Early in my running career (I think I’d done the Reading half-marathon once, perhaps twice), I entered the Flora London Marathon and got in on the ballot. It was a gruelling experience, I remember the wall at 18 miles and grabbing a fistful of jelly babies from a child as the hunger set in. 4h13 – that became my baseline for future marathons.
Ten years later, in 2012, I applied again (this time the Virgin London Marathon), and got in on the ballot again. I remember the crowds being much more populous and I ran near Frank Bruno at one point (hearing “Bruno! Bruno! Bruno!” was fun). I recall very little about the race though. 3h40 was my time, apparently – close to my best ever (3h25 in Milan 2008).
So, I obviously had to run in 2022 as well! Again, the sponsor has changed, now it’s the Tata Consultancy Services London Marathon, which is harder to say, but they did an excellent job. A slight pain having to go to Excel to collect my number (and that of my buddy, Lawrence – a runner was allowed to collect one and only one other person’s number, if they had proof of permission!), but much easier for me (who often works from Waterloo) versus the runners coming down from Scotland, Yorkshire, Wales, Devon etc!
This time I didn’t get in on the ballot, so had to scrabble around for a sponsor, step forward the excellent Get Kids Going charity. They do excellent work and sorted me out a space, for which I am very grateful. My fundraising page is at http://justgiving.com/tsleath, and includes the data from Strava for my training runs, and the race itself!
Whilst we were in France over summer, I remembered about the “marathon nutrition pack” from Overstims. I’d used this on a prior marathon and found it useful – it’s mainly gels for the race in a belt holster, and you scoff one every 5k. Some are anti-cramp, most are released energy and the last couple are burst energy. This gives your mind something to focus on, which is HUGELY important. It also includes a “gatosport” cake mix to make your breakfast. 😋
Lawrence came over to ours on the Saturday evening for a big pasta meal and a solitary carb-loading Peroni. Up at 6.30 to get ready, get more food in, and head towards the start.
Despite the biggest rail strike ever taking place the day before, the tubes and South Eastern services to Blackheath worked like clockwork. We had plenty of time, which was just as well for me. We’d hoped to be able to start together, and while we were in the same “wave” (mainly determined by how fast you said you intended to run the race – we both, independently, claimed an expected 3h45 finish! 🤣), Lawrence was in the Yellow start, while I was Green (no idea how they decide this, or if it’s just random). Anyway, I hoped they wouldn’t check/care too much, but there were indeed diligent checkers at every start zone entrance (makes sense, otherwise they’d be full of non-running supporters). But, they were nice as pie, one escorted me across the Yellow zone to get to the other side to make it easier to get to the Green start, AND took a photo of Lawrence and me. 😊
Final prep, the conditions were overcast and by no means cold – the forecast had been for heavy rain, which didn’t materialise, thank goodness. Everything ran on time, and at the appointed hour, off we went! I did my best to keep my speed down at the start, taking it steady. I didn’t wear a watch, I just wanted to go with the flow, so I had minimal idea of my pace. I did see 3h30, 3h45, and yes, ultimately, 4h00 pacers overtake me at various points. I consoled myself (erroneously, it turns out) that “oh, I didn’t cross the line until 20-30mins after the official start, so I’m good for 4h00-ish”. Reader, I was mistaken.
I was mainly worried about my ankles getting too painful. They’re fine until about 20k – I should have done more strength/speed training, but there we are. I tried to substitute for training with painkillers – 1g paracetamol before the start, same halfway, and a couple of Nuromol with 10k to go. I don’t really recommend this, of course, but as I was in pain even with this cocktail, I doubt I could have kept on until the end as I did.
My wife brought the girls to spectate a bit (again, what a relief it was nice weather) and amazingly we found each other at their two vantage points – just after 12 miles, and after 18. By 18 miles I was starting to feel it, of course. The weather was getting a bit warm and sunny, if anything, and a good dose of each water bottle I collected was poured over the old noggin to keep cool. I saw a LOT of people flaking out on the sides, either stopping to stretch, or walking, or in quite a few cases, prostrate and receiving medical attention (which seemed amazingly present, top work as ever by St John Ambulance. I however kept resolutely on, plodding my this stage, but not stopping. After 16 miles it’s “ok, 10 miles to go, that’s ok” and then each milestone afterwards helps – 32k is a good one, then at 35k, it’s like “ok 7k, come on” and if you kept going at 7k, you’ll be damned if you’re going to give up at 6k, etc etc.
After a bit of gritting teeth and clenching fists, it was all over, 4h17m00s after it had begun. An excellent event, although I am a bit sorry I hadn’t at least covered the distance as quickly as 20 years ago…although not much in it, I guess! I’ve just had a look at the results, and for the men’s Mass results, there were 23,686 finishers, and the median guy at position 11,843 (a chap called Simon Bradberry) finished in…4h15! So I am almost, but not quite median. 😉 I was gender position 12,077. My overall position was 15,362th, so comfortably in the first two-fifths of the pack. 🤣
The event organisation was great, I’m always awed by all the helpers distributing water, even warning of speed bumps! The app was also great – my wife was tracking Lawrence, another friend, and me, and it sounded like it worked brilliantly. Huge thanks to Aurélie too for persuading the kids to come watch, and providing a restorative tea and bacon & egg sandwich moments after I got back home. 😘
The legs aren’t too bad as I type this the next day…they’ll be worse tomorrow, but they’ll be fine. I’m so looking forward getting back to my usual running routine of 5 miles, 10ks 2-3 times a week…but maybe in a week or two! 😃 Thank you so much to everyone who’s helped with my fundraising and given moral support along the way! ❤❤❤
Timsformational 