And so it ends

After the trials of the previous few days, it felt like victory in itself to get to Blackheath on marathon morning.

We'd been down the night before, and after an easy day enjoying London and our hotel's amenities, an early night and a good nights sleep was an excellent way to finish off the taper.

So I stood in the pen as the race was due to start feeling optimistic for a good race. Even the forecasted high temperatures had been dampened by a rain shower just before the off.

I bumped into fellow Harrier Jon Sinclair at the start and it was nice to see a familiar face and have a bit of banter. We were less than 100m from the elite when the race started, and were across the start line in about 20secs, so good omens for not just a sub-3 on chip time, but also on gun time.

First mile was very steady as the mass of people around me limited my pace, but by miles 2 and 3 was able to pick it up slightly with a bit of clearer running. Through miles 4 and 5 I had settled into marathon pace, and then focussed on locking into this.

Because I hadn't run (or even walked much) for 5 days nursing my sprained ankle, I wasn't feeling completely natural in my running - I was telling myself that my body was just getting warmed up again and I would be soon running more fluidly.

I now was starting to knock out some really consistent miles. The 6 miles from 5-10, were all run within 6 seconds of each other.  This was really pleasing, but two things were starting to trouble me. My HR was high and I couldn't get it below 180 (90% max). Also I was incredibly hot. It was quite humid after the rain and I could really feel it - I always suffer in humid conditions. At every mile I would take a bottle of water, drink a quarter of it and use the rest to try and cool my head, back and legs down. It seemed to be helping.

At around this time I caught Dave McGuire, a local Virgin Active runner who I knew from other local races. He too was aiming for 3hrs and had formed a nice group who he was organising well and encouraging everyone along. My aim was now to stay in this group.

But as we approached Tower Bridge at about half-way, I started to lose contact, and steadily dropped a metre or two. And then 3, 5 and 10. I decided not to work overly hard to stay with them so tried to settle back into my own pace.

From this point, things started to get worse and worse. I felt like I normally feel when I've run 20 miles. Turning right over Tower Bridge I made the conscious decision to forget 3 hours and to re-adjust my target to 3.15 (the good-for-age time).

But every stride was getting harder and harder now, and my pace was dropping all the time. At around mile 15 I had to stop and walk. I was hoping a little breather would re-invigorate me, but it was not the case. I could barely get started again.

The next 11 miles were not so much painful, but more an "out-of-body" experience. It was as if my legs were no longer connected to the rest of my body. I was fully expecting to get this in the last couple of miles, but not with 11 to go!

At least I could take in some of the sights and sounds of the VLM. I was having to run for a quarter or half mile at a time and then stop and walk. I took sweets and oranges from the spectators, waved back to the crowds, and experienced what it must be like for the fun-runners and charity people competing.

I eventually finished in 3.46.

I was pleased that I managed to finish, and wore my finishers medal and t-shirt proudly all day.

Despite this blog and my training been geared to achieving that sub-3 time in my first marathon, it has as much been about the journey to the finish line from when I first entered the ballot 12 months ago. The ups and downs, the successes and heartaches.

I'm oddly not too disappointed.

I guess if I am going for a fast time again I will need to understand what I did wrong, but there is plenty of time for that. And if it just that I'm not built to run marathons then that's fair enough, there are plenty more things to do in life.

But sitting here now, I think I will have another go at one.

Well done to all finishers yesterday, whatever time you finished in.  Maybe see you out there again some time!

Garmin details here

Summary of splits:

Split Time Avg HR
1 07:15 179
2 06:36 173
3 06:25 175
4 06:31 177
5 06:46 179
6 06:44 182
7 06:46 182
8 06:48 182
9 06:49 182
10 06:50 182
11 06:55 181
12 06:59 181
13 07:03 181
14 07:14 178
15 07:46 174
16 08:39 169
17 09:01 161
18 10:14 153
19 10:52 154
20 12:27 139
21 11:17 144
22 10:55 144
23 10:45 148
24 07:54 152
25 13:57 140
26 12:12 143
27 04:33 146
Summary 03:46:28 163