Virgin London Marathon

25/04/10
Despite what the commentators were saying, conditions were not ideal. As we were being shepherded into the start area, the rain started, and this continued until shortly after the race began, so we were all soaked through, wet and cold! Once it stopped raining, the heat and humidity rocketed, and running was quite uncomfortable for a while. I reached the halfway stage (just after Tower Bridge) right on schedule in 2 hrs 20 mins and I was feeling quite confident as I headed out towards Docklands. However, the sun came out over Canary Wharf and I found this section very difficult - there was little air, and the tall office buildings trapped the heat and reflected the sunlight onto us. At 19 miles my race fell apart!

I had been monitoring my heart rate and found that I was now consistently much higher that my maxHR (age adjusted) should have been. Coupled with the sight of a number of runners being given oxygen by paramedics, I was quite concerned and felt that I would have to take drastic action or risk joining them - I therefore stopped to give my heart chance to slow down, and also sort my drinks out. The problem was that when I tried to start running again, my legs did not want to play! I therefore covered the remaining 6 miles having to slow jog for a while, walk for a while, slow jog….. It was therefore with some relief that I finally crossed the line in 05:25:34 - a disappointing time, but at least I finished. I also finished with a fair amount of blood on my vest from chafing!