It's been one month since London Marathon, and I am finally putting some words together to describe my experience there (procrastinating much?)
Ever since completing Chicago in the Fall of 2016, I knew I want to try to run all 6 Major Marathons. London is my absolute most favorite city in the world, so I had to run it as soon as possible.
London is SO competitive to get into. I don't know if I will be ever able to run a 3.15 marathon (that's the championship time cut-off), and lottery chances are very very slim. So I decided to look for a charity to run London marathon with, and I found an organization named The Outward Bound Fund which helps kids from underprivileged backgrounds re-connect with life through nature. They organize trips and hikes and kayaking and other wilderness expeditions which I thought was a very cool way to help kids with. The people I worked with from the Fund have been nothing but lovely, so I am very happy with finding this great organization.
My friend Yordan travelled to London with me, and we made it into a vacation post-run. The marathon was so crowded though, we did not see each other on the course. The meet and greet areas at the end was very easy to navigate through though, so we reunited there :)
I came to London on Wednesday morning, 4 full days before the marathon, so that I would get rid of my jet leg and change the time zones properly. I think I arrived a bit too early :) I was ready to run the marathon on Saturday.
On Friday night, I realized I am not feeling that great, and that I caught a cold or something. Not the best way to prepare for the marathon, so I knew I have to be realistic about my chances of a PR on Sunday. I knew I will absolutely for sure RUN and FINISH. I did not train and travel half way across the world to let something as small and insignificant as cold stop me...
We stayed in Greenwich (which is an absolutely lovely area, and I have never been there before on all my visits to London), so that I could walk to the marathon start line. The morning of the DAY arrived, and after forcing some breakfast, I went to the Greenwich Park.
The day was WAY much warmer than I wanted. Ironically, this turned out to be the warmest day out of all my stay in London, when it would have been nice to have the temperatures lower... After the gun went off, it took me 8 minutes to get through the start line. I was smarter than in my first marathon and remembered that I need to subtract 8 minutes from all clocks I later encountered during the race.
I grabbed water and Lucozade (which I practiced drinking on my runs prior to marathon) on every aid station since it was so warm. My watch dies on mile 3, which was not helpful, and I started tracking my time by the pace wrist band I picked up from the Expo (super helpful) and the clocks at kilometer markers. I had the 3.55 pace band on me.
Overall, I started feeling kind of crappy at mile 16, which is much earlier than I expected. But that was my cold acting out, not me hitting the wall. I tried to stay focus and kept on telling myself "HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT" (my main "want" was to get under 4 hours) and just kept on pushing through.
You can see that I am still smiling at mile 23.5. That's a win in my books :-) I did not slow down or stopped to walk at all, I felt much stronger than in my first marathon, so it was great to see that my hard work is paying off.
I finished in 3 hours and 56 minutes, shaving off 6 minutes off my Chicago time from 6 months ago. I met two of my goals: PR and under 4 hours, but I honestly thought I would be able to pull something off closer to 3.45 (next time!)
We finished the day with reception organized by The Outward Bound Trust in this awesome location.
Everyone clapped when me and my friend walked in. It was great to feel like a superstar for a minute or so :-)
In short:
YAY:
- I Ran London! I always wanted to do a race in my favorite city
- I improved my time and pushed through, even though my body was not 100% well
NAY:
- Marathon was SO crowded. I don't know if I should have cheated and stated my expected finish time to be much faster, but I always, for all 26.2 miles, had to fight through crowds and that's kind of energy draining
NEXT STOP --> BERLIN :-)
Ever since completing Chicago in the Fall of 2016, I knew I want to try to run all 6 Major Marathons. London is my absolute most favorite city in the world, so I had to run it as soon as possible.
London is SO competitive to get into. I don't know if I will be ever able to run a 3.15 marathon (that's the championship time cut-off), and lottery chances are very very slim. So I decided to look for a charity to run London marathon with, and I found an organization named The Outward Bound Fund which helps kids from underprivileged backgrounds re-connect with life through nature. They organize trips and hikes and kayaking and other wilderness expeditions which I thought was a very cool way to help kids with. The people I worked with from the Fund have been nothing but lovely, so I am very happy with finding this great organization.
My friend Yordan travelled to London with me, and we made it into a vacation post-run. The marathon was so crowded though, we did not see each other on the course. The meet and greet areas at the end was very easy to navigate through though, so we reunited there :)
I came to London on Wednesday morning, 4 full days before the marathon, so that I would get rid of my jet leg and change the time zones properly. I think I arrived a bit too early :) I was ready to run the marathon on Saturday.
On Friday night, I realized I am not feeling that great, and that I caught a cold or something. Not the best way to prepare for the marathon, so I knew I have to be realistic about my chances of a PR on Sunday. I knew I will absolutely for sure RUN and FINISH. I did not train and travel half way across the world to let something as small and insignificant as cold stop me...
We stayed in Greenwich (which is an absolutely lovely area, and I have never been there before on all my visits to London), so that I could walk to the marathon start line. The morning of the DAY arrived, and after forcing some breakfast, I went to the Greenwich Park.
The day was WAY much warmer than I wanted. Ironically, this turned out to be the warmest day out of all my stay in London, when it would have been nice to have the temperatures lower... After the gun went off, it took me 8 minutes to get through the start line. I was smarter than in my first marathon and remembered that I need to subtract 8 minutes from all clocks I later encountered during the race.
I grabbed water and Lucozade (which I practiced drinking on my runs prior to marathon) on every aid station since it was so warm. My watch dies on mile 3, which was not helpful, and I started tracking my time by the pace wrist band I picked up from the Expo (super helpful) and the clocks at kilometer markers. I had the 3.55 pace band on me.
Overall, I started feeling kind of crappy at mile 16, which is much earlier than I expected. But that was my cold acting out, not me hitting the wall. I tried to stay focus and kept on telling myself "HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT" (my main "want" was to get under 4 hours) and just kept on pushing through.
You can see that I am still smiling at mile 23.5. That's a win in my books :-) I did not slow down or stopped to walk at all, I felt much stronger than in my first marathon, so it was great to see that my hard work is paying off.
I finished in 3 hours and 56 minutes, shaving off 6 minutes off my Chicago time from 6 months ago. I met two of my goals: PR and under 4 hours, but I honestly thought I would be able to pull something off closer to 3.45 (next time!)
We finished the day with reception organized by The Outward Bound Trust in this awesome location.
Everyone clapped when me and my friend walked in. It was great to feel like a superstar for a minute or so :-)
In short:
YAY:
- I Ran London! I always wanted to do a race in my favorite city
- I improved my time and pushed through, even though my body was not 100% well
NAY:
- Marathon was SO crowded. I don't know if I should have cheated and stated my expected finish time to be much faster, but I always, for all 26.2 miles, had to fight through crowds and that's kind of energy draining
NEXT STOP --> BERLIN :-)
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