Since that first time doing London Marathon in 2015 I've been wanting to do it again. After missing out on doing a spring marathon, I'd planned on booking a road marathon for the autumn so I would at least get to do one this year. My thoughts had been Chester, but before I could book that I got incredibly lucky and won a club place through the #ukrunchat Running Club. This time my training cycle would start with Race to the Tower, and would need to continue on from there so was never going to follow my normal pattern. This time I decided that instead of designing my own training plan as I normally would I'd use one from Runners World.

This one had me doing two long runs a week, and included hill training and usually two or more speed sessions a week. It seemed like an excessive amount of speed work, and it was more than I could manage, but I tried my best and adapted it where necessary. Of the numerous 20+ mile runs that this plan included, I only managed two of them properly; the others had been cut short due to needing the loo part way through. In the heat of the warmest summer on record my 22 mile run had involved a lot of walking as I'd also managed to go out without my water.

During the taper I had a short break in Italy which involved a lot of walking, but also managed a strong parkrun which was just 1 second off my parkrun PB. By the end of the taper I'd had cramp in my left calf, and now wondered how this would affect the race itself. Despite this, I would be reaching the start line with the intention of going for a PB, no matter how small. If I got 3:12:25, an improvement of 1 second, I'd be happy with the result. Realistically though, I think as this is an autumn marathon I should be looking at autumn times, and anything better than 3:27 would do (note: my other London marathon attempt was 3:26:26).

Pre-Race Day

Unfortunately the national rail strike coincided with my plans for travelling down to London. So instead of a leisurely rail journey to ExCel London, I had to drive down early in the morning to park at Stanmore underground station, knowing I'd need to leave my car overnight there. From there it's still a fairly easy journey via the Jubilee Line and the DLR to reach Custom House. The only concerns I had beforehand were:

1. would there still be parking space by the time I get there if many other runners will be doing the same?
2. if I can't get a space at Stanmore, will one of the far more expensive private car parking spaces on YourParkingSpace be available at short notice?
3. will my car be safe overnight?

I didn't need to think too much about what it'd be like driving home after the marathon - I've driven home from Halifax after an ultra marathon before and that was a comparable distance. I knew that the expo would be open from 08:30, so I figured that arriving around 09:30 would give time for the initial queue to go down, and may not be too bad. It just meant that I'd need to be up at 05:00 to get my run in to continue the run streak. I got to the expo a little after 09:10 and didn't need to queue at all. After scanning my QR code and showing ID, they then printed the baggage sticker, and my race number.

"Oh you're one of the fast ones. Right at the front of the front, you're in wave 1"

Well, I'm not exactly fast, especially at marathon running, but I can see why they'd think that based on the wave number. I didn't look around much of the expo as I was in a rush, but I did get a collaspible cup for free from Abbott. The size of the drop bag was a little concerning, but I found if I crushed it a little, my backpack would fit into it. If I'd had to, I'd have had to make a two hour round trip this evening to drop some of it off at my car, or checked if the hotel would have been able to hold onto it during the race (and delay my return home).

The rest of the day was spent relaxing until it was time for some pasta. This was not far from the hotel, a place called Spaghetti House on the Kensington high street. It was a nice quick service, and I was there for just twenty minutes meaning I had more time to prepare for the day ahead.

Race Day

This was it. The London Marathon. Again. Last time this day had come around I'd barely slept, I'd spent a lot of time on my feet the day before, and it was a long and cold journey to reach the start. I'd not really known what to expect as this was only my second marathon, and at this point I didn't know London that well. This time, 879 days into the run streak, I was back with more experience and hopefully better fitness.

It hadn't been easy to sleep during the night. Not because of pre-race nerves, but because the old windows of what was likely a listed building (so changes they could make are likely limited) did not keep out the sounds from outside at all. I could hear traffic constantly through the night, the ocassional police siren too. It wasn't until about 04:00 it was relatively peaceful with the exception of an ambulance sometime after 05:00. I was up at 06:00 to give myself plenty of time to digest breakfast before leaving out at 07:20. This was an easy journey from Gloucester Road to Embankment, and then a short walk to Charing Cross to catch the Southeastern Rail train to Blackheath. I helped a couple of runners with directions who were unsure, so it's handy I've gotten to know some parts of London a little better. The train was crowded, so it was lucky I'd got my FFP2 mask to hand.

At Blackheath it was slow progress getting from there to Greenwich Park ue to the shear number of people that needed to get off the train. I'd decided that I would do my warm-up jog after dropping off my bag, so ended up doing just under half a mile inside the yellow start zone. You may wonder where this yellow start zone was as it wasn't on the paperwork, well, myself and a number of others wondered this too. I did however ask a volunteer for directions and ended up leading another runner to where I'd been told. Once there I saw @GirlHucknall was volunteering on the lorry I needed to drop my bag off at so said "hi" before starting on my warm-up.

One of the things I was told before I did my first London marathon was that you should join the toilet queue early, use it, then immediately join the back of the queue again after. It was some old advice I've not followed for a very long time, and I did consider it today, but ultimately decided against it. It was quite cool in the start area so I wandered around a bit to keep warm before going into the roped off area for wave 1. It's like having bouncers for a club inside a club. It started to get pretty crowded in there as we stood shoulder to shoulder. One guy next to me started to cough his guts out, but unfortunately my mask was now on the baggage lorry. I just had to hope I didn't catch whatever he had.

Just before the race started I remembered to grant GPS access to the London Marathon app on my phone, and got that put away just moments before we were called forward to start. At 09:40, the race had begun. I was surrounded by runners a little faster than me as I should really have been further back in wave 1 than as I was, so as a result I kept checking my watch to start with to make sure I wasn't overdoing it. Every time my speed crept up I'd look behind me to make sure there was space, and then slow down a little. One of the big surprises for me was how easy it was to move around at the start of this race - it was a completely different experience to the last time. I wasn't shoulder to shoulder with other runners, almost fighting for space. Just before the 3 mile marker we joined people from one of the other starts so it did get a little more crowded, and by mile 4 it was far more noticeable and needed a bit of planning of where to go to maintain pace. This only lasted for half a mile at best before it opened out again. I got through the first 5K in 20:51, with a pace that was putting me ahead of a sub-3:00 target.

I decided for the next 5K I needed to slow down a bit so deliberately slowed down when I was away from the bulk of the runners, but found whenever the blue line that marked the optimal route drifted over to where I was, my pace would pick up to match those around me. In the end I got through the 10K marker with a faster average pace. I even managed one mile in 6:25 - things were looking good! At this point the route was going through Greenwich, having already been through Charlton, and Woolwich. The support had been fantastic too - better than I remembered it being in 2015, but I also remembered that the bit through Southwark wasn't great. I passed a fellow #ukrunchat runner around this time, who I didn't catch the name of - it was amazing she was running this as she'd had some time out due to a broken hip!

There were points in the next few miles where I definitely recognised them from the Big Half, such as a couple of turns, and bridges. My plan was to slow down a little, and try to keep my pace around the 07:00 and drop it further if I had to in order to try and run the whole race without walking. Although getting a sub-3:00 would be nice, that wasn't the goal and I didn't want to push my luck. However, I didn't slow down for long, but I was starting to realise that I would need to stop at some point - not that long after eating the first jelly baby for fuelling, I needed the loo. So my plan was already out of the window. I was determined I wouldn't stop before the halfway point though, so I pushed on. When I reached Tooley Street I began to realise where I was, and that I'd soon be at Tower Bridge. It was a relief to see it, as I knew that not too long after crossing it I'd be at the halfway point and hopefully not too far from the loos.

Crossing Tower Bridge always feels like quite the experience, even in the Big Half, so I don't think it's just because of it's proximity to the halfway mark. As soon as I was off the bridge I started looking for a loo, and eventually saw a sign saying they were in 200 metres, but I never saw them. On the way it got to the point where I could see onto the other side, to where the elites would be doing around 22 miles. I concentrated on that for a while, and saw three of the female elites running past. Then I saw @katthekat75, the founder of racecheck, ahead of me so I thought to check my Racecheck visor but in that moment realised I'd forgotten it! I guess it was lucky she didn't see me, but I waved anyway. Not to worry, I knew Gary and Rose would be at mile 25 with the BHF so I'll wave to them.

I crossed the half-way point in 1:28:58. It wouldn't have been too good for me as a half marathon, but as the first half of a marathon it was very pleasing. My legs still felt good, my breathing was okay, and I'd long since settled into this pace (whenever I deliberately slowed down, I gradually drifted back to it). The need for the loo was getting uncomfortable though, and that got me to walk a little, hoping it'd help it subside. It was brief though, as I knew the sooner I got to the next mile marker, the sooner there would be some more. The next ones were around mile 14.

After several minutes of not moving, I then dashed back onto the course and tried to resume at my previous pace. This soon turned out to be a mistake as it didn't take long to realise I'd got a stitch. I tried to push on, thinking I could run it off, but after another mile I had to walk and wait for it to feel easier. I realised at this point that this was not going to go well. I ran when I could, but walked a lot, and for mile 16 onwards it really did show. On the isle of dogs I knew not to trust my watch as the GPS is often off when around there, and afterwards I could see just how bad the tracking around Canary Wharf was. When going through tunnels I tried to make sure I ran their entirety just to reduce the time that the tracking would be even worse for.

Sometime around mile 20 I was overtaken by two 3:00 pacers, and that was a reminder of how well I'd been doing, and how much things has changed. It was a few miles later I was overtaken by another 3:00 pacer who was carrying his flag in his hand so I guess it'd broken at some point on the course. It was quite a surprise how much distance there had been between them though so must have been from different start pens. I wasn't sure exactly when but I was overtaken by the 3:15 pacer as well, as you'd expect.

What I noticed though was that I was trying to remember sections of this route from when I'd run it before, but for the most part, I didn't really remember that much. There were places I'd remembered from having done the last few miles of the route for a training run once. This was after the point where you start to pass people that are coming off Tower Bridge. I think seeing runners in the opposite direction does provide some motivation, especially when you potentially know people that could be there.

There was another tunnel somewhere around mile 23, and it seemed someone wasn't in a good way. There was an ambulance there with people working on someone, and a long line of paramedics keeping people on one side of the tunnel. I later heard one of the participants had died, so my assumption was it was there. It's a reminder that this sport we all enjoy does carry some risk.

From Blackfriars to Westiminster this was an incredibly familiar part of the course, but I still couldn't get going. If anything, I was walking even more than I was before. I'd hoped to start running along Birdcage Walk and continue running until the end, but even then I couldn't quite make it. I walked some more, and walked past Bucking Palace as well, but then when I got running again this time I ran until the finish, picking up speed for this last little burst so I crossed the finish line at a 4:54/mi pace. I finished in 3:26:34, which was slower than the first time I'd done London in 2015.

It was a disappointing time, and even more so the reason the second half had felt so disappointing. I thought perhaps it wasn't too bad for an autumn marathon though as summer training is incredibly hard. When I looked closer though, even then there were three other autumn marathons that had been faster: Chicago, Amsterdam and York. It was just some bad luck though, and my hope now is that I can use this training and build from it to get a better result at Manchester in April 2023.

Once I'd got my medal I then got the finishers goodie bag which contained some water, and an oat snack. I didn't really feel like eating it yet as I needed salt instead. Now I'd have almost three hours of travel to get home…