Better late than never! Here’s the first half of my 2006 Flora London Marathon report.
Despite my best efforts I was late to the start as usual. This time it was the toilet queue. I thought queuing up for the toilet almost an hour in advance of the start would be safe timing… an hour later I was jogging to the start line, 2 minutes after the race had started. I jumped in as near to the front as I could and crossed the line about five minutes into the race. It was not the most composed start ever but I am getting used to bad starts.
The first few miles went incredibly quickly… I can hardly remember them! There was obviously a fair bit of dodging and weaving but at least the roads were nice and wide. I cruised along, enjoying the atmosphere, the music blaring out from the pubs, the crowds shouting my name… I even indulged in a few high fives with kids who where sticking their hands out into the stream of runners.
After a few miles I was able to go my own pace without people getting in my way. I reached the 10km mark in 42 minutes… perfect! I was on target for a good time, I still felt fresh and the crowd I was with were running at a good pace.
Time marched on and then, at one of the refuelling stations, I got hit by a half full Lucazade carton that somebody was trying to lob off to the side. Luckily I was already wet from the rain. In fact, I was already soaked… I had stood in a few puddles and my feet were squelching. This angered me a lot and I cursed the bad weather… in hind site though, the fact that it was cool probably helped more than my squelching feet hindered.
10km – 20km took 40 minutes. Excellent! Or was I running too fast? I hit the half marathon point at 1:27… my new half marathon PB! At 15miles my legs started to ache. Things went down hill from there…
To be continued…
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