Maybe this should go in the Running thread, but as it was a bit lengthy, I thought I’d start a fresh one.

At the start of 2018 I picked a random marathon goal time of sub 2:30, as being a nice solid target, and a sizeable but hopefully achievable improvement over my 2017 time of 2:35:17. Knocking of 5 minutes per marathon might sound ambitious, but I felt that I hadn’t been close to my potential previously, and there was plenty of scope in my training to improve without risking<span class=”text_exposed_show”>injury. This was of course coming off an entire summer of no running due to plantar fasciitis, but I didn’t intend to let that stop me… As one might expect, a spreadsheet was consulted, specifically one which had charted the progress of previous marathons, logging miles completed during training in the preceding 18 weeks. I find it rather hilarious now looking back to my first marathon in 2012 in Hyderabad where I only ran 475km or an average of 26km a week! (2:59 finish) Subsequent to moving back to the UK I ran even fewer for the Edinburgh marathon in 2015 with 418km (2:51 finish), but then improved slightly for my first London in 2016 with 529. 30km a week is still a long way off what is typical for someone running a 2:42 marathon, so significant scope for improvement. Almost doubling that to 934km for Bournemouth later that year knocked 2 minutes off, although on perhaps a slightly slower course. London 2017 shaved off 5 minutes after 1141km, an average of 63km/week, so still very low, and not quite as consistent as I would have liked. An arbitrary 1500km training was my aim to achieve 2:29:XX, an average of around 85km/week, and looking back now, I wasn’t far off with 1445, with 2 weeks off, one for moving house and another for being ill, so I averaged just over 90km for the weeks I did train.

This was mainly commuting, mixing up steady miles with fast stuff. 1 minute hard followed by 2 minutes easy, repeated 15 times was a particular favourite session which I think got a bit of speed into the legs. I also started double-running on a regular basis – often starting the day with a nice gentle 10k before taking the train the 2nd half, and a harder long run home in the evening. Remarkably, the days I ran both into and home from work all the way, I felt fresh, despite completing almost a whole marathon split by several hours at my desk in-between. The time penalty for run commuting is much smaller than stand-alone training sessions, and with a toddler at home, time was a scarce commodity, along with at times, quality sleep.

Confidence took a hit when during a session 10 days pre marathon I was doing 3 x 1 mile at 5km pace. This should have basically been a hard 5km with 2 rests to break it up, but I was struggling to hold that pace even for a mile. I therefore wasn’t particularly optimistic when starting the National 12-Stage Road Relays a week before London, but was happily proven wrong when I was well over a minute quicker than my previous time and was only a second behind our fastest runner on the team. Training over, it was taper time, and to get slightly nervous with the weather.

I listen to the Marathon Talk podcast and a while back they interviewed a runner/statistician guy called Barry Smythe. He had collected a lot of marathon performance data from different events and calculated the quickest way statistically to get a personal best. For London, most people ran a PB by running a 4% positive split, thus running the 2nd half 4% slower than the first. For a 2:30 finish this meant coming through halfway in 73 minutes, and then running the 2nd half in 77. That sounded pretty daunting, as my stand-alone half time (albeit from a few years ago) was 76 minutes. After seeing my family for the first time at Surrey Quays for enthusiastic high-fives, halfway wasn’t much later, pretty much spot on in 73 minutes. I then just kept on pushing, although never felt like I was pushing too hard, and everything was pretty much under control. Was passing loads of runners who must have been starting to find it tough, quite a few of them at quite a major speed differential.

Lots of scaremongering emails from the marathon organisers in the preceding week were predicting 2018 to be the hottest London Marathon on record, and urged runners to revise their goals and reconsider fancy dress. While it wasn’t quite as hot as forecast at one point, it did still reach about 23 degrees C, which some would consider warm. I restarted my running during a 5-year work stint in India, seeing some very warm and also humid conditions, so was relatively confident that I wouldn’t fare too badly in the heat. I always race in a lightweight white cap which I liberally douse with water at every available opportunity when required, and this goes a long way to keep me cool. Every water station entailed a small sip of water, the rest was thoroughly over the cap and body. I think this has quite a major impact, keeping the surface cool which then keeps the core cooler, less sweating, less drinking required, less salt loss etc This obviously wasn’t working for everyone, and it soon became apparent that the heat was affecting some more than me.

I did have a minor scare at about 40km when my watch said I’d just run a 4:00km instead of the 3:30ish of most of the preceding ones, but I managed to pick it up again. It was nice to be so far ahead of my 2:30 goal that I had loads of time in hand and could afford to jog it in for the last few miles and still be in target, so I was very relaxed. I then passed Kojo Kyreme (a local legend who holds most of the strava segments, or at least features high in the leaderboard) who has stopped on the Embankment with apparent cramps. What’s a more impressive scalp, Kojo or bib number 4, Guye Adola, one of the Ethiopian pre-race favourites, who was jogging it in around the Tower of London, presumably because some of his appearance fee was linked to finishing the race! Dimos, one of our club marathon heroes passed me at Big Ben, which was a bit of a surprise, and he had 17 seconds on me at the end, but no-one else in sight. Official finish time was 2:27:56, smashing my previous personal best by over 7 minutes!

It was very bizarre coming into an almost deserted post-race area. I chatted to a couple of top British club runners who had both missed their sub 2:20 goals by several minutes, but there weren’t any other runners around. Was absolutely staggered to discover I’d finished 15th in the championship (non-elite) start, 31st overall, and 11th British runner, including Mo Farah and Jonny Mellor, who were both in the elite race. My 2:30 goal would have placed me about 50-60ish most years, but being 2 minutes faster, and most folk being a bit slower pushed me up the order massively. Another benefit of it being deserted when I finished was the complete lack of crowds to navigate to meet up with my family at the end, resulting in a nice swift journey home.

I felt fresher than I’ve felt at the end of any marathon, with an average heart rate of 161 suggesting I wasn’t working too hard. Nothing more than 2 sore toenails and a medal to show for me exploits. Bladder came back on line mid-afternoon (which can sometimes take a while) and a weight of 63kg this morning indicating no overall fluid loss on the day. Maybe the Nike Vaporfly 4% shoes really are pure magic, but perhaps given the popularity of them pre-race, and the relative scarcity of PR’s suggest otherwise!

Now I’ve proven that stepping up the training with a bit more focus and sticking to a race plan on the day can pay dividends the only challenge is deciding what the next goal is, and how far I’m willing to go to achieve it. Balancing family life with training has been key for me, and I have an incredibly understanding wife who puts up with me creeping out at 5:30am on a regular basis and the washing machine constantly being full of muddy and smelly running clothes. My 2-year old son is also very tolerant of being bounced around in a running buggy, and has been a regular feature of long Sunday group runs around Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. Without their support I wouldn’t be anywhere near this level.</span>

Cheers, Rich