So, basically, I didn’t train for this. Well, not specifically. I was asked to do a road marathon as a qualifier for a 50 miler. Therefore, training has been a lot of slow and steady runs with minimal speedwork, some swimming and a decent amount of time on the bike.

As part of my “race prep” I also did an Olympic triathlon (final 10k of 37:08) and the week before the marathon I did a sprint triathlon – 750m swim / 21.2km bike / 5km run as some sort of weird tune up threshold pace session.

This training is not conventional…I will grant you that, but this was not my A race for the year.

In terms of race strategy I decided to be sensible and overtake everyone on the back half…or at least try to. Smash a gel before the start then more at KM 8, 16, 24, 32 and see what happens. Oh, and take advantage of the Lucozade on course.

The Race

The racecourse itself was in a beautiful location (started in Kew Gardens…amazing place) and finished in Old Deer Park which was nice. The weather today started off cool and got progressively hotter until it was nearly 25c by the time I was crossing the finishing line (toasty!) I decided to seed myself in the sub 3:00 hour wave and see what happens. There was a pacer for 3:00 as well as one for 2:45 (lol)

Kilometers 0 – 16

Of course, I was promptly overtaken as the gun went off and everyone shot past me at a blistering pace. I kept to my rough plan of the first 5km being somewhere around the 4;20/km pace and settled into a nice run around Kew Gardens before hitting the towpath down to Richmond.

At around KM 10 I caught the 3:00 pace group and decided I would sit with them until KM 16 before I push off into the (hopeful) distance and go for that elusive sub 3

Kilometers 16 to 34

Honestly, nothing of note happened here. A lot of solo running it turned out and frankly I got a little bit lonely. My stomach started to play tricks on me as the heat began to rise but I just kept on trudging away with the mantra of Relentless Forward Progress ringing in my ears.

Kilometers 34 to 42.2

Honestly, these sucked. My stomach was doing weird tricks on me and the heat had become a little bit uncomfortable for my liking. In addition, having ran pretty much solo since KM 16 was starting to take its toll on me mentally, and then it happened. With about 5km to go I joined the back end of the HM runners (I think 2:00 hours+) at the worst possible place to do so. The paths narrow down to basically single track so it became increasingly more difficult to keep pace which made my legs only feel more tired. It was a bit unfortunate (but Kudos to those runners).

Finishing was great! I was so happy, a bit nauseous, but happy to be done with it! 2:54:06 for my first marathon and I am ecstatic! Maybe next time I will train for it properly.

Notable PRs (according to strava) was a HM split of 1:24:52 which also makes me happy!

I finished 12th overall and second in my age group!