LONDON MARATHON DEBUT

The Marathon was the one distance I had avoided signing up for over the years, telling myself it could wait until there was no speed left in the legs. But honestly it was probably more the fear of knowing what it would take to execute a great marathon. For many club runners the Marathon really is the ultimate event, with such a long training build up, you feel extremely invested in the final race day.

After moving to London in early 2018 I was engrossed in a new business venture and without the regular HuRTS sessions and the group comradery that kept me motivated to train hard in Sydney my running form slowly started to slip. Ending 2018 I knew I needed a goal race in order to kick start my training in the new year and that’s when I got the itch to commit to the London marathon.

Training

I decided I would need January just to reset the body with some solid sessions and make sure I could handle the marathon block that would follow. After a month of quality training, the fire was ignited again and I was ready to dive into the 12-week marathon program.

After chatting to Bart’s about what had worked for him in his London PB training and searching Tommy’s old blog posts for a few decent marathon session, I started to write up the program. I knew that I would have to progressively build up the miles whilst being mindful to avoid injury. I have never been a big mileage runner, favouring laying in a lot of quality sessions into my program, however the marathon would require progressing the amount of race pace running on tired legs so the key weekly sessions started to unfold something like follows;

Tuesdays would typical focus on shorter interval reps sandwiched between a reasonable pace warm up and cool down. I progressively worked on extending the warm up each week so the main interval part of the session was completed on tired legs.  Staple session became 10km warm up, 8x1K(60s jog), 5K warm down.

Thursdays was the key marathon pace sessions again focusing on doing the session in the middle of a continuous 25-30K run building upto 4x5K(with 1K float) or 10X 1K at HMP wit 1K float 15s over MP.

Saturday was some sort of hilly tempo sometimes done in the afternoon to ensure the legs were extra tired for the Sunday long run

Sunday Long run, I tried to keep the pace honest each week throwing in a lot of tempo and MP work after 90mins. Goal was to alternate weeks between a more solid pace 30K @ around 85-90% MP and a longer 37K+ with marathon pace in the back half.

By the end of the 12-week block I felt I had got myself into decent form but knew the build up was only half the challenge and still had to deliver on the day.

Race Day

The big dance was finally here. Arriving at the assembly area in Greenwich the place was buzzing with excitement, I had been fortunate to secure a championship entry off the back of my half marathon time so I anxiously proceed to the dedicated championship area. I quickly spotted a familiar face in Simon Wolnizer and had a good chat before it was time to warm up. For some reason the warm up area was reduced to a tiny 50m loop, which we all proceed to slowly jog around, it was comical really, everyone scurrying around this tiny loop. I just told myself a few drills was all that was needed and mentally prepared for the battle ahead.

Made my way a few rows from the front of the championship start with the elite’s starting about 10m ahead. Looked up and could see Criniti, after receiving an upgrade to the elite field, bouncing around next to the likes of Kipchoge and Farah. Last minute pep talk to settle the nerves and Sir Andy Murray sounds the starters horn and we are off. Quickly settled into pace tucking on the back of a pack as we made our way through 5k in 17:05. I knew the first 5k of the course was quick but I needed to be careful not to get caught up in the excitement of it all, the pack kept pushing the pace and even though I was feeling amazing I decided to let them go and stick closer to the target 3:30 pace.

I tell you what, the Poms get a hard time for being a droopy bunch at times but they sure know how to come out and support and they didn’t disappoint, out in the droves as we went around Cutty Sark it must have been almost 10 rows deep with constant cheers of encouragement. It was a thrilling experience and you couldn’t help but wave to the crowd and feed of the buzz of it all. A massive cheer and high five from Timmy at the 14k mark kept the spirits high.

I soon found myself solo into a bit of a headwind and could see a small group just in front and made the conscious decision to close the gap. As we approached the next drink station I quickly grabbed a drink and before having it, pushed the pace a little to catch the group knowing they would slow slightly at the drink station, tucked on the back of the group, caught my breath and enjoyed a drink and comfort in knowing that working with this group should get me through half way well place.

The kilometres seemed to roll over nicely not feeling like I was working too hard just concentrating on conserving energy and ensuring I was getting my gels and fluids on board. As we approached Tower Bridge and the half way mark I knew there would be a massive crowd and also Jane was planning to cheer me from there before heading over to the 40km mark, I went to the front of the pack to ensure she spotted me and to make the most of the atmosphere, boasted by seeing Jane and the sheer size and roar of the crowds on Tower Bridge I pushed on crossing half way in 73:08.

 I was now in a small group of 3 and we were working well together until around the 27km mark where I had my first bad patch, hit by a sharp stitch all of sudden I wasn’t feeling amazing anymore and thoughts of, its still a long way home and this is unchartered waters, started to drift in. I tried to dismiss the negativity and convinced myself that the legs were still moving well and all I had to do was focus on each 5km split knowing everyone would be watching the splits and cheering me home.

By the 30km mark I had a second wind and was feeling good again, the bounce in my step had gone but I was moving well and was rolling turns into the headwind with Dan who was getting plenty of cheers as he had his name written on his singlet. We were starting to pass a lot of runners who had gone out too hard and were paying the price in the back half. At about the 37km mark just before making our way down onto embankment things started to get really tough, I glanced at the watch and noticed I had started to slow, I had to dig really deep to keep the pace and I knew I was into that part of a marathon that everyone describes where you go to that deep place and find out what you are really made of. A right hand turn at Westminster and the long stretch up to Buckingham Palace before that final turn and overwhelming feeling of pure joy in seeing the finishing line. Crossing the line in 2:27:39, I was thrilled and couldn’t have asked for a better debut marathon