Running

Hats, hard one. Hugs from us.

Sorry to hear it hats, fingers crossed things go more smoothly next time. Rest up and don't be hard on yourself

I'm up, think my gel from mile 12 just kicked in.

They'll have had a nice day out regardless and will no doubt understand. Rest & recover now, come back stronger for next time.

Don't be hard on yourself. It's a cliché, but better to have tried and failed that to have not tried at all.

I would like to heartily recommend the Orpington Marafun to anyone for next year. Mara/half/10km, cheap and extremely cheerful, water stations and marshalls every mile (very necessary in Saturday's weather) and raising money for street children in Kenya.

Good luck on the next mara @hats , whenever that will be.

It feels like my form is returning after marathon and a few injuries. A 5mi tempo run at 7min/mi felt easy, despite doing a tough 25mi time trial yesterday :)

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/36246968

I race in flatter shoes than my training shoes - for race NB Zantes.
But I have custom foot beds that I put in all my running shoes so the difference between shoes isn't as marked as it could be

Flats or cushioned shoes for a marathon?

I've run 20 milers offroad in what are practically flats and I'm not sure it's an experience I'd repeat on the roads for 3+ hours.

I think marathon distance I would prioritise comfort and familiarity over the potential speed benefit. That said, IANARR.

Use whatever shoes you've been using for the past 6months.

That's assuming I have been doing any running over the past six months!

I'll use my GT-2000's I guess.

Use whatever shoes you've been using for the past 6months.

Kitten heeled Blahniks, daaaahling.

A record number of 253,930 UK applicants have registered for a ballot place in the 2017 London Marathon

!

For, what, 10,000? places that go to the great unwashed masses (i.e. people not on GFA or charity places)?

1 in 25. Woo.

Either run fast enough for a GFA or go and do another marathon. There are hundreds of them. This obsession with the London mara is seriously tedious - a massively congested trudge through some of the grimmest parts of town with a crowd that's bored cheering after the 2h40 guys have passed.

Wonder how many of the 200+k who don't get in will actually do a different race instead?

Yeah, but bucket list. Innit.

That may be your experience. I disagree entirely.

I just want to finally have an answer for when non runners say "oh you're a runner have you done the London marathon?".

When I don't get in the ballot I'll be targeting gfa at MK I think. Whether I can run 3:05 is another matter entirely.

this might be of interest to the marathoners amongst you......
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1031317850274402/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007H9HFX2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

I read this before I ran london 2 years ago. terribly written and extremely self indulgent on the authors part but contains a lot of insight into the members of the 100 club and their motivations.

made me realise the marathon distance isn't some mythical number of miles that is at the edge of human capability, it's an arbitrary number and a lot of people regularly run it with little to no regard of it's so-called importance. once I understood that I knew it was just a matter of getting used to running enough and took all the fear out of it for me.

then on crossing the finish line I was in the funnel to get my chip taken off stood next to a woman in a 100 club t-shirt, I told her the above and that it really helped me with my nerves in the run up to the race and her response "oh well, I'm only a new member really, I've ONLY done 102 marathons" in the most humble way possible. I can't help but respect that.

100 Club are a nice bunch - generally chat to them at smaller races when they're trying to get the numbers up. There were a couple of guys at Orpington on Sat, one is doing 120 maras this year, another is doing 200.

They don't often seem to race though, it's all about bagging the numbers, not the times.

Edit - just googled the guy who's doing 120 this year. Not much online presence, but apparently in 2004 he was the English record holder for maras completed - with 590! Lord knows what total he's on now...

I'd aim for sub 3.

From experience- missing GFA by seconds because they change the time required the day after the race hurts a lot- especially when you were coasting in feeling confident you'd made the cut. (and the GFA for London is still on the generous side compared to others world wide).
It stopped me entering another marathon for a bit, if I'm honest. And still kinda hurts now.

I'd like to push for Boston Qualifying time now, but we'll have to see how that goes.

made me realise the marathon distance isn't some mythical number of miles that is at the edge of human capability, it's an arbitrary number and a lot of people regularly run it with little to no regard of it's so-called importance.

This is interesting. I've realised that I'm really terrified of the distance - I really don't believe I can do it. I know it's a totally random distance and I know that loads of people do it every weekend... but I have the fear. And the fear has really been fed by Sunday's DNF.