LONDON MARATHON

Well where do I start. I suppose the begining would be a good place. After a good nights sleep on the Saturday I wakened at 6am showered ,dressed a quick cup of coffee and went for a short walk before breakfast. 7.00am time for breakfast. Some juice Bacon and Egg coffee and Croissants. 7.45am 10min walk to train station arriving at Blackheath at 8.35. Organisation perfect and directed straight onto the heath. Had a banana before entering the assembly area. Toilet stop then mingle to see whats going on and take in the atmosphere. 9.20am went to the baggage truck and stripped ready to run. Temperature already warmer than forecast as I didn't need to keep any overclothes on. Bag dropped energy ball eaten and last drink of water. 9.40am I moved over to my starting pen (5) and was not far from the front of this pen. 9.55am and the pens are moved forward and seperations removed. 10.00am and the hooter goes, this is it time to put up or shut up. quicker than expected I was free to run 50 metres before the start line with more space than I was expecting. Over the start line, watch started and into a caucauphony of noise from the crowds (really quite an emotional experience). Anyway on with the running with a plan to run the first half at 10.30 pace so keeping it nice and easy and settled into a nice comfortable pace but the 1st mile registered on my watch at 9.23, Ok don't panic it was an easy mile just slow it a bit. 2nd mile 9.26 again I just need to slow it a bit but I was running easy and quite happy having others running past me as I'm sticking to my plan to run easy. Next mile came in at 9.18, I really need to slow this down but I was still comfortable and the 3rd mile did have a big downhill. I did notice at this point something Martin had warned me about beforehand that if your not on the blue line you will run long and when I went under the 3mile marker my watch was already at 3.1. I started trying to follow the line and you can for a while then you lose it and discover its over the other side of the road so this would be a repeating theme throughout the run. Decided I would stick with my watch and just accept there would be extra at the end as the watch would would give me the best guide of the real pace I was running. I did manage to slow the pace over the next few miles, 9.30, 9.53, 9.56. 10.01 and 10.31 although that one included a toilet stop which probably added 30secs. Onto pace now with next  miles at 10.23 and 10.26, That was the first part of my pre race plan done to run ten miles. Next up I had a 5k to do to take me to half way. My left leg by now was starting to become less effective and ran above plan with with  10.40, 10.45 and 10.55. and this took me to halfway 5mins ahead of plan. Next I had broken the race down to do a 5 miler but mile 14 was to prove difficult and was starting to feel pain in the soles of my feet and had slowed to 12.24. Outwith the pace but knew I was into the sort of distance where my performance will drop off but managed to pick it up a bit with 11.49 and 11.46. Really starting to struggle now and ran 12.39 and 12.35 to take me to 18miles and the end of my 3rd pre arranged point. Another 5k planned now and mile 19 was keeping with last couple of miles with a 12.28 but mile 20 has a lot of uphill and slowed again to 13.32. Feeling done in now and mile 21 slowed again to 13.50, the uphill on the previous mile had just about finished me but I just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 5miles to go and I had no plan for this stage as I had just put it down to (I will see what shape I'm in when I get there).the next 2 miles I was still struggling with 13.47 and 14.04. 3.2 miles left come on I'm going to do this and managed to lift the pace with a 11.56, 12.26 and 12.05, but as mentioned earlier my watch was now half a mile out from the official markers so still some work to do. 11.32 pace for the remainder of the race to cross the line in 5.04.48 for 26.71 miles. Watch shows marathon time at 4.58.57 so my estimation of 5hrs was pretty good. Crossed the line got the medal and goodybag, clothes back and dressed and headed for Charing Cross station and straight into the bar. That pint was fantastic. Onto the train and back to the digs for a bit of grub rest and refreshments. Chuffed to bits and online to see how my fellow Harriers and others had done. Martin Duthie 3.11.28, Julie Beveridge 3.24.34 and a new PB, Anne McLellan with a debut 4.30.43. Quite an incredible experience with levels of support around the course that I don't think could be matched anywhere and all the good luck messages from friends and fellow Harriers prior to the event. A day in my life I will treasure forever. I have to say if anyone gets the opportunity to run this you have to. The organisation is so slick you cant even find the tinyest thing that you would change.