6 weeks into the 16 week training plan for the London Marathon and very pleased with how it is going so far. I actually feel like there’s noticeable improvement in my endurance. It’s miles better than the (with the benefit of hindsight inadequate) training plan I followed when I did the Birmingham Marathon in 2017.
Did a 21 miler with a couple of big hills on Christmas Day. Took a few weeks to get that out of my legs, but it made me think I ought to be capable of a three hour marathon. So rather than going through the hassle of signing up for one I thought I'd measure one myself (in amateur fashion) and wait for a day when it wasn't windy, my wife wasn't busy, etc. That turned out to be today. My time was 2:56:56, but let's face it my measurement was nowhere near accurate enough to be dealing in seconds. I ran slightly over 0.4 miles extra before my watch reached three hours, so I'm satisfied I can claim a sub three hour marathon. Don't particularly fancy doing another one.I had my kid pass me a cup of water just beyond halfway. Once I had consumed about a quarter of the water and inadvertently poured the rest on myself I tried to put it into a bin as I was passing, but it fell out. I felt sufficiently socially conscious to go back, pick it up and put it in the bin which cost me a few seconds. Repeating that move would take me about a minute at my current stiffness level though!
Did my second marathon on Sunday in Barcelona and acheived my goal of sub 3, with a net time of 2:56:59. Really good route and support, would definitely reccomend if anyone is looking to do one abroad in the future. Looking to book another one for the autumn if anyone has any reccomendations. Good luck running London next month Richard. It's a brilliant day, you'll love it.
So an ultrarunner jumped in a car because she was lost, sore and couldn't continue, got out at a checkpoint. Continued to run another 20 odd miles after being too sore to continue because a Marshall stated she would regret it. Came in 3rd, accepted the medal, had podium pictures taken and then left. For all her "it was the heat of the moment", according to the rightful 3rd place person, she uploaded her data with the pictures of her 3rd place as well and it was only analysis of the data from others that she was actually found out several days later.
Well that’s buggered my strategy for Sunday then.