In February 2021, I (convinced by Amy Suddards and David Whitworth who are wonderful people) decided to run the London Marathon for NOMAN. This was partly for myself but mostly because NOMAN are a fantastic charity that undertake big sporting tasks in order to raise money for the HPV and Anal Cancer Foundation in efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible against HPV.

Training

From the first day early in 2021, I was already running. Christmas had been a quiet training period but I had made a promise to pick up 50km weeks again as soon as January. Over the course of winter turning into spring, my distances picked up to 60-70km and included more and more 20 mile runs, with the odd injury-scare here and there. Ankles would hurt for a day, laid off the running, back to normal and back to training. Eventually, as March and April came around I was averaging 70 and eventually 80-85 km a week running, usually with a big run on Sundays. It became everything I did and all I could think about; but remained the vehicle to keep my mental health positive.

Finally, summer dwindled on, the heatwaves, new job and other distractions but the training kept going on. From starting to run during lockdown in March 2020 until December 2020, I had run just over 1000km. By September 2021, I had run 2500km for the year already.

Taper

Any runner will know that a big part of any training is the preparation and planning - this is even more true for tapering. So over the few weeks before the London Marathon, the volume was reduced to 60km and 10km down every week until the marathon (4 weeks before). I felt a bit weird, like I had too much energy, but it eventually worked out for the best, especially coupled with whole grains, hearty carbohydrates and lots of protein the week before.

Marathon

On 3rd October, it was go. Tube to Bank, DLR to Greenwich and a daunting walk through bits of Greenwich Park to the start line. The entrance area felt like a festival with so many people, massive radio towers and lots of music in the background. But instead of background music awaiting the headline act, it was the buffer for us to prepare to move in our droves towards the wave areas that would unleash us onto the 2021 London Marathon course. I chatted with a few people, one man had raised money for Shelter the homelessness charity, another was raising money for the Royal British Legion. A man named Andy from Portsmouth was raising money for Pancreatic Cancer UK in honour of his mum who had passed away. Andy and I would end up running the first 8k together. I found out he had raised nearly £5000 for the charity afterwards. As our wave progressed to the start and we were at the line, they fired the horn and off we went. 26.2 miles into the unknown. I had trained with several 20 milers, even two 21 milers, but there was about 5 miles of unknown territory that both excited and terrified me. The mission was to hit 4 hours and keep running the whole time.

Andy stayed with me for the first 45 minutes of this journey. We passed countless children offering sweets, bands playing and hype-men running alongside us. Eventually Andy would slow down for his go-to running gel and beckoned me to run on, and so I did. It dawned on about 12-13 km into the race that I was well above the target pace for a 4h finish. I was a bit too excited but I wasn’t na"{i}ve enough to think that I could get away with this the whole journey. We passed all the amazing sights, Woolwich Arsenal, Tower Bridge (where I saw Emma and Uncle Dave in the video you can see in my Twitter below), and parts of the Embankment of the Thames. And so 10 miles of the 26 were like this: moderately cautious, faster than anticipated, loving every minute. After 10 miles, the crowds still strong, I stuck my pace into neutral and tried to maintain as far as I could closer to Canary Wharf. This part of the race is a blur because I was hyper-focussed on numbers and pace. The Isle of Dogs is notoriously solemn and less people are around so you really have to focus up and drive. But that didn’t last long as Canary Wharf, a portion of the race I had been warned about as you strike the 16-17 mile mark and crowds could wane, was absolutely heaving with support, some even over the top of the tunnels close to the Colonnade. This spurred me on to keep with my pace, remembering my training, and that I had hit just slower than this pace on my last, hilly 20 mile run to Disley on the edge of the Peak District.

Finally we hit the problem areas. 4 miles left, coming down the ‘home straight’ towards the centre of London and though I felt good, my legs started to flag. 22 miles and my ankles wanted to acutely let me know they were not happy with the current proceedings. I pushed through a mile and felt my will flicker for a second, until under the massive 23 miler pillar stuck out the head of my wonderful Uncle David, who had come over from Tower Bridge to cheer me on again (obviously accompanied by my equally wonderful fianc'{e}e Emma). They screamed that I had ‘got this’ and that was the boost I needed, better than any gel, any sip of water or any type of dope! It is no wonder people run these races with big crowds. Eventually even that push subsided as the leafy streets leading up to the edge of the Mall were starting to wear thin. After 23 miles almost everyone around me had begun walk-running so it immediately became a human obstacle course. I still pushed on but my pace dropped a bit as my hamstrings had started filing complaints about this run as well. Eventually we see 1.0km left and lo-and-behold: I hit the wall. The last km was the longest kilometre of running in my life and thank goodness I had eaten well, had my gels, got extra water along the way, all the above. I felt as though my stomach and chest were about to scream through my ribs but I kept on. I could not make out the various signs telling me 600,400,200 meters left but I kept on. And then we finished:

  • Finished the London Marathon.
  • 03:47:01.
  • Tick something off the bucket list.
  • Fantastic heavy medal.
  • Epsom salt bath.
  • Watch out every carb in my uncle’s house.

Since this marathon, I have submitted to the London 2022 ballot, signed up for Manchester 2022, potentially signing up for Chester 2022 (if London is a miss) and I really want to build conditioning to the Manchester 2 Liverpool Ultra for 2023. Running has gone from a get-out clause, to a mental health handicap, to an obsession, to part of mine and my family’s life. It has both saved and trapped me, but there are worse things to spend hours worrying about. For now, I will appreciate every smaller run of 10K or less, because I still remember what it’s like to contend with 4 in one go!