Before the London marathon, people told me that the experience would be like nothing I could imagine and would be a world apart from the marathons that I had done so far. I was sceptical that it would be that different, although knew that the crowds would be bigger and there would be more of a buzz.
Oh how I underestimated how different it would be!
I drove to London on the friday straight from Cardiff, my plan being to get to the expo early on saturday morning before the rush started and pick up my number and have a nose around the various stalls. I should have noted at this point the sheer number of people on the DLR at 9am on a saturday morning was an indication of the scale of the crowds to come.
I managed to get my goodie bag and number fairly quickly, although I could see lines for other number brackets starting to escalate even at the early hour. The excitment was starting to build, and on entering the expo, there is a wall where people have written messages, the lack of any free available space was heart warming as it was full edge to edge with wishes of good luck, encouragement, and personal messages about why people are running this world famous course.
The expo itself had some good stalls, I managed to pick up some x-bionics calf guards to give them a trial run and see what sort of effect they would have. I was approached by various charities to see whether I would be interested in running further marathons for them, although most where slightly taken aback when I explained what I was doing this year! I took home a few leaflets but haven't browsed through them yet, one thing at a time I figure!
Emi met me around midday having taken the national express down in the morning and we spend a nice afternoon wandering around London and doing the usual tourist things. We walked along some of the marathon route, which was an odd feeling knowing that along with 35,000+ other people, I would be running it the next day. I've never been to Buckingham Palace before, but the sight is awe-inspiring and I must admit, I was a little overcome at this point, seeing the finish line and stands being assembled.
I had unfortunately been ill since thursday and didn't have much of an appetite over the weekend. I had managed to force down some food to keep my strength up, but as the day drew to a close, I was starting to become concerned that the marathon would be far tougher than I had realised because I wouldn't have the energy to sustain myself through the 26.2 miles.
On the morning the the marathon, Emi and I travelled to greenwich park along with a train full of other runners, and even at this point, the atmosphere was charged with excitement and anticipation. Everyone seemed to have joined together for a common goal and it really was a pleasure to be part of something this big.
I've never been to a festival or any other gathering with this number of people before, so upon entering greenwich park my jaw physically dropped at the sheer number of people I saw on the hill in front of me!! Emi took some last minute photos before we ran over the meeting plans again and I went into the start compound.
The race start itself was a slow affair, it took some 8 minutes for me to cross the start line but had settled into a nice trot along with my fellow runners. I was surprised to see people running with headphones, as I thought it would take away some of the enjoyment of the atmosphere, after all, they wouldn't be able to hear people cheering their name, but each to their own.
I saw my brother around 0.8 miles in which was a nice surprise as I didn't think he would have made it, which gave me another lift. At this point I was starting to see what people had been talking about in terms of how the crowd can lift your spirits and carry you through the race.
I had hoped for a PB and fast finish in London as it is a flat course compared to my other races, but it soon became apparent that it wasn't going to happen. I spent alot of time dodging round runners, which should be a sport itself! There were a few times when people caught my heals and so I settled for adopting the pace of the crowd and staying on the same racing line.
The course became a bit of a blur and at this point, I wouldn't be able to tell you where I had run. The crowded streets transformed London to the point of being unrecognisable, and watching the race back (we had recorded it at home) parts of it come back to me, such as the cutty sark or running over tower bridge.
I tried to thank everyone that cheered my name, I am genuinely moved that people would give up their own free time to come out and support their friends and family, and even more so that they would cheer for everyone else as well! I had read stories in the run up to the VLM from people that said they had been plucked from the point of oblivion by other runners and people from the crowd giving them words of encouragement, or helping them just get moving again, so whilst people reading this might not have been in the crowd, thank YOU for your support.
I was still feeling quite sick and uncomfortable during the race. My stomach felt unnaturally heavy and I had a lump at the back of my throat meaning that at some point, was I was going to be sick. I didn't want to do it near a crowd of people, whilst I think people would understand, it was a point of principle that I should keep this moment to myself. At around 17 miles, my stomach had simply had enough and so with the assistance of a marshal, managed to nip behind some foliage and promptly threw up everywhere....several times.
I felt much better afterwards and resumed my running. At this point I knew that I would be able to put in a strong finish and had enough to carry me threw but I had started to cramp. I was finding it tough to keep my legs moving at the slower pace that I was forced to adopt by the crowd, and so I started a walk/run method, trying to stretch out as much as I could before hitting a wall of people.
Mentally this became quite taxing, as every time I had to walk, it became harder to start running again, but I was all smiles at this point and was quite happy just taking in the crowd! The cheer mile is possibly the best experience of the race, theres nothing quite like being hit with a wall of noise which people literally screaming your name and cheering you onwards.
The last mile was a welcome sight for my now aching feet and as I made my way up birdcage walk, I noticed someone walking along who looked like he was running on empty. I stopped to walk next to him and we chatted about who he was running the race for and his training etc. I hoped to get him running again as we were so close to the end, I joked that as it was his first marathon, and it was VLM after all, it was against the rules to walk across the line! We managed to get running and around 200m from the finish line he thanked me and urged me to sprint on, which I did.
Crossing the finish line was such an experience, and I was greeted with the biggest smile from the medals team as they put a medal over my neck, and even writing this a week later, an ear to ear smile spreads across my face.
I made my way to the agreed meeting point and Emi congratulated me on #4 completed. The finishing area is croded as friends and family are allowed in, so we made our way fairly promptly to the Westminster Thistle hotel and the Make-a-Wish meet and greet so have a much needed cup of tea and a massage.
I had been chatting on twitter with one of the other MaW fund raisers and so had the opportunity of meeting them face to face. It turns out the day was especially special for Sean Penny (sorry, typo now corrected!) who was about propose to his girlfriend and had arranged for Jay Norton (from The Voice UK) to sing for them at the after party.
All in all, the London Marathon was without a doubt the highlight of my journey so far this year. I try and take something away from every run so that I can develope my training for the races ahead, changing those things that don't work and keeping those things that do, and from London i'm taking away the crowd. The power of motivation that a 100,000+ strong crowd can give is something that I can use when i'm struggling in a race, or when I hit the wall, or on long training runs when i'm struggling to keep moving. Thank you London.
The next race is just 3 weeks after London, and so training is going to be limited so that my body can recovery. I'm writting this a week after racing and so far have managed 1 run, which was a bit of a struggle. I plan to do a few 10km runs during the week and hopefully will be able to get out with WRC a few times just to keep things ticking over.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this half as much as I enjoyed running the London Marathon and writing this.
