The London Marathon - Julie's Ambition Realised

Julie and Louise Beveridge looking very fresh after London

I could not let this race pass without writing up a report for the blog.  This has been a race I have wanted to run for a number of years and certainly in the last year there was no other race that meant as much to me as this. It is such an iconic race that I have watched many a year on the TV and I would never have considered that one day I would be a part of it.

I set off from Blackheath having been given a 'green start number'. Pre-race this looked quite a good start as there were only about 4500 runners at this starting point. My intention was never to achieve a time in this race - it was all about participating in the London marathon. Therefore I set off running to how I felt rather than a target mile by mile pace. Nevertheless I was not foolish enough to go out hard and attack it like half marathon for instance.  I always had envisaged London being very crowded and having done the Great North Run in September I thought it would be similar at the start. How wrong was I - I crossed the start line within 45 seconds. I felt from this point on I was able to run freely and never felt as if I had to reduce my pace because of over crowding.

As I passed by the Cutty Sark quite early on in the race this was the point where it hit me that I was running the London Marathon. I do remember about 12 miles in someone shouting the 'Calderglen' name and not long after this I ran over Tower Bridge, another iconic landmark of this race. I was able to see the leading male runners pass me between 13 and 14 miles at which point I think they would have been roughly at mile 21-22.

Everything seemed to be going well up to mile 16. All my miles had been under 8.00 min miles (by this stage in Manchester I had two miles over 8 mins). However I went through a tunnel at Canary Wharf and my Garmin lost its signal. By the time I came out of the tunnel I was supposedly on 13-14 min miles! When the Garmin beeped for mile 16 it recorded 8.48. However I then did miles 17, 18 and 19 in 7.49, 7.48 and 7.51.  I did begin to feel the going getting a bit tough from about mile 19 onwards but the crowds in London helped carry me along.   I soon encountered another tunnel between miles 23 and 24. Yet again the Garmin seemed to lose its signal and by the time it beeped for mile 24 it had registered a time of 9.13. I don't know what happened on this mile but what seemed even stranger was that I then ran mile 25 in 7.15 -  2 minutes quicker - I did say the crowds, particulary on the Embankment as I was by this stage, pull you along. I completed mile 26 in 8.01. (By contrast in Manchester miles 25 and 26 were 8.31 and 8.40).  I would like to think that perhaps my last few longer runs where I had ran to Pollock Park on a Saturday morning and finished it off with a Parkrun had helped me to find this extra burst of effort on the last few miles, although the crowd mostly certainly helped me as well.

Overall I crossed the line in 3.28.13 - an improvement on Manchester by over a minute. However the achievement for me was completing the London Marathon.  Based on my experience of this race I am sure I will be back to run it again, possibly as soon as 2016!

Julie