Zak Erskine reporting on his London Marathon Race
As for most, London has always been a bucket list race for me. Hearing stories of the electric, festival atmosphere from my Grandad when I was a kid mean I’ve been entering the London Marathon ballot for 9 years now! And now was finally the time. I have always liked to attempt a marathon - but have never been particularly gifted at long distance, but I had to give this the best shot I had!
I’d had a fairly consistent training block, visitors and back to school after the spring break brought a little disruption in the final six weeks, but nothing major in terms of missing any runs, swims or cycles in preparation. I was feeling confident and fit going into the event, the most positive I’ve ever felt going into a marathon! My one wish is that I’d done a few more longer runs in the run up, to make sure I was extra comfortable with the distance; but every training block is a lesson learned!
I’d initially settled on a negative split approach, I’d had recent success with this in the Skechers 16km in March, but arriving at the start line, I realised this may not quite be possible with the volume of people, and became clear at various points where 56,000 of us were naturally bunching up! I had split the race into 4 x 10km blocks in my head (with some hopes and prayers for the final 2.2km…), and intended on a conservative approach with small gains towards the 4:20 time goal.
I had taken a 4:15 pacing bracelet from the expo - one of the finest I’ve ever attended, major risk of turning into a kid in a candy shop! And had managed to keep myself just a couple of seconds behind this for the majority of the race, by 30km I was well on for a 4:20 finish. I had managed a gel every 20 minutes, without my trusty Stealth isotonic gels, I made do with the SIS isotonic gels (which I had done some training with!) and they suited me nicely and kept the vibes high. The nice weather was also a huge plus - a balmy 22 degrees and blazing sunshine, perfect when travelling from Dubai; I was kept lovely and cool by my lightweight Sported.ae coaching singlet!
I was super lucky to get hugs from ex-colleagues, old friends and even my parents around the first three-quarters of the course, a major morale boost when things started getting tough around 27km…
In spite of best efforts and super consistency up to 30km, today was not the day for a marathon PB! I did end up finishing in 4:52, the good thing about London is that when things get tough, the crowd absolutely carries you through, the streets didn’t give up for the entire race! I adopted a run-walk strategy to save myself as much time as possible in the final 12km, and (almost) cried my way across the finish line!
The battle wasn’t over at that point! I had to dash back across London to the car in Stratford (difficult with marathon legs and a clogged up tube…) and then up to Stansted so I could get back home and recover ahead of a return to teaching bright and early Tuesday morning!
If anyone is wondering if they should enter the ballot - absolutely do it! I wasn’t 100% before, but there is certainly no race like London!
By Zak Erskine