Virgin London Marathon 2012
My second road marathon, slower than my first. Official time, 4:16.30. There isn’t a great deal to say about this marathon.
Training in January seemed to be going well, around 30 km per week. February was dire, but I still had 2 months to go! The first week of March and I was back up to 33 km; half that the week after - a rest week? Then the weeks leading up to the race: 20 km, 13 km, 46 km, 0 and 5 km.
Looking back at my Strava now, I didn’t seem to be doing bad for the first half of the race. I went through 25 km in 2 hours 14, a sub-2 hour half marathon (21 km). That is pretty respectable! After that, my race went downhill.
I remember running back along the highway, towards Tower Bridge. I saw my wife and daughter and did something I had never done (on my previous one marathon) - I walked. I walked up to them and gave them a kiss with Tower Bridge to my left.
I didn’t have far to go, just along the embankment, up to the Houses of Parliament, Birdcage Walk, around the iconic Victoria Memorial and a few hundred meters up the Mall. Those final miles were horrible. It reminded me that yet again I had failed to respect the distance of running a marathon. Coming up under the underpass on the embankment the slight slope back up to daylight felt mountainous and was very painful.
I knew that I would finish. I still had an eye on a PB at this point, but I guess the calculations in my head due to tiredness were either wrong or I had delusions of a fast 5 k finish. I did finish ahead of ‘Arg’ from The Only Way is Essex. I passed him in the first half - he had a big arrow on his head drawing attention to himself. I even managed a quick photo of him.
The euphoria of finishing London was as much a buzz the second time as it was the first. It wasn’t a PB and the medal isn’t framed at home like my first London medal in 2010, but finishing an endurance race was always my goal.
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