London Marathon - 3:20:30

This was my 6th marathon. It is a 6 minute PB and 10 minutes under the Boston Marathon qualifying time!

The training:

I loved my training. It was a 16 week training plan getting up to 100km on some of the big weeks. 

I did a speed session & parkrun almost every week (that I could - sometimes life does get in the way!)

I did NO racing. All the races I did, I paced them which meant I was going at a slower pace to what I can run. 

My nutrition and fuelling both in the lead up to the race and during the marathon was perfect. 

I stopped using Strava. I stopped comparing myself to other people and did my training for ME and not for other people. 

The marathon:

I started with the 3:25 pacer but he went off too fast. I’ve done enough pacing to know! So I slowed a little. When it comes to marathons - you don’t go off too fast! 

I settled into a pace that felt comfortable and could see the pacer and the group slowly drifting ahead. I wasn’t phased. I knew to do my own thing. This was my race and I had played how it was going to go many times in my head. 

After about 5k, I felt good. So I pushed on just a little bit.

After another 5k, I felt good. So I pushed on. 

I continued pushing on bit by bit and when I overtook the 3:25 pacer, I knew I had it. It was my day! 

The whole race was unbelievable. The crowds were insane! I saw SO many people I knew and after seeing every friend, I smiled for about 2 minutes afterwards!

I put my watch on lap face - this meant I could only see the pace I was running for that mile. I didn’t want to get bogged down with timings as it adds an element of stress.  

I kept smiling when it got hard - something I’d read as a piece of advice.

And it got really hard.

At mile 22 I really wanted to finish. I had to dig deep and battle a lot with many doubtful thoughts. 

But I did finish and running down The Mall with thousands of people shouting and supporting you, is something very unique. 

I finished in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Running a marathon is no joke! The mental game is just as hard (if not harder) than the physical one. 

50,000 people ran London Marathon yesterday and it was an absolute privilege to be a part of it. 

21st April 2024