The London Marathon: a race present on a lot of people’s bucket lists. And rightly so, the race is known worldwide for being the most atmospheric, having the best crowds and raising the most money for charity. Paula Radcliffe set the still-standing women’s world record there. Over 35,000 people run it every year. Having wanting to run it since I was 9 years old I was thrilled at the chance to join the masses on 26th April 2015 on behalf of Children with Cancer UK.
Here’s how I prepared and how it felt to complete the race!
4 months to go…
January. Post Xmas feasting. A good time to start to work off some of that excessive eating. Being a keen runner I normally run around 35 miles a week but now with 16 weeks to go I made a running plan for the marathon. A running plan gave me guidance for how many miles I should be aiming to complete. This also helped in terms of time keeping – being a final year student this was vitally important!
1 month to go…
March. 4 weeks prior to the big day I ran my longest ever run of 22 miles (52 miles in total that week). After this, my weekly mileage began to wind down as I prepared for the big day. My long runs went from around the 20-mile mark to 15 then 10-miles and my diet was focusing more on carbs. Alcohol was firmly off the agenda.
1 week to go…
April. At this point, I was carb-ing up and my weekly mileage was down to just a four 2/4 mile runs. The huge decrease in running actually made me nervous. Having gotten used to running long distances it took me a couple of miles to get into my stride – running a couple of miles actually felt a little bit uncomfortable!
I attended the London Marathon Expo day to collect my race number. The expo was a truly great experience; having spent months training alone it was fab to meet other runners and the Children with Cancer Charity Team. There were a number of different stalls selling discounted gym kit, food and offering advice for the day. The atmosphere was incredible and I left feeling excited about Sunday.
London Marathon Expo
The day…
26th April. I woke up at 5.45am and in all honesty felt pretty terrified. I ate my pre-race breakfast of 2 slices of peanut butter on toast and a bowl of porridge to fuel me up before the start of the race at 10.10am. Then off to London I went…
To sum up the race itself is quite difficult. Unless you have been it is hard to imagine just how amazing the crowds are and how brilliant the atmosphere is. A friend of mine once told me, “If you’re losing faith in humankind go out and watch a marathon”, and I have to say I completely agree. Though 26.2 miles is hard, and I found miles 16-19 particularly bleak, the support of the crowds and fellow runners seriously keeps you going. At Cutty Sark and Tower Bridge the support was overwhelming and in the last 4 miles the streets were jam-packed with supporters.
I crossed the finish line after running for 3 hours 39 minutes and was thrilled with my time. After a month of no alcohol I celebrated the day by going to a nearby bar with family and friends and cracking open a bottle of much-needed prosecco…
3 hours 39 minutes later…
The day after…
I would be lying if I said I didn’t wake up feeling more than a little bit of pain. BUT it was 100% worth it. The London Marathon was an amazing experience and in total I raised nearly £2,200 for a brilliant charity.
The ballot for the 2016 London Marathon opens Monday 4th May – Friday 8th May and I highly recommend you apply for a space. I know I will be…
Edited by Harriet Dunlea
Images: Author’s own