I ran the London Marathon. Again. It was quite sunny this time. And I'm annoyed.
I beat my PB by close to 40minutes. I raised £8,000. And I'm still not happy. What's wrong with me?
It kinda threw me. Made me focus on the temperature. What to wear? Do I take my own water with me in a Camelbak (small rucksack designed for carrying a hydration bladder, there's probably a generic name for these but I've no idea)? Do I wear sunglasses? A hat? Sun cream? How much do I drink? The right amount is somewhere between too little and too much. Where too much can lead to hyponatremia which is potentially fatal. All of these are important but not crucial and may just be the small thing that helps.
As it was, after sleeping on it and with water every mile available I decided to run without a Camelbak.
I was going to wear sunglasses. But when I got to the start I couldn't find them so ran without them and that was totally the right thing to do in hindsight. Was pretty sure I'd picked them up but oh well, bigger things to worry about at the start than them.
With the high temperature, how fast could I run? Would I hit my dream of a 4hr marathon? I hadn't thought I was capable of that, but when I did a half marathon in 1h56m a coupe of weeks ago, it made me think it was possible. Was it just stupid to go out and run that speed? Hmm. Probably. But maybe...
Somehow I was placed in Pen 3 at the start. For people running 3:15-3:30! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
I know the dangers of accelerating and decelerating. It puts more stress on the knees. It's an easy way to increase your heart rate and blow up. To not have enough energy to make it round. And in this heat? Hmmm.
Summary
- Not to poop myself - ACHIEVED
- Finish in a more respectable time - ACHIEVED
- Moonwalk around Cutty Sark - Not really
- Finish with enough thoughts in my brain so that I can work out how to unwrap the foil blanket - ACHIEVED although it wasn't used I'm sure I could have.
- Not to make my hernia worse. - Yeah, about that. Hmmmm.
- Get through the training without injuring myself. ACHIEVED. Ok so a handful of runs were missed due to a cold and a sore knee but hardly anything. 300+ miles run in training. Bit of a limp at the end of the race but by Wednesday after the race I was walking fine, up and down the stairs no problem.
- Raise more than £6881 - ACHIEVED
For the record when I got home I found my sunglasses at the bottom of my bag.