2009 Flora London Marathon - Report
20th May 2009
Here's my report on the 2009 Flora London Marathon, initially written for our Club Newsletter, Springwell News.
It’s All About Numbers!!
Those of you who know me know that I am an accountant and although you can take the accountant out of the office and away from numbers, you can never take numbers away from an accountant, so even as I write this report on my experience of the 2009 Flora London Marathon, I just can’t get away from numbers.
Having obtained a club place the marathon, my training in earnest started in January and between then and 25 April, I ran 497 miles (thanks Garmin). Back in January, when the weather was cold and frosty, the end of April seemed a long way off, but before you could say Haile Gebrslelassie, winter was gone and my alarm sounded at 0500 on Friday 24 April. I left home at 0600 and boarded British Midland’s 0850 flight to Heathrow from George Best Belfast City Airport. The Piccadilly and Central lines of London Underground took me through 24 stations on route to St Paul’s station, where I found my hotel close by. Having settled in, I made my way via another 10 stations to the Excel Centre to register and pick up my race number – 26075 (a number I’ll never forget). The process at the Excel Centre went like clockwork and was a foretaste of the way this race is run – utter professionalism from start to finish. Having browsed the numerous trade stands at the Expo and indulged at the Pasta Party, I returned to my hotel on Ludgate Hill.
I know rest is important on the days leading up to a marathon, but London is a fantastic city and there is so much to see, so it was hard to rest up on Saturday, but I told myself I could do all the sightseeing I wanted (or would be fit to do) on Monday. After meeting up with Bryan Edgar for a short time in the morning, I settled down and read in the afternoon.
26/04/09. It’s 0615 and my alarm goes off, but I’m already awake as the excitement starts to build. A good breakfast and I’m ready to leave the hotel at 0730, having double, double, double (does that mean triple) checked that I have my race number pinned to my vest and my chip attached to my shoe with all 3 Tyvek strips (you can’t be two, sorry, too careful – see what I mean about numbers). St Paul’s tube station wasn’t too busy, but when I alighted at Tottenham Court Road to change to the Northern line, the sheer magnitude of this event started to kick in as almost everyone I could see was a competitor on their way to the start. This however, was nothing compared to Charing Cross station where I had to board a main line train to Blackheath. The Lammas Fair wouldn’t compare as everyone scrambled to get on the train. My packed train departed and although we stopped at Waterloo, London Bridge and Lewisham to be greeted with crowded platforms of nervous looking runners, we took off again with no new passengers (thank goodness, as I was beginning to appreciate what a sardine must feel like!) and they were left to wait for the next of many trains. We finally made it to Blackheath and shuffled our way off the platform and up the hill to the Blue starting area at 0845.
With only 1 hour left to the start, I got ready and took my kit bag to the relevant truck and queued for the toilets. Of course, I didn’t need to go at this point, but when I eventually reached the front (25 minutes later), the need was there! I then ate 1 energy bar and 2 gels (washed down with plenty of water) and quickly made my way over to pen 5 at the start area for 0935. At exactly 0945 the hooter rang out – and nothing happened for what seemed like a very long time, but in reality it was only about 20 seconds later that we started to move and at just after 0947 I crossed the start line. This was it – after 4 months of training, I was actually taking part in one of the World Marathon Majors. But hang on, 0.25 miles later, we stopped again. This was a momentary stop (I think the road narrowed slightly at this point) and we were quickly off again. I had a laugh to myself, wandering if someone had jumped the start and they were calling us back to the start – now that would test the organisers!
I had expected a large crowd of runners around me and knew the support at the side of the road would be second to none, but I didn’t realise how loud the spectators would be. At places it would be deafening and it was great to run through a couple of tunnels later on in the race to get some respite from the noise!
I settled into a nice pace as we made our way between Charlton Park and Woolwich Common, checking my pace with my Garmin, making sure I didn’t start off too fast. It would be very easy to get carried away at this stage, as I had been up for almost 4 hours and was raring to get running. As the Red start joined us just before the 3 mile marker, the spectators cheers were drowned out by the jeering and boos of the Blue and Green starters against the Red starters. Apparently this is traditional and very quickly, the cheering took over again as 36,000 runners made their way into Woolwich. 5k split – 27:09
The route took us through Charlton and support here was magnificent with bands playing, flags waving and kids holding out their hands for “high 5s”. Everything was going exactly as I wanted it to. Through 10k in 52:57 (25:48 for 5k).
We were now in the centre of Greenwich and rounded one of the first of the many famous sights of this course – Cutty Sark. Everything slowed up briefly here as people started waving to the overhead TV cameras. Still south of the river, we ran through Deptford and crossed the 15k marker in 1:18:51 (25:54 for 5k).
On through Bermondsey and towards Tower Bridge, another famous landmark on the course. As I approached Tower Bridge, I took up on and passed Iwan Thomas. Hang on a minute, I know he’s a 400 hundred metre runner, but I was running beside a Silver medal Olympian, a Silver medal winner in the World Championships and a Gold medal winner in the European Championships and Commonwealth Games – these are things that don’t normally happen to a boy frae tha toon! It was a great running over Tower Bridge, something I’ve always dreamed of as I watched the marathon over many years, not really thinking I would ever be part of it. We turned right and the first person I see running towards me (having completed 22 miles) was Abderrahim Goumri. How can someone run that fast over that distance - and he wasn’t even leading? Through 20k in 1:44:33 (25:42 for the last 5k). I crossed the half way mark in 1:50:13 and everything was still rosey.
Through Limehouse and on toward the Isle of Dogs. This part of the course passed by quite quickly and was uneventful apart from my Garmin starting to play up as it lost the satellite signal as we went underground at Westferry Circus. 25k was passed at 2:10:29 (25:56 for 5k).
Into Canary Wharf and the high temperatures were now starting to take effect. There wasn’t the same air circulating, or maybe this was just my mind telling me so. Once again, Garmin wasn’t helping as we zigzagged our way between the skyscrapers on the narrow streets, as it had bother keeping a signal. 30k was covered in 2:37:15 (26:46 for the last 5k).
I started to suffer from this point on and I slowed dramatically as my quads started to cramp up. I couldn’t understand it as I was well hydrated before the race and had been taking on plenty of fluids since the start. I was even taking my energy gels at the appropriate times and ducked into the showers at the roadside at every opportunity. I can only put it down to the heat on the day. I suppose the disadvantage of a spring marathon is that the majority of training is done in the cold winter months and the body is not used to running long distances at temperatures around 20 Celsius. Maybe I should have started a bit slower, but anyway, I put the head down and plugged on towards the City of London, meeting thousands of runners coming off Tower Bridge not even at the half-way stage as I reached 35k in 3:11:38 (a very slow 34:13 for my last 5k).
The end was now in sight (not literally – but I could picture The Mall in my mind having walked the final mile with Bryan on Saturday). At this point I was taking water and Lucozade Sport at every opportunity. I accepted jelly babies and orange segments (kindly offered by spectators – did I really look that bad!) and was determined to get to the finish line in under 4 hours. As we ran through the underpass at mile 24 at Blackfriars Bridge, I took up on another celebrity – Gordon Ramsay. He was suffering “big time” at this point with cramp and I offered him a word of encouragement as I passed by. Thankfully, he took it kindly and replied graciously (maybe he just keeps the foul language for the TV cameras). 40k was covered in 3:44:42 (again another slow 5k, taking 33:14).
The final push was a hard slog as I ran along Embankment and took the right hander at Big Ben and onto Birdcage Walk. That last 600 metres seemed to go on forever. I can’t even remember seeing Buckingham Palace (just the big sign telling me I had “just 385 yards to go”. I thought it would be funny if Her Majesty and Prince Philip were standing out on their balcony cheering us all on, but I was concentrating too much to look out for her. Hebrews 12 verse 1 of the Bible says “…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” and boy did I have to persevere for that last 385 yards.
I crossed the line in 3:59:10, slower than I had hoped for, but on reflection, I’m chuffed to bits to have broken the 4 hour mark in what I would describe as my hardest but most enjoyable race in my 3 year racing career. I finished in 10,266th place, being the 8,448th male and 1,628th in my age category. My chip was removed and I received my medal and then for some reason, the emotion of the whole event overtook me. I don’t know why, but I had trouble trying to hide the tears – good job I didn’t know anyone around me at that point. Baggage reclaim was as smooth as dropping it off in the morning (if only the airports were that good). I made my way back to my hotel for a well earned rest and some sleep. I found it hard eating that evening as I had no appetite, but with Garmin telling me I had used 3000 calories during the race, I knew I had to replace some of them.
I spent Monday sightseeing. Although my legs were heavy, thankfully I didn’t look half as bad as other people I saw hobbling around – you should have seen them tackling the stairs in the underground stations – now that was funny. I made my way back to Heathrow via the 24 stations and boarded the 1900 flight home.
As I said at the beginning, numbers fascinate me and here are some more from this year’s event that may interest you too – 750,000 bottles of water, 1250 toilets, 1500 first aid personnel (that’s one for every 30 yards), almost 36,000 runners starting with 35,257 finishing.
This is one event I know I’ll never forget. I never experienced spectator encouragement like it and I feel privileged to have represented Springwell Running Club and take this opportunity to thank the Club for all the advice and help given to me. My heartfelt thanks also goes to the Ballymoney gang for your help and persistence during our training runs – you know who you are and I couldn’t have done this without you.
Numbers – don’t you just love them – they can tell so much and remember, there are just 10 of them, unlike the alphabet which has 26 characters. Now, what calculations could you do if there were 26 numbers…
Here's a link for the publication in its entirety (www.springwellrunners.com/images/newsletters/newsletter%20may%2009a.pdf).
It’s All About Numbers!!
Those of you who know me know that I am an accountant and although you can take the accountant out of the office and away from numbers, you can never take numbers away from an accountant, so even as I write this report on my experience of the 2009 Flora London Marathon, I just can’t get away from numbers.
Having obtained a club place the marathon, my training in earnest started in January and between then and 25 April, I ran 497 miles (thanks Garmin). Back in January, when the weather was cold and frosty, the end of April seemed a long way off, but before you could say Haile Gebrslelassie, winter was gone and my alarm sounded at 0500 on Friday 24 April. I left home at 0600 and boarded British Midland’s 0850 flight to Heathrow from George Best Belfast City Airport. The Piccadilly and Central lines of London Underground took me through 24 stations on route to St Paul’s station, where I found my hotel close by. Having settled in, I made my way via another 10 stations to the Excel Centre to register and pick up my race number – 26075 (a number I’ll never forget). The process at the Excel Centre went like clockwork and was a foretaste of the way this race is run – utter professionalism from start to finish. Having browsed the numerous trade stands at the Expo and indulged at the Pasta Party, I returned to my hotel on Ludgate Hill.
I know rest is important on the days leading up to a marathon, but London is a fantastic city and there is so much to see, so it was hard to rest up on Saturday, but I told myself I could do all the sightseeing I wanted (or would be fit to do) on Monday. After meeting up with Bryan Edgar for a short time in the morning, I settled down and read in the afternoon.
26/04/09. It’s 0615 and my alarm goes off, but I’m already awake as the excitement starts to build. A good breakfast and I’m ready to leave the hotel at 0730, having double, double, double (does that mean triple) checked that I have my race number pinned to my vest and my chip attached to my shoe with all 3 Tyvek strips (you can’t be two, sorry, too careful – see what I mean about numbers). St Paul’s tube station wasn’t too busy, but when I alighted at Tottenham Court Road to change to the Northern line, the sheer magnitude of this event started to kick in as almost everyone I could see was a competitor on their way to the start. This however, was nothing compared to Charing Cross station where I had to board a main line train to Blackheath. The Lammas Fair wouldn’t compare as everyone scrambled to get on the train. My packed train departed and although we stopped at Waterloo, London Bridge and Lewisham to be greeted with crowded platforms of nervous looking runners, we took off again with no new passengers (thank goodness, as I was beginning to appreciate what a sardine must feel like!) and they were left to wait for the next of many trains. We finally made it to Blackheath and shuffled our way off the platform and up the hill to the Blue starting area at 0845.
With only 1 hour left to the start, I got ready and took my kit bag to the relevant truck and queued for the toilets. Of course, I didn’t need to go at this point, but when I eventually reached the front (25 minutes later), the need was there! I then ate 1 energy bar and 2 gels (washed down with plenty of water) and quickly made my way over to pen 5 at the start area for 0935. At exactly 0945 the hooter rang out – and nothing happened for what seemed like a very long time, but in reality it was only about 20 seconds later that we started to move and at just after 0947 I crossed the start line. This was it – after 4 months of training, I was actually taking part in one of the World Marathon Majors. But hang on, 0.25 miles later, we stopped again. This was a momentary stop (I think the road narrowed slightly at this point) and we were quickly off again. I had a laugh to myself, wandering if someone had jumped the start and they were calling us back to the start – now that would test the organisers!
I had expected a large crowd of runners around me and knew the support at the side of the road would be second to none, but I didn’t realise how loud the spectators would be. At places it would be deafening and it was great to run through a couple of tunnels later on in the race to get some respite from the noise!
I settled into a nice pace as we made our way between Charlton Park and Woolwich Common, checking my pace with my Garmin, making sure I didn’t start off too fast. It would be very easy to get carried away at this stage, as I had been up for almost 4 hours and was raring to get running. As the Red start joined us just before the 3 mile marker, the spectators cheers were drowned out by the jeering and boos of the Blue and Green starters against the Red starters. Apparently this is traditional and very quickly, the cheering took over again as 36,000 runners made their way into Woolwich. 5k split – 27:09
The route took us through Charlton and support here was magnificent with bands playing, flags waving and kids holding out their hands for “high 5s”. Everything was going exactly as I wanted it to. Through 10k in 52:57 (25:48 for 5k).
We were now in the centre of Greenwich and rounded one of the first of the many famous sights of this course – Cutty Sark. Everything slowed up briefly here as people started waving to the overhead TV cameras. Still south of the river, we ran through Deptford and crossed the 15k marker in 1:18:51 (25:54 for 5k).
On through Bermondsey and towards Tower Bridge, another famous landmark on the course. As I approached Tower Bridge, I took up on and passed Iwan Thomas. Hang on a minute, I know he’s a 400 hundred metre runner, but I was running beside a Silver medal Olympian, a Silver medal winner in the World Championships and a Gold medal winner in the European Championships and Commonwealth Games – these are things that don’t normally happen to a boy frae tha toon! It was a great running over Tower Bridge, something I’ve always dreamed of as I watched the marathon over many years, not really thinking I would ever be part of it. We turned right and the first person I see running towards me (having completed 22 miles) was Abderrahim Goumri. How can someone run that fast over that distance - and he wasn’t even leading? Through 20k in 1:44:33 (25:42 for the last 5k). I crossed the half way mark in 1:50:13 and everything was still rosey.
Through Limehouse and on toward the Isle of Dogs. This part of the course passed by quite quickly and was uneventful apart from my Garmin starting to play up as it lost the satellite signal as we went underground at Westferry Circus. 25k was passed at 2:10:29 (25:56 for 5k).
Into Canary Wharf and the high temperatures were now starting to take effect. There wasn’t the same air circulating, or maybe this was just my mind telling me so. Once again, Garmin wasn’t helping as we zigzagged our way between the skyscrapers on the narrow streets, as it had bother keeping a signal. 30k was covered in 2:37:15 (26:46 for the last 5k).
I started to suffer from this point on and I slowed dramatically as my quads started to cramp up. I couldn’t understand it as I was well hydrated before the race and had been taking on plenty of fluids since the start. I was even taking my energy gels at the appropriate times and ducked into the showers at the roadside at every opportunity. I can only put it down to the heat on the day. I suppose the disadvantage of a spring marathon is that the majority of training is done in the cold winter months and the body is not used to running long distances at temperatures around 20 Celsius. Maybe I should have started a bit slower, but anyway, I put the head down and plugged on towards the City of London, meeting thousands of runners coming off Tower Bridge not even at the half-way stage as I reached 35k in 3:11:38 (a very slow 34:13 for my last 5k).
The end was now in sight (not literally – but I could picture The Mall in my mind having walked the final mile with Bryan on Saturday). At this point I was taking water and Lucozade Sport at every opportunity. I accepted jelly babies and orange segments (kindly offered by spectators – did I really look that bad!) and was determined to get to the finish line in under 4 hours. As we ran through the underpass at mile 24 at Blackfriars Bridge, I took up on another celebrity – Gordon Ramsay. He was suffering “big time” at this point with cramp and I offered him a word of encouragement as I passed by. Thankfully, he took it kindly and replied graciously (maybe he just keeps the foul language for the TV cameras). 40k was covered in 3:44:42 (again another slow 5k, taking 33:14).
The final push was a hard slog as I ran along Embankment and took the right hander at Big Ben and onto Birdcage Walk. That last 600 metres seemed to go on forever. I can’t even remember seeing Buckingham Palace (just the big sign telling me I had “just 385 yards to go”. I thought it would be funny if Her Majesty and Prince Philip were standing out on their balcony cheering us all on, but I was concentrating too much to look out for her. Hebrews 12 verse 1 of the Bible says “…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” and boy did I have to persevere for that last 385 yards.
I crossed the line in 3:59:10, slower than I had hoped for, but on reflection, I’m chuffed to bits to have broken the 4 hour mark in what I would describe as my hardest but most enjoyable race in my 3 year racing career. I finished in 10,266th place, being the 8,448th male and 1,628th in my age category. My chip was removed and I received my medal and then for some reason, the emotion of the whole event overtook me. I don’t know why, but I had trouble trying to hide the tears – good job I didn’t know anyone around me at that point. Baggage reclaim was as smooth as dropping it off in the morning (if only the airports were that good). I made my way back to my hotel for a well earned rest and some sleep. I found it hard eating that evening as I had no appetite, but with Garmin telling me I had used 3000 calories during the race, I knew I had to replace some of them.
I spent Monday sightseeing. Although my legs were heavy, thankfully I didn’t look half as bad as other people I saw hobbling around – you should have seen them tackling the stairs in the underground stations – now that was funny. I made my way back to Heathrow via the 24 stations and boarded the 1900 flight home.
As I said at the beginning, numbers fascinate me and here are some more from this year’s event that may interest you too – 750,000 bottles of water, 1250 toilets, 1500 first aid personnel (that’s one for every 30 yards), almost 36,000 runners starting with 35,257 finishing.
This is one event I know I’ll never forget. I never experienced spectator encouragement like it and I feel privileged to have represented Springwell Running Club and take this opportunity to thank the Club for all the advice and help given to me. My heartfelt thanks also goes to the Ballymoney gang for your help and persistence during our training runs – you know who you are and I couldn’t have done this without you.
Numbers – don’t you just love them – they can tell so much and remember, there are just 10 of them, unlike the alphabet which has 26 characters. Now, what calculations could you do if there were 26 numbers…
Here's a link for the publication in its entirety (www.springwellrunners.com/images/newsletters/newsletter%20may%2009a.pdf).