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.
