How to enjoy running?

I think that says more about the London marathon than it does about a four hour marathon time.

+1 Large events are largely fun runs with a small number of elite athletes.

I did think that the results at London would be heavily skewed by all the people running dressed as whales or in clown shoes or scuba gear or wotnot, with a big “hole” between the proper fast and the rest. But it turns out that the distribution of times at London is quite close to normal:

2:00-2:30 58 (0.16%)
2:30-3:00 991 (2.85%)
3:00-3:30 2951 (8.5%)
3:30-4:00 5373 (15.4%)
4:00-4:30 7061 (20.3%)
4:30-5:00 7147 (20.5%)
5:00-5:30 5113 (14.7%)
5:30-6:00 3127 (9.0%)
6:00-6:30 1516 (4.4%)
(Over 6:30 (ie brisk walking pace) 1469 (4.22%) )

Given that under 4:00 is on the fast side of the “hump”, describing it as “decent” (ie not “fast”) doesn’t seem unjustified.

I’m aiming for 3:30 😉