London Marathon 2015 - did she get a BQ?

It was race morning and the conditions were perfect.  Overcast, grey and drizzly, nice and cool.  Too cold for standing around but not too cold for running.  My husband drove me to Deptford bridge station, and I took the dlr a couple of stops to meet Malcs and Nick at Lewisham.  From here it was a walk to the bench on Blackheath where we were planning to meet some friends from the Runner's world forums.  Unfortunately we were there a bit later than we'd said, so only Sean, Mr P and Helen remained.  We had a quick photo, and then Malcs walked me to the green start.

From being fairly relaxed on the morning, as soon as I reached the green start I stopped being relaxed. Announcements said we must put our baggage on the lorries now, or else, and as soon as I'd done that I joined an incredibly long queue for the toilets.  The green start being smaller than the others seemed the worst provisioned- I never had an issue going to the toilet on the blue or red starts in previous years.  In the queue, my friend Hannah caught up with me and we were waiting together for about 20 minutes, and getting closer to the toilet, but not close enough.  At 5 to 10 we gave up and found somewhere to go discretely.  This was awful for me... I'm terrible at peeing  when people can see me, no matter how much I want to go, and as a result, I don't think I fully emptied my bladder.

Nonetheless we walked over to pen 3 to get ready to start.  Hannah put her headphones in, we hugged each other and wished each other luck.  This experience in the start area really seemed to bother me.  I was annoyed that I had been on my feet for almost 2 hours - usually pre-marathon I sit down as much as possible and stay calm.  When we got going I was surprised that I still felt my pace was being held up by the crowds, especially when the green and blue starts merged.  It certainly warmed up with the greater volume of people.  I knew mile 3 and 4 were supposed to be a bit quicker as they are net downhill, so was looking forward to them to stretch out a bit.  Some people still seemed to brake a bit on the downhills, and then others were using them like me, so still a bit of a feeling of congestion, however, I was pretty pleased that I went through 5k in 24:12, a little quick, but if I kept it up 3:25 would be possible.

I thought once the congestion eased I would start to feel better, but around 8 miles, my left quads started to tighten.  Not quite as severe as cramp, but I had to kick up to my butt a few times and hit my thigh with my hand to ease it.  I wondered about stopping to stretch it, but thought that would start a dangerous downward spiral, so pushed through.  I eased my pace to a sensible 7:55, and tried to hold it here.  Every time the crowds were loud, this spurred me on quite a bit, and I pushed too hard at these times, only to ease off when it was quieter.  Between miles 9 and 11 I looked out for Malcs with his infamous Swiss flag but didn't spot him.  I already knew that today was not a great day for my marathon, so it disappointed me that I didn't get to see him as I could have done with the boost.

I really enjoyed going across tower bridge and shortly before half way I saw a friend, who called out my name! This was brilliant, as I really didn't think I would spot anyone on the course at all now I'd missed Malcs.  I crossed halfway in 1:43, so a couple of minutes quicker than target pace, but I thought that was just about enough time in hand to account for the inevitable slow down in the later stages of the race.  The band was playing YMCA and I joined in with the arm movements... Every time I did, the twinge in my thigh came back again, and I knew that I would have to play it safe for the rest of the race, keep a strong mind and make sure I was on top of my fuelling for the rest of the race.

Mile 15 and Sarah, David and Bernadette gave me a cheer- again a lovely surprise as I didn't know where they were going to be.  There seemed to be less support than usual around the docklands and the route change was a bit more direct, but I wasn't a fan of the uphill ramp at mile 19.  Despite the little niggele in my thigh I started to feel a bit more confident that this was going to be ok, then bang, my right calf cramped, such that it totally messed up my gait.  It was like those videos you see of people getting cramp toward the end of the marathon, and I was only on mile 19.  Time wise I was right on target with 7.2 miles to complete in an hour to get 3:30, however, I had already done 0.2 miles more than the markers at this point.  I didn't factor this into my calculations and I was sure that even if I maintained a 9 minute mile from here, I was still on target.  Herein lies the risk of trying to do these calculations during a marathon, as I was clearly wrong!

The calf didn't feel right.  I felt strong enough to push on, but each time I did my calf cramped up, sometimes for 4-5 steps and I had to consciously point my toes up to stop it so that I could keep on running.  At 21 miles I made the decision to stop and give it a proper stretch.  I didn't want to wallow for too long, but figured this would give me an opportunity to continue.  In truth it didn't last and I couldn't run much quicker than 8:30 without the calf cramping up.  I was so disappointed as I knew that I was fit enough to go a bit faster but because I haven't been doing strength work recently, my calf just couldn't handle the full marathon yesterday.

I knew I was still on target for 3:30 (and in my mind could slow to 9mm still), but the calf cramp was coming more frequently and more severe, such that I might fall over from a strong cramp.  Just after mile 24, I heard my sister call out, I was so glad that she and my husband, brother in law and new nephew had come out to watch and I waved at them but knew if I stopped, this could be it, so I just kept running.  One foot in front of the other.  When they saw me later they said I didn't look good.

I was quite surprised when the blue 3:30 pacer passed me just past Big Ben, and I tried to keep up with him.  At this stage, I had lost the fight and looking at my pace on the watch I still thought I was on for a sub 3:30.  With  400 metres to go my watch said 3:29 and I thought I was just going to make it, but as I passed under the 385 yards to go sign the time flicked over to 3:30. I was crushed!  I had just missed it.  I could have stopped right there, I was so disappointed.

When I crossed the finish line, I was a bit numb.  I had really battled during those last 7 miles and in fact no part of that race felt easy.  I had gotten my BQ, but I had not got my gold or silver goals.

It took my talking to a few friends after to see the positive in this result.  The fact that I have indeed got a Boston Qualifier, and a 9 minute marathon pb.  I know that a few things could have really made a difference on the day, and I will remember these for future goals:

- strength training- I backed off this mid feb in favour of more long runs, but I think more resistance training in the legs was more important than some midweek easy long runs

- trainers- my trainers were really due replacement, and I wonder whether the wear on them caused a bit too much work for my calves 

- on the day, I should have gotten to the start earlier and sat down- kept off my legs

- also the Friday and Saturday I spent a lot of time on my feet which I wouldn't usually in the run up to the marathon

Maybe I'll have more to add in the next few days, but for now... I DID IT!  I achieved my goal and got my Boston Qualifier.  Above, I've been quite critical of myself, but that's exactly how I got the BQ, a belief that I am in control of my results and belief that I could get better.  When I started this blog I had run 2 marathons with a pb of 4:33:57.  Now my pb is 3:30:47 and it only took 2.5 years to get here

Next stop, A half iron triathlon in August, and Of course, Boston next year!

And here are the splits, as you can see, my pace was sub 3:30 pace, I just ran a bit further than a marathon though:

Looking how far I've come

This time of year is really tough for me.  The Boat Races on Saturday were a reminder of what was an incredibly emotional week.  Highs of spending time with family we don’t see very often followed by the lows of the end of a terminal illness.

We watched the boatraces with my Aunty and Uncle who had visited from the States when my Mum was in Nigeria for the 1 year anniversary of her mother’s death.  It was that one that had to be stopped as that chap jumped in the river ahead of the racing crews.  Mum returned home on the Tuesday, and on the Wednesday night, Dad had to be taken into hospital.  I was told when I was already at work on Thursday 12th April, so rushed back home to Colchester knowing this could be the end.  April 13th 2012 was the last day I spent with my dad.  He died on April 14th.

As such, I’m having a pretty shit day!  It doesn’t help that where I’ve worked to build myself up in a completely new industry for the past year has had an unfair card dealt such that our premises will be shutting down at the end of the month, so strangely, running has not been a priority.

The emotion and stress of it all have made all my runs in the last 10 days feel awful.  I’ve had tightness in my glute which seems to be impinging my running form - amazingly that disappeared yesterday after a massage from my hubby.  I’ve been out for runs, and had to stop and walk after only a couple of miles.  Yesterday I ran 8 miles with 3 or 4 quite lengthy walking breaks.  It was quite windy and my paces were ok, but it felt awful.  One person who saw me running said I looked strong, and a customer of my gym told me she saw me looking strong out running yesterday, which further confirms that a lot of this might be in my head.

I’ve decided to write this down for its therapeutic effect.  With less than 2 weeks to go until the London Marathon, the race that is hopefully going to be the realisation of my dreams that I started this blog with, I know that I need to be in a much better head space.

When my clients are feeling low, or disappointed with themselves, I always try to help them look back to see the progress they’ve made, so I’m doing the same for myself.

So, here goes.

When I started the blog, my fastest marathon was 4:33 in Berlin in 2011 - I had an awful year of running after my Dad’s death in 2012, so my next marathon wasn’t until spring 2013 - I ran 4:18 in Halstead, just 3 minutes slower than my goal at the time.  A year later, after applying all I’d learnt by studying nutrition and to being a Personal Trainer, I ran 3:39 in Manchester.  This was a perfect race, where everything went right.  It was the first and only marathon I’ve ever run without stopping to walk at all.

Other race times - my half marathon pb has come down from 1:59 when the blog started to 1:36 a few weeks ago.  10k was 52 (although more like 56 at the start of the blog) and is now 44:06, and my 5k is now 20:52 - it was 24:01.

I’m starting to win awards in races, and was even 4th lady in the Saltmarsh 75- a 75mile ultra marathon.

Weight- my weight has never been a key focus in my training, as I’ve always viewed exercise as a way to stay healthy.  My work in the gym has always been about training to be better at a sport, whether its Rowing, as it was at university, or Running, which I took up when I started working in London, as 12 hour + working days weren’t conducive to team sport, but I wanted to stay healthy.  My personal trainer then was a marathon runner and was fab at prescribing me exercises that would aid my strength in running, which is how I got a 52 minute 10k in my first ever running race.  A PT I had more recently, however, didn’t listen to my goals and assumed weight loss was my goal when it wasn’t - this was the start of my injury problems in 2012 as I was doing way too much high impact and intensity work for the volume of mileage I needed to run for marathon preparation.

However, I know that I was about 65kg (for my height =overweight) when I started this blog and am now about 54kg (for my height a healthy weight -bmi of 21.4).  Whilst weight loss was a focus ahead of my wedding last year, its not a constant focus.  A lot of the change has come from a change in lifestyle - I no longer work a desk job, so I don’t buy a coffee and a muffin every morning followed by lunch out and a snack on the train home to get me through to dinner, and then wine.  (I still have wine!).  I’m much more mindful of what I’m eating and how it will impact on my running.

Training - in general, my training has been much better, until the last 2 months.  It was near on perfect last year as I was focussed solely on running marathons, so I ran and I strength trained for running.  Now I’ve got a half iron triathlon at the end of August, I had been trying to fit in cycling and swimming too, which on top of strength training and running pushed me into symptoms of overtraining syndrome in February, so I’ve cut right back and focussed purely on running again, which is probably why this glute issue developed as I have not been doing enough strength work.

That said, I have achieved some great things in this training campaign.  I’m most proud of my run at Tarpley 20, where I managed to run 4 miles easy/ 4 miles marathon pace, alternating, with the last 4 miles as 2 miles easy and 2 miles race to the end.  I nailed it, with my marathon pace miles being 7:50mm, and my easy miles being 8:30s.  Runs in the last two weeks would make me question whether than was actually me running!

Speedwork has gone well too, with 1ks under 4 minutes, and yasso 800s under 3:15.

Work- well, I’m not working in finance anymore - I’m in charge of my own time and started my own business as a personal trainer.  This is scary and challenging all at the same time.  Whereas I was bored out of my mind working in the City, I don’t find spending time with people, who want to improve their lives in some way, boring at all.  I get a lot out of training people, and rarely struggle to get out of bed in the morning, even at 5:30am!  When I was planning my exit from the City a couple of years ago, I wrote down in a book what I would like out of a different path and what things I wanted to do with my Personal Training and Run Coaching qualifications.  One of them was to have an online run coaching business.  I could see how the things I was learning were benefiting me, and I wanted to help others.  There’s much more to marathon running than just the training plan, and thats what this online coaching business was about.  Well, you guessed it, my dream is a reality: irunsuccess.co.uk

So, with all this down, I feel less like crying than I did when I started writing.  The question I have to ask myself to bring some sanity, is, does it really matter if I don’t achieve my goal at London?  In all honesty, no.  The only thing I can do now to change the outcome is to change my attitude.  If I don’t buck up soon, I’m sure to fail, but if I can remember how far I’ve come, and the good lessons about fuelling appropriately and pacing, as well as making sensible adjustments in case of adverse weather conditions (Heatwave anyone) then I will have done my best, and that’s all I can do.

So, in light of this, the gold, silver and bronze targets….

When I started this training campaign, I was training toward sub 3:20, however, a few hiccups along the way mean I’m sure this is unrealistic, however, I do think 3:25 is achievable, so that’s gold.

Silver is the BQ = sub 3:35  (If its super hot, this is where I need to focus)

Bronze = a pb - so sub 3:39

The quicker you are under the BQ, the more chance you have of actually doing the race as they open up the entries to quicker qualifiers first, which is why I’m not just taking the easy (well its a marathon so never easy) option of pacing conservative for the 3:35.  I want to do my best, and that means quicker than 3:35.

Phew - so this was all about me.  It is my blog, so I’m allowed.  But what can YOU take from it?

Sometimes life is shit.  That doesn’t mean you have to be.  Trust in the training and don’t be shit.