I post this from the top of Heartbreak Hill at the Boston Marathon.
London Marathon Race Report – October 3, 2022
London is considered one of the six stars of Marathon Running. Along with Berlin, Boston, Chicago, New York and Tokyo, London makes up one of the six major marathons. There is an entire extra medal and contest in running all six. Historically, London is held the third weekend of April, a time where my job would prevent me from participating in this race. I can’t get away even for the weekend during that time of year. I had ruled out pursuing the six stars, until COVID. COVID changed everything because London was moved to early October. I saw an opportunity to run London. It is the most difficult of the majors to get into as an international participant. There are no time qualifiers and the ballot historically receives nearly half a million entries for approximately 17,000 spots. I was incredibly fortunate to find a tour operator who had a bib available, so I booked it!
My PR was at Indianapolis Marathon in 2019. I ran 3:12:43 that day and I said to myself, I’m not sure I can run any faster. During the summer of 2020 during COVID, I became injured with a strained glute which shut down my running for over a month. I carefully navigated my way back. Starting with weeks of runs 3-4 minutes per mile SLOWER than my marathon pace runs. I started a strengthening program, stretching program, I stayed away from hills (as vertical will aggravate it). Over time, I managed the glute carefully. I spent many hours this past winter riding my Peloton stationary bike as another way to strengthen my legs, allow my body to recover from the pounding of running, and keep my glute on the road to health.
I chose to follow the Hanson’s high mileage plan which made most of training weeks around 70-80 miles. It was a lot of miles, but I could feel myself making progress and strengthening every week. The heat and humidity of the summer was another challenge but one I have always embraced. What is hard makes you stronger!
I started to zero in on a goal for London. I was eyeing 3:10. Some of my training suggested I could have gone faster, but I know the marathon is a beast and if you overstretch your goal, you will pay dearly. In order to attempt by goal, I wanted to start mile 1 at 7:45pace. Mile 2 at 7:30 pace. Mile 3-13.1 would be around 7:11 pace. Miles 13.1 – 21ish would be 7:15pace. Mile 21-26.2 – just empty the tank.
I woke up after pretty good sleep. I arrived on Thursday before the Sunday race, so I had a couple days to get my jetlag reduced. Might have been a little bit of drain from travel and doing touristy things on Thursday and Friday, however, nothing that would stop me from executing the plan.
We gathered in three distinctly different areas at the start. I was in the blue wave and we were out on this large grassy area in a park. The typical amenities with hundreds (if not thousands) of porta potties, many large containers for recycling, garbage and clothing collection. There was music being played and a DJ/Host person who tried to entertain, while also play music, let people know the status of the timing as well as helping the owner of the cell phone that was turned in. There was a very large screen (much like would be at centerfield of a baseball game) giving us an opportunity to see the wheelchair start as well as the elites take off. I found a place to sit quietly on my garbage bag (I always bring a garbage bag to the start. So many good uses for it, this morning, I sat on it so the wet dew stayed off my clothes.) I was in a zen mode trying to just picture what I wanted to do with my race. I considered the wind and how I would handle if the 20 mph headwind for most of the course came to fruition.
I was in wave 3 (out of 17), so I was gathering rather early in the Wave 3 holding pen. Which wasn’t much more than a large caged in area where people were doing last minute warmups, adjustments to clothes, some men (and a few brave women) found places to relieve themselves, etc. We were in the pen probably 15 minutes, but we could see the cadence as we watched wave 1 go off, then three minutes later, wave 2 went…..and three minutes later, we took off.
It was slightly anticlimactic to not have a starters gun, fireworks, some musical selection choreographed for the actual beginning of our wave. Regardless, it was fine for me. It was time to go to work.
Mile 1
7:42 pace /131 average heart rate – Got across the start and in the first quarter mile, I was running a 7:10pace. I pulled it back as I wanted to truly warm up this mile (hence my 7:45 goal). I put my estimated race time as 3:09 so presumably I was with all similar paced individuals. Like any big race, there is some traffic concerns early and London was no different.
Mile 2 – 7:29/135
I picked up my pace a bit and was running the general speed as many others. I did think it was a bit more work than I would have liked to go from 7:45 to 7:30, but those feelings are natural as we warmup the legs.
Mile 3 – 7:09/135 (ate a banana)
Mile 4 – 7:09/140
The largest downhill of the course was mile 3 and the start of mile 4. I wanted 7:11 for the next several miles through the half marathon mark. Knowing I wasn’t running tangents perfectly due to volume of people, a couple seconds faster was probably ideal.
Mile 5 – 7:30/143
Mile 6 – 7:28/142
Mile 7 – 7:24/145
These weren’t intentionally slower but there was significant congestion on the course. There were clearly some slower runners (over 4 hour runners who started in front of me.) In addition, London is known for all the costumes. Some are just silly while others are going for the Guinness Book of World Record. Examples of what I saw, 2 women attempting the fastest marathon while handcuffed, A gentlemen going for the fastest marathon while carrying a bicycle, three men who had 2 pairs of legs taped together, therefore they had 4 “legs” to run together (kind of like the three legged race in elementary school, but this had 3 guys, so there were four legs.) Someone dressed as a Rubik’s cube, a globe, a large star, a rhinoceros, several men dressed in suits, at least one woman and one man running in heels, a man carrying a large garbage can on his back, etc.
With all this congestion, I was trying to be patient and wait for the time when the roads would be clear and I could get my pace and keep it consistent. If there is one thing I like to do when I train or race, is to be as consistent as possible with my pacing. So this race felt like a lot of start stop as I would continually come up on a large pack of people.
Weaving around people may help keep you on your time goal, but expends a lot of extra energy which one wants to save for later in the race!
Mile 8 – 7:10/145
Mile 9 – 7:21/147 (had Clif shotblocks)
Mile 10 – 7:04/147
Mile 11 – 7:10/148
Mile 12 - 7:09/148 (had Maurten gel)
This section, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to take advantage of moving up where I could. I weaved a bit more. I talked with my runners a bit more seeing if I could squeeze by them. I knew I had to push this pace or my goal would be too far gone on the last half. I decided I needed to run FASTER than 7:11 on this section, so start making up time I had lost. I knew I wouldn’t hit my half marathon goal time, but I was hoping I would be coming in at 1:35:30ish (my goal was 1:34:30-1:35:00.)
Mile 13 – This part goes over the Tower Bridge. I really tried to take this view. What a special opportunity to run a marathon over this iconic bridge. My son made a beautiful Lego set of the Tower Bridge and it sits in his room (with its thousands of pieces). I really enjoyed that moment of going over the bridge. So I lost focus and ran a 7:12/148 HR.
I got to 13.1 at 1:36:17. Yikes. 77 seconds slower than goal. I knew all was not lost, but I had some serious work to do to get myself back to where I needed to be.
The next couple miles of the course opened up a bit and allowed me to start to get into a groove.
Mile 14 – 7:00/149
Mile 15 – 7:07/148
Mile 16 – 7:15/149
Mile 17 – 7:05/152
These miles felt how marathon miles should feel. I’m not sure why Mile 16 was slower, but I felt I was pushing appropriately. As these numbers came up, I started to count down the 77 seconds down to the 60’s, 50’s, etc.
This next stretch, we were warned about having whacky GPS issues due to tall buildings. There were also several short tunnels. I don’t think I ran this slow, but perhaps I did. I didn’t look at my watch often in tunnels and I felt like I held my pace well through here. Even if the GPS says otherwise.
Mile 18 – 7:14/155 (had maurten gel)
Mile 19 – 7:33/156
It was now time to start going into real race mode.
Mile 20 – 7:08/154
Mile 21 – 7:11/157
I was now laser focused on my goal. No more high fiving little kids on the side. No more chatting to the runner next to me. Now the focus was to get the legs to churn and turnover. Watch my breathing and push as appropriate. One challenge here was the wind was directly in our faces. Approximately 15 miles per hour. Not a stop you in your tracks type of wind, but one that you know you are pushing harder because of the wind. Leaves on the ground were blowing towards us and the various race course flags made it clear, the wind was NOT on our side. After seeing the split for Mile 21, I was mad at myself. I told myself, I can’t be running 7:11. I need to make up more time. However, the roads were tight. I was still dodging and starting and slowing due to traffic considerations. I was frustrated.
Mile 22 – 7:03/159 (had Maurten gel)
Mile 23 – 7:01/160
Got back into my rhythm and pushed here. I was feeling good. I was definitely pushing but not in pain definitely not red lining the legs.
Mile 24 – 7:15/159
Slowed down here (notice lower heart rate as well) as I was boxed in again. I needed to move back and out to get around a large group of people. GRRRRRR
Mile 25 – 7:09/159
Mile 26 – 7:05/160
Last 0.34 – 6:43 pace/162
These last 2.34 miles, I knew what I needed to do to get the sub 3:10 time. I needed to run a 6:50-6:55pace the rest of the way. After all the stops and starts, I didn’t want to battle that anymore. I didn’t want to push and fight and get denied by runner traffic I saw many runners cramping up and I didn’t want to be in that place due to me having to hit the brakes. Could I have run sub 3:10 if I pushed hard the last 1.5 miles? Yes. But I wasn’t mentally in the place to go to that pain cave, so I didn’t go all out at the end. I may regret that decision at some point, but it was a decision I actively made.
Official Time 3:10:17 (Previous PR was 3:12:43)
Overall -- 3144/41,605
Men -- 2877/21,453
50-54 Age Group – 271/2519
I crossed the finish line so thankful to be able to participate in this sport in a way that provides me joy, satisfaction, challenge and gives me a stress outlet. To stand at the finish line of the London Marathon with a successful personal best time. I’m thankful to have a family who supports my running. My sons have begun to run for their respective cross country teams and I can only hope they get as much satisfaction from running as I have. I’m thankful for the runner friends I met up with on this trip. Garry, Liz, Faye, Zhanar, Zelia, Stephanie and many more. Runners are just the best people.
What’s next? Going to run Boston Marathon for fun (October 11 – 8 days after London). I’ll bring my phone and document the experience. Then a couple weeks off before I lead the 3:30 pace group at Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis. I will then take a break from significant running miles. Instead of 70-80 miles per week, I think 20-30 is more realistic. There may be weeks of 50 and other weeks of 0. I plan to ride my Peloton on those cold winter mornings and incorporate more strength work. I’ve lost 15 lbs (mostly muscle) in the last 4 months. Its time to gain much of that back through a much greater emphasis on strength exercises.
