Monday 29 April 2013

London Marathon 2013

On Marathon morning last Sunday, I woke up at 5am when the alarm rang. This surprised me as normally when I have to wake up early for something important, I wake up at least three or four times in the night to check I haven't overslept! At least it meant I'd slept well. 

Breakfast was my normal porridge with rice milk, honey, blueberries and seeds (pumpkin, sunflower and chia). I had a couple of slices of toast with butter and made a smoothie to take with me - mango, pineapple, banana and spinach with flax seed. Although I thought I'd been really organised, I still found myself doing last-minute things before I left the house. *note to self - have absolutely everything organised 2 days before a big race so there is nothing to do on the day or the day before...

I wanted to catch the 7.40 train from Peckham Rye to London Bridge and then I'd hop on one of the special train services to Blackheath. Stepped out of the house at 7.20, walked round to the bus stop only to find no buses. Well not for another 12 or so minutes which meant catching the train would be tight. Started walking the half mile to another bus stop where there'd be more buses. Things weren't going as smoothly as I would have liked and I could feel myself getting flustered. But a random passer-by wished me "good luck" when he saw my race number and bag and that was lovely. Plus it looked like we were going to be lucky with the weather so something else to make me smile.

Got to the station on time, hopped on the train to Blackheath and by 8.10, I was there. The place was already teeming with people heading towards the various start areas. You could feel the buzz and excitement in the air! I was having pre-race nerves of the loo kind. Or 
maybe I should say the poo kind. If you're going to be running for any length of time, you need to make sure you've been already as the movement of running acts like a powerful laxative. And when you need to go, you need to go quickly! I went into the cafe where I would be meeting others from Run Dem Crew. I was going to have a coffee but thought I'd check the loo situation before I ordered. No loos. Great! I wandered out in search. Luckily there were a couple of tardis toilets just across the road with a small queue of runners so I went and joined them. It took a while but finally I was in the tardis and just in time as my stomach had been making ominous rumblings when I'd been stood in the queue. I couldn't work out how to get out of the tardis though so a moment of panic pressing what I thought was the exit button but not being able to get out. Finally realised I'd been pressing the wrong button...

Back to the cafe and time to enjoy a nice coffee while I waited for the others. I had a missed call from my friend Eileen who was also running the Marathon. Gave her a call back. She'd just arrived in Greenwich and was as excited as a little kid on Christmas Day. Eileen's been a great source of inspiration to me, not just because of her endless enthusiasm and infectious excitement over running but also because when she ran her first marathon back in 2008, she finished in just under 5 hours. Now, she's completing in around 3.40 so that gives me a lot of hope that I too can become as fast as her. 

At 9 it was time to meet the others from Run Dem Crew. 3 of us were running (Leanne, Chippy and me) and the rest were there to give support and encouragement. This is one of the many things that I love about the Crew - the support, love and friendship given before, during and after a race. It's really special and means a lot to me. The first couple of races I ran (Brighton Half this year and last) I was on my own for the start and that can be lonely. While I loved the race itself, I felt envious of people who had running friends to run with. Now that I'm part of this wonderful crew, running is no longer a solitary thing. 

Once we were all assembled we headed up towards the start areas. Leanne and I peeled off to go to the Red start and the others went up to the Blue start with Chippy. By the time we got there we had about fifteen minutes to drop bags, make one final trip to the loo and head to the right pen. At both the Half  Marathons I've run this year, I've found myself in a slow moving toilet queue literally minutes before the race started. A stressful start to a race and something I didn't want to repeat again. I decided to take my chances and forget that final trip to the loo.

I headed to my pen and found the 9.46 minute mile pacers at the back. After chatting to my running/marathon coach Chris, we'd decided the best race strategy would be to run with these pacers, ideally until the end of the race. That would have me finishing in 4.15 hours. If I was tiring towards the end, I could drop back to the 10.18 pacer where I'd finish in 4.30. That was the game plan and one I should have been able to do as I'd run my fastest Half Marathon in 2.06. But it was already warm and my long-sleeved layer that I was going to wear for the first 10 minutes while I warmed up was removed before we'd even got started. I'm warm and we're standing still? After training through a horribly cold winter, this was a novel encounter.

As we stood around chatting, there was the sound of a whistle being blown. This was the signal to mark the start of the 30-second silence for Boston. The chattering stopped immediately and we observed the silence. The end was also marked by the whistle and a huge cheer erupted all through the pens. And then it was time for the race to start. We shuffled forwards slowly towards the start line. Normally I'm feeling nervous at this point but I felt quite calm. You're still faced with tackling the unknown but no point panicking now. If you haven't done enough training, you're only going to find out on the road...

Finally we were off! I'd decided to run with a pacer to stop me going off too fast at the start. Normally the first few miles of a race I'd run at 9 minute miles and slow down later. I was expecting to feel like I was holding myself back, really reining in the energy and speed. Instead I found I had to work hard to maintain the pace. Plus a lot of people ahead of us were running slower than as so there was a lot of slowing down, speeding up and trying to get round people. Slightly frustrating to overtake people who'd already decided to walk in the early stages of the race. Walking is absolutely fine but if that's what you plan to do, do the right thing and start in the right pen! I found it strange that I was finding the pace hard so early on, that was completely unexpected. I was expecting to frolic along like a spring lamb so I could only put it down to the strangely warm weather.

At the 3-mile mark, I popped a couple of Clif shot blocks into my mouth. As soon as they'd gone down I wanted to throw up. Oh great, I'm feeling hot and bothered trying to run at a pace that should be ok for me and now I'm feeling sick too. The race wasn't going well and I wasn't enjoying things. Trying to stick with the pacer was becoming stressful. You were more focused on the man with a flag in his backpack than the crowds cheering you on. I stuck with him for another mile or so and then let him slip away. I slowed down a little, moved to the left of the runners and remembered the words of Charlie Dark, founder and leader of Run Dem Crew - smile, enjoy the race, high-5 some kids! The minute I started doing this, I found myself enjoying things. Phew, that was a relief - I didn't want to run over 20 miles hating every minute of it. 

At around Mile 5 I caught the Taiko drummers. This was special as I always loved hearing Taiko drums when I lived in Japan. As we ran into Greenwich the crowds got bigger and bigger, all clapping and cheering. By this point I was running round with a permanent grin on my face, waving at the TV cameras. Although I realised I was running behind a tall Womble and perhaps it was better to run in front of him for maximum photo/filming opportunities.