RACE BLOG – Marathon day

Written by Anna:

I wanted to start my final blog by saying that I’ve been really surprised how many people have told me they have been reading the blogs and indeed how it’s encouraged some people to open up to me about some of their own challenges too. I’m not usually very open about my own health challenges and how painful it can be at times so it’s a good reminder that sharing can also help other people to feel more able to talk and that people will often help, support and encourage you if they can. Our club is a hugely supportive and inclusive one most of the time. So thank you to everyone who’s taking the time to read these.

I know it can also seem a bit mad to have run London anyway in my situation, but I have still writing this in May, had only one week this year without at least one medical appointment, most of which are in hospital. That is a new experience for me and can really feel like it’s taking over your life and it does make it hard to go on holiday or do other things so having another goal to put some focus towards, give some structure and take your mind off everything else is really helpful even if it seems like a stupid thing to do on one level. I’m not planning on hanging up my running shoes if I can help it even if I’m running slower or differently. 

Now onto the race. The answer for me to can you run a marathon on three runs of 15 miles or longer  (one of which isn’t a continuous run) is yes. I wouldn’t recommend it though! Although if there’s one to run undertrained and let the support get you round it would be London. 

I was travelling for a couple of days before the race for work (great timing as spending ten hours on trains Thursday and Friday really helped!), so I headed off to the expo on the first day whilst I was still in London. There was a lack of freebies but I spent a bit of time wondering round and buying a couple of things. Number collected and strangely this year they also gave out the finishers top at the expo. 

On the day of the race, I travelled most of the way to the start with Liv. She was starting in red and I was in blue but we headed to London Bridge and got on different trains from there. I didn’t get the Eagles bus as I didn’t want to be at the start quite so early and leaving my house just before 8 rather than just before 6 was much more civilised! 

Once at the blue start on Blackheath, there was the usual toilet queues though dropping the bags at the trucks was very smooth. I got to my wave at the back and was glad of an extra top I’d kept as it was quite windy on the open heath. As we all started moving to the line and throwing off the extra layers, one of the volunteers was having great fun joking saying people please, please keep your clothes on as everyone threw the donations to charity at him. One of the things I noticed about London was how many volunteers there are keeping the race going, the crossing points for the roads took a lot of volunteers to operate and for the first few miles there were volunteers standing each side of sleeping policeman on the road to warn you of the humps, sometimes also with hump related puns. 

I really enjoyed the first few miles, there were loads of kids out around Greenwich and I spent a few miles high fiving them. They were all quite excited and I hoped that watching and high fiving with the runners might maybe inspire some of them to run in the future. I’d drunk about a litre of fluid on my way to the race as for me not getting dehydrated and that leading to pain and infections is much more important than stopping during the run and indeed I stopped at mile 4 to go the toilet. 

The crowds were there from the start of the race and can really encourage you round and there’s so many times to see friends and club mates on route. There were eagles all over the route and it was particularly lovely to see some of them in the quieter spots. Not least because then you could actually hear them talking to you. A couple of spots on the route were so noisy that although I knew friends were there at that point, I couldn’t see or hear them. Rotherhithe station was so loud, with fewer stations south of the river and in the city, the crowds and noise by those stations was intense. I really appreciated the Eagles who had made it into the Isle of Dogs where it was quieter and windier. There was a nice boost from the daytime eagles- Edwina, Jackie, Jodie and others there and a mile later, Robert Kipling was cheering too. 

The first half of the race went by quite easily. I was trying to slow down and it took me about six miles to slow down enough to be the pace I’d been trying to run. There weren’t many fancy dress runners around me and it took me till about mile 6 to spot a rhino up ahead and another couple of miles to overtake him. I did see someone running for London air ambulance with a helicopter either side of his body later on but didn’t spot many cool costumes. Going over tower bridge just before halfway was a very cool experience. I couldn’t resist some Eagle arms on such a famous icon of London. 

After the wind in the city I was starting to feel the effort on the odd few uphills that London has. But I could tell myself, just a few more miles to mile 23 and then it’s just a couple more to the finish. 

Reading all the signs that people were holding up was also a good distraction. I particularly liked the guy within the first ten miles who’s said “I’m here for those of you hating every minute of this”. There was some more dark humoured ones: “If rats can run through this city so can you” and  “What are you running from? (Should I be worried)”. Before I knew it I was at mile 23, I was beginning to get some cramping in my calves so whilst I really wanted to stop and give some people hugs at mile 23, I thought if I stopped I might not restart and the ledge was feeling difficult to step off at the end if I got more cramp. I high fived a huge wall of eagle hands instead. 

From there it was just a couple of miles to the finish. I didn’t know most of the route for London and hadn’t recced it. The last few miles along Embankment, past London Eye and Big Ben and then onto the mall were the only bits of the route that im familiar with so it was nice to see those landmarks. Particularly as I completely managed to miss running round Cutty Sark earlier on. Although I’d not been running London for a time, I knew my pace would be somewhere around the four hour mark which is a really annoying barrier when I didn’t want to be time focussed. All of my marathons bar my first have been sub 4 hours and I thought with two and a bit miles and twenty minutes to go that might still be achievable. I sped up for the last couple of miles but wasn’t sure quite how long the course would come up on my watch as it had been a bit before the mile markers from the very first mile. In the end I just missed four hours by 54 seconds but it did mean I finished running strong which was great. It’s a nice feeling to speed up at the end of a marathon and go past a lot of people. The finish photos have me smiling next to a few men grimacing as I went past them which was nice to look back on the evidence of finishing well. The finish on the mall with all the flags was so iconic. I did also go past someone shuffling on their bum to the finish about 600m out, afterwards I saw he’d actually broken his leg and bum shuffled to the finish. I’m glad my marathon ended much less eventfully and without any issues! 

London was my second slowest marathon but I really enjoyed the race. Friends joke that I’m never smiling in race photos and I often have my eyes closed. This time I’m smiling in quite a few of them. I went and got the time engraved on my medal for free the next day after work and I’m really grateful that my body can still carry me over 26.2 miles with everything it’s been going through. There will always be some painful miles in a marathon but I loved the atmosphere. I’ve never been hit with a confetti canon multiple times (or once) in a race before and it does feel like the city comes together. I high fived all sorts of people, from babies, to men sleeping rough to many friends who were out on the route at mile 23. 

I haven’t managed a marathon length training block without spending a night or two in hospital during the last year but I’m hoping that changes soon, who knows what might be possible then.

Ultimately I thought that this image below summed up the London experience for me. Though I’d add that the support of everyone out on course and Eagles who’ve supported me more generally over the last 18 months are also what makes you stronger. 

The biggest weeks

Anna writes:

Even though I’m not following a plan, I’d intended these next two weeks to be the higher mileage ones of training, then two weeks of tapering before the race. I work for a University which closes for two extra days over Easter meaning a bit less squeezing running round medical appointments and work. And hopefully a bit of extra sleep to balance out the drug induced fatigue of the week before. 

The first week started fine with gym, a short run and a just over 8 mile commute home with Kat and Nick. I’d planned on running the Maidenhead 10 on Good Friday and actually trying to put a bit of effort and speed into the run which is something I’ve not really done all year given the pain issues I was having pre surgery in February and then going straight into upping miles for this abridged marathon training. Unfortunately this plan went awry as I spent Thursday in A and E, I left there at 2am Friday morning meaning I’d have to be in Maidenhead six hours later; clearly not a sensible thing to do. It also put pay to the social plans I’d had that evening and the next day with a friend too sadly and wasn’t a great way to spend my day off work. Frustratingly I’d entered Maidenhead as a run I might have been able to do a bit faster because I wasn’t having treatment that Friday being a bank holiday and I find it a bit more challenging to run with higher impact in the days afterwards so thought that was a good option. I managed a short run later that day but it was hard and much more painful than running has been for a while, curling up in a ball in Elthorne definitely crossed my mind but I made the mile home regardless. 

Resetting over the weekend. The next day I skipped parkrun to run 10 miles but much slower than I would have run Maidenhead. It was finally sunny rather than raining which made it much nicer and thankfully I felt a lot better. One of the more irritating things is not knowing beforehand which runs are going to flare symptoms and pain. On Easter Monday I’d planned a twenty mile run which Nick had agreed to run with me. I actually ran a twenty mile run for Berlin marathon three days after getting out of hospital with Nick too which is a deja vu I’d really like to stop repeating. Although I was well enough to run both or I wouldn’t have and started them as a let’s try and see what happens and I’ll stop if I need to, it’s still nice to have someone there just in case when it’s quite so close to being unwell. I met Nick at Gunnersbury and I’d planned a route that went along the North side of the river to Putney Bridge, then uphill through Putney Heath, Wimbledon common and into Richmond park then back to the river at Mortlake. We did a small diversion in Sheen so I could pick up my number for the Towpath 10 at Up and Running. It’s a route I’d repeat as even on a sunny bank holiday it wasn’t too busy and there are places along the route with water fountains and toilets. Clearly the route I chose through Wimbledon was more off the beaten track or someone had never been there before as one woman commented: “people actually run here, what the f*ck” as we passed her jumping around on a particularly puddly path along the Common. Good to know we’re selling the hobby and trail running as enjoyable to others! Personally the traily bit through the wood in Wimbledon was one of my favourite bits and running with someone the miles tick by without noticing as you’re chatting away. As all long runs (or short) should, we finished with brunch at Beehive.

I’d managed to end up bunching runs again so Garmin showed 46.5 miles in seven days. I’ve always been quite a low mileage runner but not sticking to fixed schedules because of work/ life and generally preferring to flexible does mean I can unintentionally do a lot of back to back miles. Going over 40 miles a couple of times in a seven day block gives me a bit more marathon confidence even though it’s a bit arbitrary and a lot lower than many others do. 

I did a weights class the day after twenty miles and the legs still felt ok though more achey than usual. The rest of the week were a muddy five miler and a parkrun with my mum’s dog Amber, she loves running and loves parkrun as she gets so much attention. On Sunday I ran the club champs race of the Towpath 10, it was small but well organised and it’s nice to turn up to local races fifteen minutes before the start with no queues for bag drop or toilets. About as far from what London marathon pre race prep could be. The race was a bit windy with a headwind from Storm Kathleen for the last few miles but it was good fun and an out and back gave an opportunity to cheer all the other Eagles running. I’ve consistently come fourth woman in almost all my club champs races this year and the towpath was no different, may be it should be my lucky number. A much smaller race meant I was also second senior woman overall. The towpath ten rounded my mileage for this week to 40 miles. 

For the next two weeks I’ll be stopping the strength classes and taking it a bit easier, with some more street-O and run commuting with the Paulines but no more long runs. I’ve only run three 15+ mile runs so hopefully it’s enough to get round the marathon without the last six miles feeling like a death march. Quite a lot of people have asked how the training is going and hopefully it’s gone as well as it could have in such a short training block. The start times and event guide for London landed in my inbox at the end of this week so it’s all starting to feel very real now and I’ll be heading off to the expo next week. 

Training begins

Anna writes:

Having made the decision to run I now needed to attempt some form of training. Mainly just running some more miles in my case without changing too much else given the time left. The next two weeks were still busy ones with some evening working and dinners so it’s still a bit of challenge fitting the miles in. The week began with street orienteering. Here you get a map that has about 55 controls. At each control you have to write out the clue be that a house name, sign, fire hydrant number etc. The controls are worth different points so you have to be strategic about what route you take to get the most points and everyone only has an hour to get round. You lose a lot of points for being late as the deductions are for every two seconds late. For some reason, the last three or four street orienteering’s have coincided with work drinks but they start with a late enough starting window that I’ve managed to get there post drinks and canapés. This week was no different and I hurried off to West Hampstead after showing my face at drinks. I’ve done a few of these now and it’s been my token intervals each month, it’s quite good fartlek as you slow down to read the map, stop to write something, sprint back to the pub at the end. I keep intending to make track for some more intervals but despite good intentions I haven’t managed it for a long time so orienteering is currently my only nod at even attempting any speed work. Even if it is post drinks, I might have to try it without sometime and see the difference! 

A few of the orienteering locations have also been quite hilly and I knew Hamstead would fall into that category. I set off with Olivia and Nick and we covered 5.5 miles in the hour and a decent number of controls. The first half was pretty solidly running uphill and we discovered Sigmund Freud has connections to that part of Hamstead. Afterwards the organiser emailed me about the results to say well done as I’m 19th in their series results and the fourth woman. Might have to actually join the orienteering club at this rate! The downside of keeping on running from work is carrying a lot of clothes back and forth and I managed to leave a single boot behind where we ate food as I had multiple sets of shoes I’d worn into the office and then ran home so needed to carry them all home that day. 

I didn’t manage to get out and run again till Friday where I only managed time to run two miles on the treadmill in the morning before a day in panel reviews. Most of my mileage this week was back ended on the week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Even though I just look at my mileage across the week from a Monday, a lack of schedule does mean my mileage is often higher in any given seven day period when I’m back loading and then front loading weeks. I find the last seven days feature on Garmin a useful reminder of that as the week before I was hitting 34-36 miles in the seven day period which is a handy reminder of jumping the mileage too quick. 

I did 6 miles up the canal and through long wood on Saturday. On the Sunday I ran the Kingston breakfast run 16 miler. It was super wet and rained pretty solidly the whole way round. I stopped to drink some water at the start of the second lap and Kat ran past me. I ran after her and we ran the next 4.5 miles together. I was thankful for the company as that coincided with the heaviest rain, a head wind blowing rain in our faces and the sandy part of the towpath which was flooding around us. Kat mentioned this always happens when she runs in Kingston as it chucked it down on the club champs Kingston half she ran too. I really enjoyed your company Kat but maybe next time stay away so the rest of us can have a dry run! 

I ran this run much quicker than I’d intended, partly because I didn’t want to hang around in the rain and partly because I tend to get carried away in race settings. If I zone out a bit running I find I’ve always sped up. Only two of the sixteen miles were the pace I’d planned to run so I decided during this run that I needed to defer Reading half marathon which I’d entered before getting the London place and is the weekend before. Knowing me this run convinced me that I won’t run it gently in a race setting so I’d be better off deferring. 

I went for a well deserved breakfast after with Becky and Dan. Becky had run the 8 mile run and we bumped into Janet, Edwina, Jackie and other eagles having breakfast too who had also done the 8 miles. This run also reminded me why I hate running in the rain as my hair gets so knotty I had to cut some knots out. Must remember to do something different if it looks like rain on race day. 

The next week I ran home again from work with the run commute group. It’s just light enough now that we can run our “summer” route. I started this route as I hate running on polluted routes if I can help it and running through the parks is a lot less people dodging then we have to do on Kensington High Street or through Sheperds Bush. We didn’t quite make it through the last parks of Ravenscourt and Chiswick backs but it was great to be lighter before the clocks change. The sky was also gorgeous and I snapped this picture en route in Hyde Park:

We headed back to the main roads at Hammersmith. Stopped for a group picture whilst some headed into the tube and others carried on for a few more miles. 

I did another commute run on Friday, running from hospital treatment along the river to Hammersmith. 

Saturday was the Queen of the suburbs ultra. Rachel had asked if I’d take pictures at Horsenden so I headed to Northala parkrun first and then over to Horsenden to do that. Saw lots of Eagles completing it and had fun cheering the runners along. I decided to be nice and not take any pictures of people walking up hill but to capture them running downhill, over the top and on the canal instead. 

These two weeks have been weeks when doctors have decided to change the long term pain meds I’ve been taking. It’s been a very quick one week only taper as they’re looking to change not remove them meaning I’ve had quite a few side effects over the last week in particular. One of the most common ones from starting what I have this week is feeling tired and sleepy. I slept for nine hours Saturday but woke up feeling even more tired than the day before. I wondered if it was from running more miles but my muscles felt fine running Sunday and the brain fog and fatigue keep getting worse so it seems to be drug induced. I realised the 17-18 miles I’d planned was probably not possible. I found a 16.5 mile route thinking I’d do 15 miles then get the bus home. 

When I was training for my first marathon (which never happened due to Covid), I found quite a few routes which went down to various points of the river then up into Richmond park, through the park and Sheen and back to the river at Mortlake. I decided to do this route again. It’s a lovely route, I came off the Thames at Ham common which is a bit like stepping back in time and through Ham woods which I’ve always found deserted and peaceful. 

Annoyingly within a couple of miles of starting though I could feel that a pressure point I had on my foot was turning into a blister. I’d taped it up but couldn’t find the right tape in the morning and it was moving. Despite stopping a few times to try and retape it unsuccessfully the blister was growing down the arch of my foot. I did stop on a bench at 8.5 miles in the sunshine and wonder about carrying on at all. 

Once in Richmond park, routes through the park also have the benefit of passing toilets and water fountains. I went up and through the Isabella plantation. It’s famous for azalea displays but they aren’t quite out yet. I headed off to pen ponds and decided that I should probably head back through the park to Richmond and bail out onto a bus route to avoid making the blister worse in case it stopped me running next week if it got even worse. If I carried on to Sheen I’d have no choice but to run 15 miles as there’s no public transport back to Ealing. This also meant I wouldn’t go past the water fountain at Sheen gate. I stopped in an annoyingly long queue to buy some water at Pen ponds then diverted past the ponds back to Richmond, this also meant going back over the hill in the park and running into a headwind both of which I could have done without 11.5 miles in. I hit 13 miles at Richmond and stopped for some food in the sunshine. I felt a bit annoyed at myself as I could definitely have plodded on for two more miles and it’s very unlike me not to run what I intend to. I did hobble back to the bus stop so it was probably the right decision to avoid aggravating the blister more but it’s hard when I only had a very limited number of long runs in the plan. Both these weeks were 30 miles, one slightly under and one slightly over. I’m hoping the drug side effects wear off and next week is a bit easier.  I’m finding it hard not to panic at how much more training everyone else running London seems to be doing. Fingers crossed I can get round on the day without the last six miles being too painful! 

A decision to make

Anna writes:

When Jane messaged me to say could we have a chat and that she was pulling out of London, I was really sad for her. I also had never expected to run this year because I knew how determined she was having run New York against all the odds only a few months before (and how many years Terena has tried for a place). We had a conversation about it and I knew that was the right decision for her, she’s such a strong runner and personality I hope she’ll be back fighting fit soon. Jane will get her points rolled over in the ballot next year for giving up the place which we were both glad of. 

This left me apprehensive, I hadn’t been training for a marathon as I wasn’t planning on a spring marathon and had only entered the club ballot to run London rather than wanting to run any marathon. I’d also decided to give my body a break and take it easy for the first part of the year and haven’t done much mixed training just easy running. London was now only 8 weeks away, effectively 6 weeks to train and then a two week taper. 6 weeks felt very short to train for a marathon! 

To explain a little more with a slight digression. For those of you who know me a bit better, you’ll know that I haven’t been well. I haven’t been well really for a very long time (almost two years). When Jane messaged I’d had surgery two weeks prior, ridiculously the fourth general anaesthetic surgical procedure I’ve had in just over a year, and this training block would totally overlap with a seven week block where I am getting weekly hospital treatment and with scans and tests on top I’d be in hospital twice a week for most of last and the next few weeks. Not a great start! 

I had run Farnborough half a month before so wasn’t starting from nothing albeit it was not a huge base. 

I asked a few friends in the club who know my situation a bit more what they thought I should do. It’s fair to say their reactions ranged from: “well you shouldn’t be able to do any of the stuff you’re doing so why stop now” too “I’m sure you could get round it but you’re insane to even consider it”. A few have not wanted me to push myself and I understand why and do agree on one level. Not hugely helpful to being torn about the decision though. 

In the end, I asked for a bit of time to think, speak to the hospital and run a 15 mile run that week to see how it all felt. Risky to make a decision based on one long run but the deadline to transfer places was only a few days away. 

After a lot of reflecting, I figured that I’ve been not fully well for three of the four marathons I’ve run and they worked out OK. In Amsterdam where I funnily enough also took Jane’s place, I took 30 mins off my PB but got a text as I landed there confirming I had an infection in my pelvis. Many people afterwards congratulated me on running very even splits. You wouldn’t know I spent the day before hunting for suncream, hard to find in the middle of October as the two strong antibiotics I’d been put on that week meant I wasn’t supposed to be out in sunlight and I had to take some of the pills at regular intervals during the run. 

This time I’m determined to be as easy on my body as possible but I also don’t really have enough information. I know based on what I’ve currently been told that I’m likely to continue to need regular hospital treatment and surgery. So I may be in the exactly this situation running at another stage and I may not get the opportunity to run London (especially without extra fund raising stress). I could wait and see health wise but I’ve also thought I’ve been close to answers many times over the last 21 months without that being true and having false hope. I also keep being told treatments may not work. I could be feeling better in seven weeks but in a situation that involves chronic pain it may be that doesn’t improve much from any of this, I just don’t know. So I’m just going to carry on carrying on as much as possible. Given in all likelihood the doctors currently think I have a chronic condition, and at least now I am monitored much more closely, getting some treatment that hopefully helps and checked for infections every week, I’m in a better position than I’ve been for a lot of the last year or so and I decided to give London a shot. I haven’t really come to terms with everything going on, it’s hard to when you don’t have confirmed information or control of the situation. I’m waiting for follow up with the surgeon and possible alternatives but I’m also not ready to put life on hold again for who knows how long given how long this has taken so far or be defined by what I can’t do. Equally if I stop exercising and running, it doesn’t make me significantly better. The symptoms and pain are there either way. It’s a bit of an unknown currently what makes it better or worse which makes it harder to deal with. 

I will try and prioritise decent rest over the training as much as possible. I’m not running for a time (I don’t think you could on six weeks training anyway) but if there’s a race to just enjoy the atmosphere then London should definitely be that! As one friend said to me, she’s hopes it’s my slowest marathon ever. That may not happen but I won’t be trying to run my fastest either. I’m not great at not putting pressure on myself but I’m hoping that by explaining this a bit more in the blog it will mean fewer people ask about times you’re aiming for and pressure from others in the club. I also think it’s important to say that appearances can be deceptive and that running fast by some people’s standards doesn’t necessarily give you the full picture of what’s going on for someone. Given it’s a hobby for all of us, running should also be about enjoyment not just results. For me it’s given me some structure while much of my life has been slightly falling apart. I was a bit reluctant to take a club place and not give it 100% given the pressure of mile 23 and London but I do hope I can run as well as possible on such a short training block but more importantly enjoy the run and take in mile 23 and the club support. 

Enough of the health challenges it won’t be a focus for the rest of the blogging. That week after speaking to Jane I tried some night orienteering for the first time during one run. I knew doing that on Wimbledon common as a first attempt would be difficult as it’s a huge open space and there are a lot of unmarked paths on the map. I’ve done quite a bit of the Street orienteering but knowing you need to take the second road on the left and look for something like a lamppost number is quite different from trying to find a tree or dip in the ground in the middle of the common! The organisers were super friendly and helpful with some tips at the start but they neglected to tell us that the common was essentially underwater: 

This picture was one of the paths right at the start. Nick and I essentially went for a swim that evening and it took many showers to get clean feet. We both came away with some cuts from brambles, XC in the dark is a different beast! Also pretty limited depth perception in the dark to know how deep some of the water was or how much you were going to slide. 

Later in the week I ran the Regents Park 10k club champs where I got a bit carried away in the race given I was also running home. Thankfully Babs joined me for the run home, nine more miles along the canal and kept me at a much more sensible pace to make 15 miles for the day. It also gave us a chance for a much overdue catch up which was lovely. 24 miles for the week and I felt ok. I did a yin yoga class post 15 miler and also went and sat in the sauna and steam room at the gym. The results of which meant it felt like I hadn’t run my furthest distance in a good few months the next morning which was a nice surprise. 

The following week was pretty busy with a couple of evenings working, I snuck a run in round Hyde park before heading to one evening event and managed to run home the next day with a group of Eagles who work in central London and often run commute home. The group keeps growing and that week seven of us ran back to the club social at the Castle which was just over nine miles for me. The rest of the week was just managing to run where I had time and some volunteering at the juniors XC at the weekend. I’d intended to run from there but I had such cold wet feet I ended up coming home to warm up and running on the treadmill. I’m not following a plan for London, not surprisingly there aren’t many six week training plans out there so am mainly trying to add some miles to a long run without ramping the mileage up too much from where I started. I ran 27 miles that week but the run commute was the longest one.