London Marathon 2014

Nothing really prepares you for the wall of noise that you run through on most of the London Marathon course. It is the most Amazing atmosphere. It was a beautiful day but hotter than I would have liked for running. Up at 6:15 to get some breakfast and then a train at 7:15 into town. You get a red kit bag which they transport from the start to the finish for you and on Twickenham station there were maybe 10 red kit bags by the time we got to waterloo the carriage was full of them. I hiked it over to Charing Cross and got a glimpse of the course at embankment - including the shelter cheering point right by the station. Needless to say the train to Greenwich was rammed full of red kit bags.  Second breakfast on the train courtesy of Lulu's goody bag then onto the Red start assembly area where there is a lot of waiting around, and queuing for the loo.

There are 9 pens based on your predicted finish time and I was in 8 concerned I'd be lining up just in front of the pantomime horse, the wombles and giant bananas but the pens are huge and they were a long way back (although great uncle bulgaria, scooby doo and freddie mercury carrying a hoover singing "I want to break free" did overtake me later). The atmosphere on the start is fantastic so many people such a buzz of nervous excitement and anticipation. Then when the announced the elite runners Mo Farah got a massive cheer.  Then the pens close up and you get exited as you are going to start but there are so many people it took me nearly 20 mins to get across the start line.

Having your name on your shirt is a big help within 2 minutes of the start 3 people had shouted "come on Mike" and this went on all race which was fantastic. So my plan had been to run a pace of 6:20 Min/Km which equates to about 4:30 Hours for the whole race distance. I knew I would fade in the second half but was hopeful that I could keep the time under 5 hours. I was pretty much on pace for the first 5 miles only really loosing pace when the course was a bit constrained. Somewhere along the way I dropped off the pace a bit but by half distance I'd only dropped a few minutes so was pretty pleased. I started to suffer around 16 miles on the Isle of Dogs and slowed down a bit by 18 miles I was run-walking. And then just counting off the miles as they slowly went past . In other races I found the same you can run just beyond your longest training run then it starts to hurt.  Because of my 6 week lay off for injury my longest run was 16 miles... The last 3-4 miles really hurt alternating between walking (but the leg muscles hurt more than running) and running (but I was starting to feel physically sick). I wasn't the only one suffering all around people were limping, walking and generally hurting, but all the time there is just a mass of noise, cheering and people shouting "come on Mike".  It became unrelenting but never for a second did I think I would give up. I got to the Mall and saw the 800m to go board and thought I'll just run the last 800m but I just could not physically do it and had to have another walk and saved up to run the last 200m as you turn the corner, just in case I was on the TV...

Then you finish and it all goes quiet, no one screaming at you and you can't believe it is over.  You have been telling your body to go on and on and now it doesn't have to. It all felt a bit unreal. The walk down to the hotel where the the shelter reception was, was probably the slowest I've ever walked in my life, but I had my medal so I didn't care.  It was good to sit down and great to see StorksRock, SuttonLady and FujiNovice who were waiting in the hotel for me. Rednalranger was sick at home but  had been relaying my 5k splits to the others to keep track of me.  My final time 5:23:29

The landmarks you run past are fantastic. I loved Cutty Sark and Tower Bridge particularly. While running round the course there is a blue line that marks the shortest distance and I took the time to run on this sometimes particularly on Tower Bridge knowing that not long earlier Mo Farah and the other elites had run on the same bit of road in the same race - awesome!

On the course it was fantastic to have people supporting me on the day.  StorksRock, SuttonLady and FujiNovice who were at 9Miles and 25Miles making a lot of noise with Team Shelter. Brian and his family at 19 Miles - they took this excellent shot, Adam and mslouella who very cunningly managed to see me 3 times on the Isle of Dogs and Jane, Neil and Maggie who were at tower bridge and in the city. It makes a big difference (especially when you are suffering), thanks guys

Team shelter also did a great job organising cheering and providing the charity place so I could run, and we were very pleased that we have raised over £2500 for them.  

A special thank you to StorksRock who was gutted she could not run today. Looking forward to supporting her and Brian next year.