So I did it. I finished the London Marathon yesterday with a time of 4 hours, 30 minutes and two seconds. A personal best for me, I finished this marathon around eleven minutes faster than I finished the Walt Disney World Marathon in 2004. This PB is safe as I have no plans to ever do it again.
I started training for the marathon at the end of January. Bryan signed up to raise money for the YMCA but came to the realization that the nagging ache in his leg was a stress fracture and wasn't going to go away. I had been running a few times a week, four miles at a time, not really training for any races. He had already managed to raise half of his commitment and I did not want to disappoint those who had donated. So we contacted the YMCA and off I went.
Bryan put together a training plan for me building from a measly six miles all the way to a twenty mile run. In addition to a weekly Saturday morning long run, I fit in runs during my lunch time, before work, and even ran to work once a week. My running routes took me through Hyde Park, St James Park, Green Park, past Big Ben and Westminster, all the way to the Millenium Bridge. Even with our busy travel schedule, I still managed to run when we visited Venice (imagine running across all those bridges) and Barcelona.
After finishing my twenty mile run two weeks before, marathon morning dawned overcast and cool. I caught the tube to Charing Cross where I then caught a train to Greenwich. Along with a few thousand other runners, I walked up the hill in Greenwich Park and waited for an hour before getting into our corrals. Even with such a crowd, I was amazed at how patient and respectful everyone was. When we finally moved to the corrals, I was in the first corral based upon Bryan's predicted finish time of three hours (way too fast for me!).
When the race started, I got across the start line in less than a minute and took off fast. My first mile was a nine minute mile followed by another 9:30. I managed to keep the pace up and figured if I felt okay to keep on going. My pace gradually got slower after mile eight but I had banked so much time, my spirits didn't dampen. The entire route was packed both with runners and spectators. I think my second most favorite part was crossing Tower Bridge which was packed with people and is an amazing bridge. My favorite part was kissing my boys at mile 23.5. Okay, so that and crossing the finish line! Lon-DONE!
