Time/Position: 2.53.21 (1278 from 40,000)
My 10th London, with those races spread over 20 years since my debut in 2001. Despite those experiences, and the fact that it was my 25th (or so) marathon, I had little idea of what time I might run today. I've been in reasonable shape recently, but have struggled at both 10k and half marathon, and (as usual) hadn't bothered with many long runs on tarmac (only two, in fact). A narrow sub-3 seemed the most likely outcome, although I was conscious the weather was close to perfect - cool and dry initially, sunny and fairly windy later on. I felt good immediately, and went on to have one of the most enjoyable running experiences I have ever had in 600 races. There is little better in the world of running than feeling good and comfortable in this particular race - I've only achieved it 2 or 3 times myself. I was very conservative, but this allowed me to run the fabled negative split which I have only done a couple of times before. I started in wave 1 near the front and immediately noticed far more space than usual, which helped keep to the racing line. There were a series of waves (one of the Covid measures) which was both good and bad: good in the sense that there was more space than usual, bad in the sense that I was passed by a lot of fast runners for the first five miles or so. By Cutty Sark, the field had settled down and despite smaller crowds than usual the atmosphere was still really good. I felt comfortable and was holding back to a certain extent, just concentrating on keeping a solid pace ticking over (around 4.05-4.10 mins per km). The highlight of the race is always Tower Bridge for me, and that was particularly the case today, post-Covid so even more special - along with building confidence that I was having a pretty good race and was becoming increasingly confident about maintaining the pace despite my recent tribulations on half marathons. I took a few gels on board and kept the pace going round the Isle of Dogs, which was quiet - more like it used to be when I started doing London. I began to pass a lot of people and was conscious of picking up the pace a little, more so when I saw Kate, Eve and Frances at 19 miles (Canary Wharf). After this, the run for home was superb - I was tiring but never felt in danger of blowing (again, unlike recent halfs). I may have left a little too much out on the course, which is what some people say about negative splits, but feeling comfortable and enjoying it is more important - and I ran my quickest miles along the Embankment and through to the finish. I was 66th in the V50 Masters World Championships (which London hosted this year, leading to a special number and medal, which was nice) and about the same overall in the category. It was a pb by around 40 seconds, although that old PB was recorded at Manchester in 2013 which was expunged from the records because it was short. So my existing 'official' PB was the 2.55 I ran in London in 2016.
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