London Marathon, Sunday 17th April.
The day started well. Got to the start in good time, despite my train deciding not to stop at Maze Hill and having to walk further to my start area than planned. I met up with Sue and we did a bit of celebrity spotting, as you do at the Green start! I got Iwan Thomas to sign my race number and Sue then decided to go one better and try and get James Cracknell to sign hers. She stalked him back from the baggage bus and managed to go one better than me and get him to sign her number and a kiss from him. He did look slightly worried about his stalker though and I was a bit worried that Sue would be taken away by security....
Set off and managed to keep to race plan of 8 minute miles for the first mile, getting past most of the "celebrities". Then race plan went out of the window and I speeded up and despite me telling myself constantly that I would regret this later, I didn't seem to slow down. Got to half way in 1.42. Then the fun started. It seemed to suddenly get really hot and I just steadily got slower and slower. I got cramp in my toes in the last 2 miles which was very painful and I kept having to stop to make them work again. Ended up with 3.38. 8 minutes short of my target and really disappointed. Why can I run 20 miles and feel good in 2:31 and feel so rubbish in London running slower?
Got cramp in my calf on the way to the station and had to lie on the pavement in the middle of London looking like a complete fool. And then to top it off, I felt really ill on the tube on the way to Euston and had to get out to be sick on the platform...
Marathons? Why do we do them?? A day on and I feel a little more human and a little less disappointed. I was 5 minutes faster than last year and got a course PB! And as I read more blogs and race reports, everyone seemed to find it incredibly hot out there running.
I didn't manage to catch up with the others after the race, apart from Sue who I think had a similar experience to me. Hopefully apart from the cramp and being sick on the tube.....
Janine
Don't beat yourself up over 8 minutes in conditions like that Janine, it's a great pb and you should be rightly proud. There was a lot of technicolour stuff coming out of the elite runners as they crossed the finish line so the platform episode just shows how hard you tried. Brilliant!
Posted by: Clare | April 20, 2011 at 07:00