Marathon Man

So the 17th April 2011 was a big day for me. I ticked off an ambition that has been on my list since I was about 12. I ran the London Marathon and have the medal to prove it.

In many ways it was an awesome day, one that I wont forget for a while, although it was full of up and downs right throughout the day. I thought I would do a summary of the day from start to finish so you get an idea of what it was like.

5:30am the alarm goes off and it’s time for some carb loading. A big bowl of porridge with a banana followed by a peanut butter and jam bagel. Not easy to shovel it all down at that time of day but in the back of my mind I know it is essential to get you to the finish line.

6:30 stood at Twyford station waiting for the train to London. There are a couple more people with tell-tale red london marathon kit bags. At this point in the day i felt ok (just not fully awake).

I had to get the train to Blackheath which was a bit of a mission because the trains were rammed full of runners.

8:30 arrived at Greenwich park to get a first glimpse of the start. Now it was VERY real and there’s no turning back! I got all my kit sorted (ipod, carbo gels, tied up my trainers etc) then handed over my kit bag and joined the queue for the portaloo. It’s always worth getting rid of a bit of nervous energy before the gun goes off.

9:30 I joined the rest of the runners in pen 7 at the blue start. This is actually the start where the elite runners go from, so when you watch on tv the red start is the one with the gates that the masses of people pour out of. I think I was in the blue start because I got in on the ballot. It certainly was not down to any association with the word “elite”!
There was a mixture of excitement and nerves. The excitement came because for some time I have been visualising the finish of the race. I mean, come on, you get to run past the Queens house and then get a medal that says you did it.
The nerves came from me questioning things like will I finish? What will people say if I don’t get round? Have I done enough training?

9:45 Bang! We’re off. It takes a while to get over the start line but I was feeling more of a buzz now, all of the projections i was making about what it might feel like had gone and my thoughts turn to real issues of “we’re moving”, “remember to press start on my ipod when i hit the start line”, “smile to the cameras” and things like that.

Miles 1 to 6. You head out to Woolwich and then loop back to Greenwich.
The one thing I was thinking was to keep a steady pace and not get carried away. I wanted to conserve energy for the second half of the race. (at this point it is a race by the way. I’m fairly competitive and so the idea of competition is a motivator for me. I didn’t turn up to just finish, I had a target of 4:30:00 to try and beat).
The first mile is great with loads of people cheering you on then it gets a bit quiet for a few miles.
I had set off near the pace runner for 4:22:00 and I was keeping that pace nicely so all felt good.

Miles 7 – 13. All fairly uninteresting running through this point with pockets of great support. There was a couple of bridges that you go under which had drumming bands underneath. The acoustics are Amazing! I get real goose bumps hearing them, it’s the same as mile 5 in the Reading half Marathon where you run under the dual carriageway and the sound of the beat gives you a real adrenalin rush.
Just after mile 12 is Tower Bridge which is an iconic part of the race (notice I am still using the word race) the support here is great with a lot of the charities being supported and mentally it is a landmark because on the other side is the halfway point that you run towards.
Running towards and seeing the halfway point was good, almost a sense of relief that you are making progress. As soon as I went passed the halfway my mental focus switched. Now I’m thinking “shit! I have to do it all again”. So the adrenalin of Tower bridge quickly disappeared with a few negative thoughts. I think this proved to be a costly mistake for me.

Miles 14 – 20. WELCOME TO HELL!
I have never been to the Isle of Dogs before and my lasting memory of it will not be a good one!
I was still keeping site of the 4:22:00 pace maker and everything felt ok. That feeling did not last long.
My longest training run was 23 miles and when talking to people about it I described it as horrific. For 18 miles all was good and then after that I think I had my first encounter with the infamous “Wall”. For me the “Wall” is a mental and physical thing. Physically my legs were hurting and burning, especially at the very top in my quads and hip flexors. My strides were getting shorter and shorter, the pace drops and THEN the mental element kicks in….”you should stop now”, “just walk for a little bit”, “someone call me a taxi”, that kind of stuff.

At about mile 16 I started to get that same feeling in my legs and was not happy because I wasn’t expecting it this early. One factor that really was not helping was the weather. The sun was out and the temperature was about 20 degrees.

At some point I made a snap decision. This was no longer a “race” for me, i had conceeded to the 4:22:00 pace maker. The thought of not finishing or walking was not on my radar, no way, so I eased off and switched my focus to just grinding it out and getting this thing finished.
This was a huge challenge now, from being in a great position to be able to beat my target to being in no mans land with another 10 miles to count off. I was mentally expecting this but not until mile 23 or 24 near the end.

From that point up until 20 miles it may be the most uncomfortable mental and physical position I have ever been in. My legs were moving but felt like they were on fire and my muscles felt so tight that they didn’t really want to move. Mentally, well what can I say? I contemplated stopping, walking, lying down for a bit. It was a constant arguement between part of me that said stop and another part that kept telling me to keep going. I remember hearing myself say “if you walk, you’ll stop so just keep going”. Something that made this even harder was that there were people starting to walk and I had flipping Scooby Doo running right behind me!!!

I hit every water station and run through shower from this point onwards and took on carbo gels whenever possible to try to keep fuelled to the end, it is also quite a nice distraction to have something different to focus on rather than the pain you are enduring.

Coming up to Canary Wharf, mile 19, was a bit better. For one you finally get to see some of the great architecture and buildings that are familiar and once again the crowds begin to grow.

For me getting to 20 miles was a great relief. I had got a bit of pace back and mentally counting down from 6 is better than 10! I could relate it to some of the training runs I had done….6 miles is easy!

Mile 21 – 26. The home straight. I think I was starting to find a second wind and was ready to kick on to the finish. 21, 22 and 23 miles was still brutal but I could finally see the finish line in my head.
I was also starting to think about my Mum, Dad and Sister who had come down to London to watch. If they were going to see me then it would be on this stretch or at the finish. That thought gave me a boost. Also Andy Wild, from Sandford Springs, was running too. His family were there and I was meeting them at the end. He was aiming for 4 hours so I didnt want to keep them waiting for too long.
Finally I thought about Claire, she was in the grandstand right on the finish, she was also one of the reasons I had entered this year. I think it was one of those “well if you enter then I will” type scenarios. She’s one of those people that would make a great coach because she has a fun outlook on things, is motivated and knows how to achieve. She also really wants to run the Marathon and so I was desperate to be running well at the finish to show her that it is possible and she would be able to do it as well.
The last 3 miles felt quite easy, all of London’s landmarks were popping up right infront of me. I almost cried when I saw Big Ben because I knew how close to the finish it was and then to see a sign “800 yards to go”, happy days. Finally I could smile again.

Birdcage walk was great, seeing Buckingham Palace was amazing and turning the corner into the Mall to see the finish line was maybe one of the biggest highs ever. To top it all off I even saw Claire in the grandstand cheering me on to the finish line. My day was complete.

My London Marathon experience didn’t stop there though.

After crossing the line I felt elation, relief and then disapointment in that order. The first 2 are pretty obvious, you’ d expect them, but why disapointment?

Well i knew I had missed out on 4:30:00 so I think that was some of it but it is only now that I was disapointed because it was over! There is that saying that it’s not the destination but the journey that is important. Right now I believe that more than ever.

My first words to my family were “never again, it was horrific!”. I think that I was in shock really, physically tired but also mentally drained. After all, I really think I pushed myself to the edge, I’m proud of myself for defeating the demons that told me to stop. My first thoughts were that of the mental torture I had just endured and I think you protect yourself so you say things like “never again.”

Now I can reflect on the day it was brilliant for so many reasons. For myself I achieved a huge ambition. I raised money for a worthwhile Charity. To see my family and friend at the end and see a look of pride was priceless. Apparently I am now in the top 0.01% of the worlds population to have run a marathon! (Paula Radcliffe just told me that on a video when I entered my run on Nike+)

For 23 years I have visualised what it would be like to finish the London Marathon. Now I’ve done it where do I go? What’s next?

Well I think that decision is made! One of my early blogs did mention that I was going to continue training, which I will. On April 26th I am going to join Claire in entering the ballot for the 2012 London Marathon. I think I may be entering more for her than for me. I would love her to achieve her ambition and have some great memories of such a brilliant day along with the fact that it would be great to share that experience. Running a marathon is a very lonely place!