My 1st and Only Full Marathon!

So, the first race I did, GNR 2006 had went pretty well all things considered. If I’d used some common sense back then I would have carried on running for 2 months.  Not any long runs; but just getting out 2 or 3 times a week and putting some miles in, letting the body get into a nice routine would have helped me a great deal come December when I planned to follow the official marathon training plan I had. You know, that plan I was meant to follow until a broken wrist meant deferring my marathon place by a year.  I did do a little bit of treadmill running from memory.  As the years have gone on, I’ve become fearless with my running and will run in any weather, at any time, wearing shorts and T-shirt.  No long sleeves for me. None of these running tights.  But in my early days of running, I would find any excuse not to run.  Too late, too cold, weather looks iffy, too dark, too tired etc.  How times and attitudes have changed.

So, I started my training just after Christmas and kept to it until I had to do longer runs and then I went into excuse mode.  I remember the weekend I should have done 18 miles doing 10 on the Saturday and just under 7 on the Sunday. I thought that would be OK! I had no issues with the shorter runs, loved the rest days of course but the long runs? Nope, any excuse to get out of them or cut them short.

I was still running in the pair of Adidas trainers I had bought from Vancouver the year before without testing, but they had served me well at the GNR. I had still not made any running friends and hadn’t found anyone I knew who had done the London marathon, or any marathon for that matter.  The one thing I did found easy to do as marathon day approached was the fundraising.  So many people were prepared to sponsor me and the company I worked for agreed to match £500 so I was in decent shape to hit my target of £2500. 

When I was asked about how the training was going, I’d say great.  It wasn’t a lie. I genuinely thought it was going really well.  I was focused on 12-minute miles which I was hitting with every run.  And with GNR I knew I could maintain it for at least half of the marathon.  I’d use the calculation of take your half time, double it and add 20 minutes or so to give me an expected London time of 5 hrs. 40.  I thought that I could do better so decided 5 hrs. 15 was my target.  As you’ll find out in subsequent weeks the first half dozen marathons showed that I just did not realise how ambitious that was for a non-runner who only ran for 12 to 16 weeks in training.

Again, I won’t bore you with the training (or lack of).  One of the things with London marathon is having to go and pick your race number up.  For someone who lives in the Midlands, the easiest thing was to go down on Saturday and pick it up in person.  At the time, and possibly still now, Holiday Inn was one of the partners of the London marathon.  If you stayed at one of their hotels you were guaranteed a coach journey to the start. That was one of the reasons that I booked a Holiday Inn. 

As I had decided to drive down (that would come back to haunt me), I picked a Holiday Inn next to the M4 at Heathrow airport. I didn’t want to stay central if I was driving down and it was a good spot to drive back home from.  It would prove to be a poor choice of locations for me.  What I had not factored in was the journey from the finish all the way back to my hotel.  Especially given how I would feel when I completed that marathon.  Again, I believe I had a rose-tinted glasses outlook on how I would feel at the finish.  I knew I’d be tired and bit sore but that having a Mars Bar, a sandwich and something to drink would see me all right.  Yes, I really did believe that. I kid thee not.

So, I drove down to the Excel on Saturday 21^st April 2007 and got there at just about 10am.  I planned to get my number, wonder round and then drive over to the hotel for an afternoon check in.  This was before the congestion charge.  I was overwhelmed by the number of people there, all the exhibitions, the big brands, the excitement etc.  All I remember is I didn’t buy any kit.  After all I planned to do the marathon and never run again!  I do remember getting the pacing bands that Lucozade were giving out as well as one of their little bundles.  This was a time when I’d drink a bottle of Lucozade sport after every training run.  I really believed it was that important a drink to have.  I had no idea about gels, eating during a run or anything like that.

I remember driving through central London, not a great idea on a Saturday but the next day I would realise I had driven along some of the course particularly down by the embankment.  What did I do at the hotel? No idea.  Watched TV, read a book, ate and rested.  I think I got a decent night’s sleep.  On race day I had breakfast and then stood outside for the coach with a few other runners.  I remember the coach journey to the start. More runners were picked up along the way and I was a bag of nerves by the time we got to the start.  I was in the red start; it was a warm day but there were trees providing shade.

I had my bottle of Lucozade Sport as I stood on the start line.  I was really nervous now.  I listened to other runners talking, I smiled at those that spoke to me.  I struggled to speak.  I noticed just like the GNR that most runners had their names on their T-shirts.  I did not but more on that in a bit.  I was wearing a technical T-shirt and had plasters on my nipples! Chafing in a half marathon was bad, I could only imagine what a full would do! Over the T-shirt I wore my Oxfam running vest.  I wasn’t comfortable just wearing the vest. I was still very body conscious at the time.  On the big screen we could see the race had started.  As we started to walk towards the start the nerves and the fear were joined by excitement.  This was it!  I was about to run a marathon!  The guy next to me wished me luck.  I managed to do the same.  And then?  We were off. 

I mentioned last week about vivid memories from all my races so here are the things I remember clearly about London Marathon 2006.

As we got past the park a lot of male runners went charging off to the left to relieve themselves.  Thankfully, one of the few things I got right that day was going for a call of nature as late as possible.  I wasn’t looking to sneak up the starting pens and was happy to take my place wherever.  So, I was able to run carefree to begin with.  The fear had gone, some nerves were still there.  My focus was to split the race in 2.  Get to halfway and then get to the finish.  My strategy Is different these days, but it was that simple back then.

I could tell I had an adrenaline rush.  I remember the support, the smiles on all the runners faces.  Why not?  We were running London marathon after all.  Remember my target time? 5 hrs. 15.  I got to mile 5 in 53 minutes!!  Way too fast.  The fastest I had ever run.  I knew at mile 1 I was going too fast, but it was at about mile 8 I finally did the sensible thing and slowed down.  Did I slow down, or did I get slower?  The latter. The difference?  I kidded myself that I’d made the decision to ease off.  The reality is that my body couldn’t cope with the pace. I got to halfway, just over Tower Bridge in about 2 hours 50.  I’d walked for about 1km to try and kickstart myself.  You can see the loss of time over the course of 8 miles.  I’d started to get knee pain.

Up to mile 18 I used a run walk strategy.  The pain was getting worse.  And the big issue was my trainers.  They were too worn out.  They were also not at least half a size bigger than my normal shoes.  Apparently that was a thing as well.  You’re running shoes should be a half or full size bigger due to swelling feet.  The things I learnt the hard way. I stopped at mile 19 to speak to a St Johns Ambulance volunteer.  They asked me to take my trainers off.  I knew if that happened it was race over.  So  I rested for a while, elevated my feet and then carried on.  The pain in my left knee was unbearable but I had to see this out.  Didn’t I?  The crowd kept me going.  That was one of the big factors in me hobbling to the finish.  The shouts of “Come on Monty,” in particular made me smile.  Monty Panesar was a Sikh cricketer at the time, part of the England test team. So, with no name on my T-shirt for people to read, the crowd got inventive.  “Go for it Mr. Singh,” was also popular as was “Well done the Bearded man!”

The last 7 miles is a blur to me.  A common feature of my first four London marathons is that I didn’t pay any attention to the route.  Crossing Tower Bridge always stands out as does the finish, but not much else.  By the time I saw the 26-mile marker I was close to tears, but I was so close now.  I managed to jog over the line.  The relief. Oh, the relief.  When the medal was put round my neck and the person congratulated me, I just hugged them.  It was over.  The pain was too much but I limped to collect my bag and I swear I had a massive grin on my face.  I’d done it.  I had completed the marathon.  It definitely wasn’t pretty, it hurt far too much, I was so hungry; I’d only drank going round apart from a couple of slices of oranges I’d nabbed.  That Mars Bar tasted so good!

I think I went to the Oxfam post-race get together for about an hour.  I must have as I remember when I eventually started my journey back to my hotel, I wasn’t hungry, but I was in pain.  It was a relief to get back to the hotel.  I grabbed food at Heathrow airport, got to my room, showered, fell asleep, woke up, ate, and slept a good sleep.  I could barely walk the next day and every time I pressed the clutch on that drive home was agony! 

The ballot was open for the next years marathon.  I did not enter the ballot.  There was no way I would ever run a marathon again.  Or run, walk it if I’m being honest.  I didn’t even plan to do a half again.  The pain was not worth it.  Yes, I had undertrained.  Yes I should have got better trainers.  Yes, I had gone off way too fast.  Yes I had given no thought to my. eling strategy.  Yes, the 2^nd half of the race was a long, drawn-out nightmare.  But I had completed a marathon and there was no need for me to ever do it again!

My finishing time, you ask.  6 hours 33 minutes and 45 seconds.  Over 1 hr. 15 off my over-confident prediction of what I was capable of and almost 1 hour slower than the expected time based on my GNR performance.  So a bit of a fail in terms of time.  It took a while for the pain to go away.  But I had done a marathon.  That was what I clung on to.  I didn’t analyze the splits provided by the official timing initially. But then I did.  And a few months later, about July, I decided that I didn’t want my 1 marathon to be such a terrible experience. I could do better. I would do better.  I had to do better.

I’d missed the ballot, so I registered an interest with 3 charities and one of them offered me a place for the 2008 London marathon.  They were impressed that I had raised over £3,000 for Oxfam with my first race.  I was proud of that.  I had nailed the fundraising.  But now I wanted to nail the marathon and run that time of 5 hrs. 15 I believed I was capable of.

So, London marathon 2008 would become my 2^nd full marathon after only planning to do 1.  I’ll nail the time and then that will be it for me and running!  That’s what I told myself.

So how did I prepare for 2008?  How did it go?  Did I do races in the build up to it? I’ll let you know in 2 weeks.  Next weeks blog will be the first in another series I want to do called Let’s Talk About….  I’ll pick specific things I want to concentrate on.  The first on will be about Runsome.

My Journey to 100m will be back in 2 weeks, the day after I complete…. My first full marathon of 2022!

Any questions? Please fire them over to me.