for my ten paces I got lots of shouts of encouragment to keep going and a big cheer when I started running again. Lots of people had told me that only the crowd and adrenaline get you round the last 6 miles and it definitely turned out to be true – but it was a very weird experience to be so completely broken down and exhausted in front of a huge audience of strangers. The runners also helped each other along and on the 22nd mile I started chatting to one girl who was on her second marathon and was trying to beat her previous time on 4h30m. It helped a lot to talk to someone else at this point but even when there was only 3 miles to go it seemed like an eternity. My legs and feet were threatening to go into spasms and even though it was a hot day I had become so cold I stopped sweating completely. I stopped a few more times to walk, each time just for a few paces before going back to my fast limping.

Towards the end it started getting a lot easier. Over the last two miles, when I could see Big Ben in the distance, I was able to pick up the pace a lot. It helped that a guy dressed as a Cyberman tried to overtake me and there was no way I was going to let a Cyberman beat me across the line. I even managed to take Batman before turning into the Mall. The relief at seeing the finishing line was huge and I even spotted Emma-Lucia and Gemma jumping up and down and waving in the grandstand just before I crossed the 26.2 mile mark. The time on the clock was just before 4h30m but as I hadn’t crossed the start line for the while my official time was 4h16m10s.

A Few BBC Links

Here’s a BBC news page about the how hot it was on the day – Matt Dawson, the England rugby player, finished in 4h30m said the conditions were “brutal”:

“I have seen it has really had an effect on some people. It just stops you in your tracks when you see people pass out in front in you”.

Gordon Ramsey, who I really wanted to beat, but who ended up thrashing me by about 20 minutes, said:

“It was like running in a desert today. I stopped to help one guy. It was quite bad. They were dropping like flies”.

Michelle Dewbury saw another guy being resuscitated after four miles.

I’ll write about what I saw on the day later on but I saw literally dozens of people collapsing as I went round. We checked the news after I’d finished to see if there had been any fatalities and we were really pleased that there had been no reported deaths, but unfortunately today it looks like one young guy didn’t make it.

Update: Turns out I beat Ramsay by about 5 minutes! I don’t know why exactly but beating a chef 20 years my junior was important to me.

It was also a young girl that died, not a guy. They hadn’t released the id when I posted this earlier.

Also on the BBC a video of the chain gang that I saw on the way round. It was hell if you wanted to get to the water stop behind these guys.

The Marathon – Part One!

Its all over! I’m very tired and sore and I’m not sure if my knees will ever be the same, but I completed the marathon in a time of 4h16m! The time was a little slower than I would have liked – I was trying for sub 4h, but for a first attempt on the hottest marathon ever recorded, I’ll take just getting round in one piece!

The day started early with the alarm going 6am. I had all my running clothes laid out and my kit bag packed, so I had a quick breakfast of porridge, checked and double checked that I had everything, and then Gemma drove us up to London. Another of the many and varied benefits of working for Shell is that they have an underground carpark a couple of hundred metres away from the London Eye, which is free for employees. From here it was ust a couple of stops on the Northern Line to Greenwich and the start of the marathon. There are three starts and I was going from the red start for charity runners.

From the train its actually a fairly tiring walk to the top of the Greenwich park, so I felt really bad later in the day when I heard that a lot of runners got to the start line late due to some trains breaking down.

Gemma left to go and meet up with my parents and Emma-Lucia, so I entered the runners enclosure. Its a huge field filled with urinals, portaloo, drinking stations with either free bottled water or lucozade pouches, and the trucks to carry the kit bags to the finish line. I thought I’d have been quite nervous before the run, but it was all a bit unreal so I wasn’t too stressed out. The queues for the the portaloos were very long, but from training I knew there is nothing more painful than running when you should have gone before the race, so I queued up. By time I’d reached the front people were nervous that the race would start before they got back, so I jogged over to my starting bay: number 6. The walk to the starting line had already begun.

The slow walk to the start line took about 10 minutes, and they were piping a load of classical music through the speakers and encouraging us to wave at the BBC cameras on the crane up ahead. Everyone was really chatty and there were several people wearing costumes. Already all the runners in the different bays – which are organised by expected completion time – had mixed together. I probably should have realised what this would mean later in the race.

My first mistake came the second I crossed the start line – I was using my iPod to measure my time and pace, but I selected the “marathon” distance option from the menu which measures pace in miles rather than the kilometres that I’m used too. At least we were under way.

I’ve mentioned this already and its been all over the news today but its worth saying again: it was HOT. At least on the walk to the start we were shaded my trees, but as soon as we turned in the start we were in the direct sunshine. Tina had helped me pick out some running sunglasses the day before, which were expensive but my the end of the run they’d proved their worth several times over – I was surprised so few runners were using them. So at least I didn’t have to deal with the glare, but the heat made breathing difficult and I was sweating hard before I’d even completed the first mile.

Even so the early running was easy and the miles were passing quickly. The crowd were amazing – shouting encouragement to anyone who had printed their name on their running shirt, as well as decorating their houses and putting on music. The noise was incredible. Unfortunately with the different pens mixed together the pace was incredibly slow – I had the 3h45m pace band which showed that I needed to run a 8m35s mile, but I couldn’t maintain it because there were just too many slower runners in my way. If I got clear I was running a 7m30s mile with ease, but when I was stuck it was dropping below a 10m mile. It was really frustrating, plus it meant that I had to run across the road a lot to dodge round people.  By the two mile mark I had already dropped a minute behind the pace. I figured after a few miles I’d clear most of the slower runners and I could pick up the pace and make up the time.

However, the slow runners just never ended. I had crossed the start line 13 minutes after the first wave, and even when I got to the 8 mile mark I was still struggling to find gaps to overtake people. I reckon I must have passed literally 1000’s of other runners by this point and I didn’t see anyone overtake me. I had always assumed I’d be able to pick my pace and run steadily but it just wasn’t happening. Most of the time I was held back, the rest I was sprinting to try and keep in touch with the 3h45m pace. By mile ten I’d managed to drag it back to within a minute but the start-stop running was taking its toll, and it was stressfull to try and constantly recalculate how far off I was. I know these are excuses for missing my time, but if I do this again I’m going to definitely going to start further to the front.

The heat was also throwing off my drinking plans. Instead of trying to take on a few mouthfuls ever two miles, it turned into drink as much as I could get every mile. On my practice runs if I drank too much i’d have to make a toilet stop – in this race I drank everything I could get my hands on and I still didn’t need to go until we got back to the car park a couple of hours after the race! God knows where it went but I probably put back about 13 bottles of water and 5 pouches of Lucozade.

Despite the problems I was finding the running easy and all the overtaking was good for my confidence. Around the 11 mile mark however I could feel my legs start to tire. By this point, although I knew there were several people watching for me from the crowds, I’d given up looking for them. It was too much to process running around people at the same time as scanning faces on the side of the course – plus I really can’t express enough how overwhelming it is with hundreds of people lining every street, normally three-deep, shouting and cheering for you. At least by this point i’d finally got away from the slower runners and I was able to open up a bit more.

Right, more tomorrow. I want to get this all down before I forget anything, but its been a long day and its time for sleep!

24 Hours To Go

From today’s Times:

“Sunny weather and sweltering heat could make tomorrow’s London Marathon the most dangerous in its 26 year history, experts say”

“Temperates are expected to rise as high as 23C (73.4F) for the race, increasing the danger of heart attacks, heatstroke and dehydration”

“The concerns follow the cancellation of the Rotterdam Marathon last Sunday. It was halted after only three and a half hours because of the severe heat.”

“Tomorrow’s event is forecast to be the hottest London Marathon on record. The previous record was in 1995, when the temperature rose to 21C. One runner died and 4,000 were treated for dehydration.”

“Gordon Trevett, of the University of Bristol Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health, said that the ideal temperature for runners was 9C or 10C”.

This is not what I want to be hearing right now.

Its Going To Be HOT

Since I signed up to this race I’ve been worried about what I would do if we had to run in really hot weather. It looks like we’ll find out – the forecast for Sunday is an uncomfortable 23 degrees. I know its not an exact science, but watching the forecast for Sunday this week has shown just how uncertain these predictions are. Its like the forecast page rolls a random number before deciding what the temperature to show. Earlier in the week it was as low as 17 degrees at some points, but as the weeks progressed the temp has gone up and up. It still only shows as 20 degrees on Google though. Its not so much the heat I hate as much as being stuck in direct sunlight for so long, so at least it looks like they’ll be some cloud cover. The sun index is low currently as well, so keep your fingers crossed for me that this holds.

I guess the tactic is to run really fast and get the race finished before the midday sun. Still, it’ll be nice for those of you watching!

The last week has gone pretty quickly. Gemma picked up my kit bag and runners number from the expo in London, which included the “Championchip” – a little microchip I strap to my shoe to record the official time I go past the start and finish points. This means I’ll be carrying two chips round in my shoes as I plan to take the iPod as well. I’m trying to keep everything as familiar as possible so i’ve decided to take my headphones as well – music is pretty important to me when I’m running and I haven’t really practiced that much without the iPod so its coming with me. I don’t want to miss out too much on the atmosphere of the crowds though, so if I feel like i’m missing out i’m going to chuck my headphones on the way round. They’re the best set I’ve ever owned  (Sony MDR-G57), but believe me I’ve had my money’s worth out of these and as I’ll be in the States later this month so it wouldn’t be the worst time to let them go. During my final run on Tuesday I checked that the Nike+ portion of the iPod would still work with the headphones removed (music won’t play without headphones being attached) and it does. The final run was actually a bit more strenous than i’d planned – a five miler around the Punchbowl – where I once again got the chance to prove that it was quicker to get around on foot than on bike. It turns out it probably is quicker on foot but its not necessarily a smart thing to try and prove a few days before running the marathon. Still, with the cold and the tapering, i’ve hardly done any running in the last couple of weeks so i’m fully revitalised for Sunday.

No nerve problems so far, though I know a lot of people are starting to suffer. This is a bit of a “oh my god” moment every time I see it advertised on BBC One, and a bit of depression everytime the weatherman  does the “Its not looking good for the marathon!” bit at the end of the forecast, but apart from that I’ve been too busy with other stuff to think too much apart the marathon. It’s Gemma’s 25th birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!) and I’ve been interviewing a bunch of guys at work, plus theres the New York trip to plan and badminton, football and now touch rugby in the evenings. I’ve put in plenty of work for this run over several months and if I don’t get round it won’t be for lack of preperation. I’ve had to cut back more drastically than I’d like in the last fortnight but at least its allowed me to get over the illness fully and I’m actually quite looking forward to getting out there.

I haven’t asked many people to come on the day – mainly immediate family and those who live in London anyway. It should be a good day out, but really i’ll get to see people for a few seconds as I pass and although I like the idea of heading to a pub immediately after the race for a few beers whilst the sun is out, experience suggests its more likely I’m going to need to sleep pretty bad after the race is over. If you’d like details of where to meet please email me – supporters are meeting at the Childhood First cheering point at around the halfway / 22 mile point and I also won two tickets for the grandstand at the end of the race – not sure whos getting them yet! Gotta go – more details later!

A Link…

…that made me laugh.

“We are the tortoises of the animal kingdom”: ahhaha

Week to go… things start going wrong!

Everything took a turn for the worst at the end of last week. I shouldn’t have been surprised – it was Friday 13th after all. I came down with a really bad cold that put me out of action for the whole weekend, and even today i’m still not really recovered. I probably picked it up from my family as they were all suffering the previous weekend when we met up at Chris and Maddy’s. If i’d come down with one this weekend – the week of the actual marathon – i’d have been really screwed as you definitely can’t run with a cold – you just have to have to drop out and try again next year. I’m hoping that having had one this weekend my body is full of anti-cold defence… stuff and that it means I definitely won’t get another one later this week. I’m not sure if biology actually works that way though.

The other problem – they’re kind of related – is that the weather has started getting real hot all of a sudden. What with the world rapidly turning into some sort of fire planet, we’re already getting the kind of temperatures that are good for sunbathing but horrible for running. If you know me, you know that I hate to be in direct sunlight (this trait pretty much lead me straight into a career in computing)
for any length of time, so if next sunday is anything like this sunday then its going to be hell from round about mile 2 rather than mile 20.

Still, on the plus side the donations continue to go really well. Ken Boy D, who i’ve known since small times, was the first of the Collective to send some money my way. Ken’s more of a sprinter than a marathon man, his ideal distance being the yard. The rest of the GC have been a bit slow on the uptake though… boys, if you switch to Imperial Vodka for just a couple of days you’ll have saved enough for a sizeable donation. Nat has already given me some cash but if he’d just donated what he spent on lap dancers this weekend then the grand total would be up almost an extra £600… tragically this isn’t even a joke.

Peter, Sally and James (Gemma’s Uncle, Aunt and Cousin) also made a big donation of £25 when they called this weekend – thank you so much, and I hope James has a great birthday this sunday! The sisters also came through: Emma-Lucia had also slipped a note in with Mum and Dads donation which came through in the post today, which was very generous as she could have paid for a good hooch binge in the Playhouse (or whatever it is young people do these days…) with that money. And Jenny gave a huge £25 which was super generous especially as I know how much you have to pay for rent in London!

Then this evening I opened my email account to get a really great email from Martin – who I played football with before he went travelling in Australia and before we started the new league this year. He donated £35!! I was actually pretty moved by both the amount and the message of support, and i’ll definitely try and get the casual football going again once I’m done with the marathon – let me know next time you’re heading to the Britannia to see a match and i’m definitely get you some beers in!

So after all that donating – less than £120 to go! So close! Big thanks again to everyone who’s donated so far and  tomorrow i’ll be putting some information up for anyone who wants to come along on the actual day!

Also: random disturbing fact of the day. The average number of views for pictures in my Flickr account is around 6 or 7. The number of views for that picture of my bleeding nipples? Eighty one!

£1000 and Counting

When i’m running I often try and figure out the fraction i’ve completed and how far I have to go until the next round number. As well as distracting me from how knackering the running is,  this also gives me lots of encouraging little milestones to aim for. If i’m doing a 5 mile run then 10% is 0.8km. I used to run 1.5km for the Eastern Counties competition when I was at school in Colchester, which I normally hit around the 7 minutes mark and this is only a little bit under the 25% mark so thats two goals in quick succession. 33% soon follows but then it always feels like a struggle to get to the halfway point. The bit between 50% and 66% was always where I ended up quitting when I was trying the 10km in 45mins. After this the goals come in rapid succession: 75%, 80%, 90% and then the woman in the iPod counts off the last 400m in 100m intervals. Somedays I count the whole run in 400m intervals just because thats how long the track at CRGS was, or if i’m really struggling i’ll even count 100m and pretend i’m doing a bleep test – or at least some weird variant with really long turnarounds where the bleep never get closer together and where I always win.

Raising the money has been turned out pretty much the same. The £1000 mark is about 80% of what I need to raise – and that means the point where its starting to hurt but you know you’re going to get there.  On the weekend we had a family Easter get-together at Chris and Maddy’s newly extended house and they put £20 into the kitty – i’m basically rubbish at asking people for money so i’m very lucky so many people give without prompting! This was also true in the gym this morning when one of the trainers approached me whilst I was on the treadmill to give me a cash filled envelope “from the girl on the treadmill at the other end of the row”. It turned out to be from Jerry, who is probably the only person who spends more time running in that gym than I do. We’re both down there most morning and after chatting to her today she gave me her number and we’re going to arrange going out for a run together maybe this weekend.  Then Mum phoned up tonight to let me know that her, dad and my Nan in Wales are going to be sending me a huge £100 which pushed me over the £1000 mark! Mum and Dad will both be there on the day as well to cheer me on as well – and i’ll try and give Nan a wave if I see a camera!  

So I need about £200 more and there are under two weeks to go. There are still loads of people that have said they’ll give and just as many that I haven’t heard from yet – but its getting really close to the end now so if you’ve thought about giving but haven’t got round to it yet then please do! Its for a great cause!

If you want to pledge some money please click here!

Last 20 Mile Run

This weekend I had to complete the last 20 mile run before I start the tapering down process. As I was bored of running around the Guildford area, we went down to Gemma’s parent’s home in Havant for the weekend. This meant Gemma was able to cycle alongside me whilst carrying a big backpack of drinks – a mix of Lucozade and water. It turned out to be a pretty good run along the coast and it seemed to go by fairly fast. For the majority of the run I managed to keep the 12 km/h pace but that dropped rapidly towards the end as I ran out of puff. I made a big mistake by straying from the route Gemma had planned which end up taking us in circles and down a stony beach which was like running through mud. Gemma ended up coming off her bike and I knew if I stopped i’d never get started again so I had to just run past her whilst some passer-bys helped her up. She did super well to cycle 20 miles with a loaded backpack though!

We completed the 20 miles in 2h50m which is a fairly good time, one that i’d hope would translate into a marathon of around 3h30m. If I had kept the pace up over the final few miles it would have been a lot faster so i’m hoping on the big day it’ll all come right. The next few weeks i’ll be reigning in the big runs – maybe one more 10 mile run the weekend before – with the aim being to just keep things ticking over.

Thats it! All the big training runs done!

Almost at the £900 mark!

We’re closing in on the £900 mark with the fundraising – which means we’re past the 2/3rds mark!  Theres now under 3 weeks to go and there are still plenty of people that i’ve talked and written too who haven’t donated, so fingers crossed the total should hit the £1250 mark…

To drum up the cash I’ve been trying to email small groups of people rather than sending out one mass impersonal email – i’ve sent out one to the folks at work, one to guys I play football with, one to my friends back home etc. etc.  The guys from work have come through for me – not suprising as they have to listen to me talk about it all day. Nat, Amanda, Gav, Jason and Sean have all made donations. Special mention goes to Simon who donated a massive £52 – thats £2 for every mile! Wow! After I saw Michelle in the gym last weekend she was the first of the Corpora old school to make a donation – Thanks! The rest of them are too busy popping out babies every two minutes to donate just yet… Last weekend we met up with Cat and Clara and they’ve both made a donation through the magic of Facebook events, plus I think they’re both coming along on the day too! On the sunday Gemma’s grandparents also gave me a cheque which helped cheer me up as their house is full of better gadgets than we own! 

Thanks to everyone who has donated money since the last update!