27M incl London Marathon in 2h24m46s (30th)
It was nearly but not quite one of my great days today. I'm not where I might have been fitness-wise - my 70.48 half marathon at Reading nearly put me off racing altogether, but I wanted to run whatever.
I was really up for it at the start, though the business end of the marathon is so far away at that point it's almost irrelevant. I settled into a good rhythm and ran the first half comfortably with Andy Greenleaf setting the pace for Jonathan Poole and me as an extra passenger. We hit half way in 70.45ish and I was feeling good (yes, despite being faster than my eyeballs out Reading performance in March).
Where my run suffered was at 15 miles when I had stomach issues for a short period and I lost 20 metres on Jonathan and a group that had just joined us. I really fought to catch them, but they slowly got away, partly because I was still going through periodic patches where my breathing was out of sync. That left me alone for the last 10 miles, but with plenty of people to real in.
The wind was gently in our faces heading home and it kept me nice and cool. I kept it together ok, partly thanks to the fact I had been religiously drinking and taking gels according to my pre-race plan. I also managed to re-focus after my blip, get up an emotional head of steam and get properly in the one mile at a time, don't think beyond that, mode. I was passed by on guy on the Embankment, but otherwise was passing people all the way.
It must have been carnage higher up the British field. There were stacks of guys going through the early stages in what looked like 2.18 pace.
All in all, I think I should be pleased with a half-fit 2.24 and my highest ever London placing: 30th! Destiny, on my
30th running anniversary?
My plans from here? Some 10Ks to finish the Spring and then a really solid build-up to an Autumn marathon, either in Berlin or Amsterdam and another shot at sub-2.20.
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