Running

I actually backed off on the gels today after the south mimms incident. I think I had 8 or 9 gels today. It was good running weather today.

Awesome.

P.s. did your clubmate have a balloon strapped to him? #pacer

8 or 9 still chancing it I reckon!

I ran early doors & thought it was perfect racing weather up here too.

Yes, and now I feel very guilty for joking about it as they had a rather tough day of it in the rather adverse conditions.

Whoops.

It's all ok so long as you didn't rub it in at the finish I guess?!

Of course not, very supportive and congratulatory - they're my mate after all! I'm just a daft twat for being self-conscious about the prospect of being beaten by a friend.

London Marathon yesterday went pretty much exactly to plan, official time of 3:29:14 which I'm pretty pleased with given my previous PB of just under 4 hours. Got a hand shake from Richard Branson at the finish line.

Someone posted in this thread several years ago (I think) about how London wasn't for them and they didn't enjoy running in the crowded streets and the noise from the supporters was too much. Well I'm inclined to agree. For the first 10 miles or so I found the crowd great but then I just tried to zone out a bit and relax into the section through the Isle of Dogs (for me not the most enjoyable or interesting section) but there's only so many times you can have a whistle blown what feels like right in your ear before it grates a little. I found from about mile 18 just wanted the space and peace to run my own race but got neither.
I think I've just gotten used to going out on my own and enjoying the scenery in some peace and quiet!

That said the crowd are awesome. So many people turn out to cheer on random strangers, handing out sweets, high fives and general encouracement. The atmosphere is great. Particular highlights for me were all the live bands around the course but especially the drummers in the underpass, the MASSIVE run dem supporter section (very impressive to see so many from one club), and anyone with an original sign - "You're running better than the government"and "Naked cheerleaders next mile" are two that stick in the mind.

Having run London in 2018 and 6 other more rural marathons in addition , I am inclined to agree. London is pretty cool and I'm glad I did it but it all was a bit much towards the end and it's not the sort of course you can easily get a pb on imo.

In contrast my marathon in Stratford upon Avon yesterday couldn't have been more different. Pockets of support, water stations where needed, and Marshalls dotted about, but for long periods of time it's just you, a few other runners, and beautiful countryside.

Quality effort, and a great PB! I can imagine that crowds of that scale could grate after a while - but you've ticked it off the list now - maybe onto quieter pastures?

Sounds like hill climbs....
Or the last 30 seconds of a hill climb but for a lot fucking longer.

Congrats on a massive PB!
When I did London a few years ago I almost certainly posted to say how much I hated the crowds and the noise from the supporters - having since moved to China where people shout in my face all day long I've decided that I'm probably more acclimatised to it, so I entered the ballot for next year. And in the meantime I will stick to trail races, where ideally I will see no one for 3 hours.

No daft twattishness at all imo... better to race your friends than a bunch of strangers... I almost always pick someone I know in a race to chase or try stay ahead of, I don't tell them about it do they never know but for me it helps me get into race mode.

Stratford upon Avon

Ah, memories of the loneliness of the railway path / greenway at the end of both laps, especially when the legs were shot to bits!

I never lost the weight I wanted to (I was 93kg yesterday, had wanted to be <80kg) so it was always going to be a long day. Got through half way inside 5h pace and feeling good but felt my right hip flexor start to go in Canary Wharf so I walked the last 13km to avoid shredding it to pieces.

That said the crowd are awesome.

If I get to do it again I definitely won't have my name on my vest, that would sort out some of the over-the-top enthusiasm from the crowd. Like the others above, it's amazing, but a bit too much for my liking.

I avoided most of the sweets being offered on the way round, if I hadn't I'd probably be running for Diabetes UK next year.

(Back to the weight loss thread to sort myself out properly.)

Thanks everyone! To be clear I'm not trying to have a moan that a big event is busy. It's really quite a spectacle and very impressive and inspiring to be running with 42,000 other people of all abilities, shapes and sizes.

@princeperch - agree it's not easy to get a good time, I found myself held up a lot throughout the race but especially toward the end. I sped up some point during mile 18 with the aim of going about 30s a mile faster until the end. Legs felt like they could keep it up but the crowds made it really hard to maintain a consistent pace and I don't want to be a dick to people or ruin anyone's day by tripping them up so ended up slowing a lot. Only really go going for the last 2 miles once you hit the Embankment and the road is much wider.

Just saw your Strava record this morning. Hope you're feeling ok today.

I didn't have my name on my vest but one thing I've learned is there are a lot of people with the same name as me! I heard what sounded like personal encouragement so many times it had me checking my number to make sure it wasn't on there.

R.E. weight loss, I've never lost body fat as fast as I have over the past 3 months. Hard intervals and tempo runs are what worked for me. The other benefit being you'll be able to run faster too!

Thanks, I'm fine. I'd long since resigned myself to the fact that I hadn't lost the weight and so any attempt at sub-4h was long gone (I need to be under 80kg to give that a proper go) and so Sunday was just about getting round[1]. I'm happy that I managed to 'run' for 2/3 of it rather than having to walk the whole thing (although I probably wouldn't have started if I couldn't run at all).

Hip feels ok this morning and have tried it out with some stretches using resistance bands. Looks like stopping running the moment I felt it tweak seems to have paid off and I might be ok for gentle running when the rest of my mind/body has recovered from the marathon, if I'd have tried to carry on running I could have fucked myself properly for weeks/months.

1. I'm 2/3 of the way to the London Classics medal now (having done Swim Serpentine 2 mile swim twice already). Just Ride 100 to go when I get a place (no luck in the ballot this year) and that's not going to be a struggle given my long distance cycling background.
   

R.E. weight loss, I've never lost body fat as fast as I have over the past 3 months. Hard intervals and tempo runs are what worked for me. The other benefit being you'll be able to run faster too!

That's my plan when I get back in to running. Bin the long runs and go for the same weekly distance spread out over more runs. Intervals Tuesday. Y4/Y5 school running club on a Wednesday. Run commute Friday (HM commute once a month). Parkrun Saturday sometimes. 10k tempo-ish Sunday. If I get back to that soon, keep it up and make it into a routine, then I'll be in a lot better state come December when longer runs would need to be added for the marathon. That should also gently start to bring my weight down and pace up.

Congratulations. Top pb running.

Folks. I'm doing a half marathon in September, I started from no running late last year and had shin splints (cleared up now).
Someone at work reckons I should be running 10 miles at least now but I'm at 6. I did the couch to half 12 week thing from the run website and now I'm just slowly ticking my distance up by a mile every few weeks.

Just a bit concerned I'm not gonna finish.

Plenty of time. You'll be fine if it's in September, that's more than enough time to go up from 6 miles. Keep the increases slow and steady to avoid injury.

For example, here's Bupa's beginner half marathon training plan. It's 12 weeks (so starting in June) and the prerequisite is doing just 5k (in under 40 minutes):-

https://assets.bupa.co.uk/~/media/images/healthmanagement/pdfs/half-marathon-beginner.pdf

Given that you're way ahead of that schedule.

(plenty of other training plans exist)

Someone at work reckons I should be running 10 miles at least now but I'm at 6

Ignore your colleague. You have plenty of time to build up the distance and it sounds like you are taking the right approach in adding a mile every couple of weeks. 10 miles is a big mental barrier for a lot of people but once you are running double figure distances another mile or two often doesn't seem so daunting.

@hats just went looking for your post from a few years ago and found a post from @kl with some wise words:

a massively congested trudge through some of the grimmest parts of town

Somehow still [type 2] fun though :)

Someone at work reckons I should be running 10 miles at least now

This is bollocks. Don't worry.