Virgin London Marathon 25/04/10
Angus's report...
After a gentle final week preparation involving a sports massage on Tuesday, light jog on Wednesday with the other members of the Porty London Posse and some final abuse (verbal as well as physical) courtesy of my personal trainer Lee, I set off with my wife Ailsa on the 2pm from Waverley on Friday. We were originally due to fly to London City on Saturday but I wasn’t willing to take the risk of Eyjafjallajökull (how many points in scrabble?) wrecking my carefully laid plans.
Up bright and early on Saturday morning for a wee 2 mile jog round Priory Park then it was off to the Expo to collect my number, chip and part company with a large sum of cash on overpriced, branded marathon memorabilia. By now I just wanted the damn race to be over so I could join the rest of London and get boozed up in the lovely spring sunshine. This wasn’t an option so I spent the afternoon playing football, skateboarding on a Ben 10 skateboard and ski-ing on the Nintendo Wii with my friends Gary and Jane’s son Finn. In hindsight not the safest of pastimes to indulge in so close to the big event.
And so to Sunday morning when I, along with 30 odd thousand others, was relieved to wake up to overcast skies, light rain and fairly cool temperatures. The midweek forecasts of 22 degrees were clearly no more than scaremongering. Gary dropped me off at Highgate tube station and from there I had a hassle free journey to the blue start at Blackheath via London Bridge. I was lucky to be in pen 4 at the blue start – must have lied about predicted time on entry form – but pen numbers were an irrelevance as it was a bit of a chaotic free for all. Despite this I still managed to cross the start line within a minute or so of the gun and settled into my target pace of 8 minute miles pretty quickly. One of the great things about London is the number of live bands and music blasting out of the many pubs dotted along the route. The first piece of music I was aware of was courtesy of Billy Ocean – his motivational crowd pleaser “When The Going Gets Tough” – more appropriate to have this a bit later on in the race but always like to see a pub landlord with a sense of humour. Second track on the playlist along my route was “Road to Nowhere” again not the most uplifting of tracks.
Anyway, enough of this musical cheese and on to what you running geeks are most interested in – stats. I was comfortably under 8 minute miles and decided to stick to my race plan and avoided trying to keep up with Jim as he passed me around 7 miles looking very strong. At the half way stage I was bang on target for a 3.30 finish and kept up a good pace until around mile 17 when the wheels fell off in spectacular fashion. My mile splits deteriorated rapidly and I hit a low point at mile 22 which I completed in 11mins 42secs. 3.30 well and truly out of the window by now as was any hope of beating my PB of 3.46. The goal now was threefold – not to walk, get over the line sub 4 hours and beat “Fat Danny” who was 100 metres or so ahead of me. Picked the pace up a bit and did mile 25 in 8.42. Shortly after this another Porty whizzed past me – it was Shery and she was flying. No way I had enough left in the tank to keep up with her blistering pace but by now I knew a sub 4 was in the bag. I crossed the line in 3 hours 52 mins for 26.53 miles according to the Garmin but the official result is 3:54:58. Still, ticked all three boxes on my hastily revised goals – “Fat Danny” was toast.
A fantastic experience albeit a painful one. The last 8 miles seemed to last an eternity but the image of an ice cold Kronenbourg kept me focused. Coupled with that, the support of Team McLean was phenomenal. A 21 strong entourage made up of friends and family from Edinburgh and London were there to cheer me on and it gave me such a lift when I saw them at around 19 miles.
I met up with the Porty Crew for a team photo and to exchange stories then we went our separate ways to celebrate in the traditional style. Finding a pub to accommodate a group of 22 in central London on marathon day initially seemed a daunting task but the gods were smiling on Team McLean. We headed for a bar called Albanach just off Trafalgar Square. The main bar was heaving and we were about to give up and try elsewhere when I noticed a familiar logo on a banner for a private function in the downstairs bar. Time for a shameless plug. It was for the National Association for Colitis and Chron’s Disease - NACC - who had hired the bar to throw a party for runners running in support of their charity. I was not running for NACC this year but, as I am the vice-chair of their Edinburgh branch, I was sure they would welcome me and my thirsty gang. We were in luck and set up camp in the basement bar where we had several well deserved beers. Think I even made it into some of the official NACC publicity shots! We called it a day around 6pm and Ailsa and I headed back with the Donalds to their gaff in Muswell Hill for pizza and more drinks.
Back home now and back on the wagon as I have to do it all again in 4 weeks for the Edinburgh Marathon!
Report Angus McLean
Shery's report...
London Marathon – 25 April 2010
Shery’s ReportIt was with great excitement and some trepidation that I approached the day of the London marathon. Training in the latter stages had been sporadic (heavy cold cancelling out Alloa, tendonitis in the knee) however, cometh the hour, cometh the man as they say and marathon day dawned in London on 25 April.
I was hoping the race would pan out like an episode from the Apprentice where the editors focus on the team doing the worst only for them to emerge victorious at the end. Read on to find out…
Having wolfed down my usual race day nosebag of hearty porridge laced with honey I kissed farewell to my hubbie, Ian, at Paddington Tube station in the early morning and started the odyssey out to Blackheath. The train was chocca – hot and packed with runners clutching lucozade and water bottles, punnets of blueberries and popping jelly beans. I had my own supply in my short pockets – raisins, jelly beans & cola rideshots. We soon arrived at Blackheath and I made my way towards the eternal line for the portaloos figuring if I didn’t need when I joined the queue I certainly would when I got to the top! I looked around for the other porties who I knew were in the blue start zone too but there were just too too many other people. Some rain as I was stripping off my outer wear and I dimly remember wondering if this would wash away all the suntan lotion I had slapped on that morning in preparation for the warmer temperatures ahead.
Anyway, enough procrastinating and I jogged to my starting pen in zone 6. I was thinking, this is really a long way from the start when I saw the 11 min pacemaker standing not far from me! Oh well, too late now. All of a sudden, the crowds in front of me started walking and although I didn’t realise the race had started, the London marathon was underway! It took 8 minutes for me to get to the starting line and longer to get to mile 1 – clocked in 17 minutes! Getting into my stride was almost impossible with the crowds around and in front of me but I just tried to relax and enjoy the experience.
Even in surburban London the crowds were fantastic. Slapping high fives like a politician in election time shaking babies & kissing hands I rode the wave of motivation and encouragement and I have to admit the first time I heard my name called in an unfamiliar cockney accent was brilliant!
Mile after mile went by as I finally got into my rythmn but at mile 10 and at something like 1hr 22 I felt like a sub 4 was a distant dream. Especially as my right knee started to niggle again. All of a sudden I turned a corner and there was tower bridge . Okay! There’s the boost I needed. The crowds at Tower Bridge were really fantastic and spurred me on to cope with the ‘dog leg’ out to the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf. 13.1 miles and I clocked 1,54, 06. Ouch! Through the Rotherhithe tunnel and on the other side even here the support was awesome with offers of orange segments, (more jelly beans) and jelly babies. There seemed to be a constant stream of water & lucozade and although the temperatures never soared as predicted the run-through spray mist showers were a welcome diversion for an instant cool down. Before I knew it (although it was probably an age) I was running back along the loop I saw the championship runners at earlier in the race so that boosted my spirits. Mile 20… officially the furthest I have ever run and it made such a difference to my mindset. Checking my time, I realised I had clawed enough back for a sub 4 so I just kept going at that pace. No need to mess it up now with god knows what in front of me. Mile 21-24 seemed to pass in a dream and I kept waiting for the wall which amazingly I never met. Emerging out of the tunnel onto the embankment and being greeted by that wall of sound which I’d heard so much about. Mile 25, come on, come on….
Apparently my friend Gilly was screaming my name at Westminster but I couldn’t hear her amongst the crowd. Nor did I see or hear Ian or my other friends along the way. Birdcage Walk. I can’t believe it. 800m to go. Okay, I can do this. Its just a segment of one of Bert’s training sessions at the playing fields. 600m – closer. 400m closer still. Then the 385 yards to go sign. Running round the corner to Buckingham Palace and all of a sudden its 200m and the finish line! I had dreamt of this, visualised it in all my training runs and there it finally was in reality. I picked up the pace for that final 200m and crossed that line to get my medal. As I was ‘processed through the finishing system’ I was in a complete daze and on a complete high! My chip was snipped off my laces, and thrown in a bucket, photo taken, goodie bag offered and then the walk to get my kit bag and greet fellow porties who all did fantastically well. Emily, Angus, Amanda, Richard, Jim & Marc.
On my way to the meet and greet I found out my official time – 3,47, 12 – utterly brilliant! I know its been said in recent race reports and I don’t mind repeating it. The Wed night training sessions are really paying off and I really felt the benefit of belonging to a club whilst training for the marathon, especially during all those long weekend runs. All the encouragement, well wishes, support and encouragement from Bert (with whom without I wouldn’t have been running London in the first place) Jenni and her brilliant texts, Willie, my brother Johnny, Mary, Mel (thanks a million) for referring me to Guy!),Guy himself for keeping my right knee on track, Jacqui and all the porty London runners, too many to name really.
I was also running to raise funds for the new Sick Kids Hospital and thanks to many donations (amongst those, Mary – thanks again, Ian McMillan & Gareth) have smashed my target. And I now sound like a sentimental Oscar winner so I’ll sign off now and go off to bed with my medal – again!
Cheers Porty Running Club!
Report Shery
I believe the fat chef dropped out around mile 20 with tired legs.
Marc says "that pic sums up the last 6 miles of my run. Looking at my watch and wondering why I am going so slow.
It was a fantastic experience, really enjoyed it. Fantastic efforts by all Porty runners!
Emily ran a great race as wellHere's Amanda's report...
London calling
London’s been calling me for quite a while. In fact it’s been calling since autumn 2007 when I ran Loch Ness and qualified for a championship place at the BIG ONE. At the time I didn’t quite appreciate the significance of this. So what if it attracts the largest number of runners. So what if it attracts some of the world’s top elite runners. So what if it’s on telly.As time passed it started to prey on my mind. This opportunity was only valid for two years. I don’t want to live with regrets, wishing I had tried something. So I took the plunge and entered London… 2008. And as injury would have it, 2009. And as glandular fever would have it, 2010 (thank god for deferred entries). Finally, after a frustrating couple of years, I made it to the starting line for the inaugural Virgin London Marathon: fit, healthy, trained, tapered and champing at the bit.
Marathon day dawned overcast but with the threat of 20 degrees and muggy weather. By the time I arrived at the Blue start, however, the heavens had opened. The championship pen is a great place to start if you like to feel you are gatecrashing an exclusive party. Or if you like being in the middle of a stampede. Once the starting gun went, the masses behind us surged forward carrying me along the streets of Greenwich at far too fast a pace. For the first eight miles there was a constant flow of runners overtaking me - racing snakes, girls in skimpy racing shorts, a cartoon cat, a surgeon… and Richard Dennis (Mr I’m running 3:30 plus at London).
I tried as best I could to stick to a decent pace. The race plan hadn’t really been finalised - just somewhere between 7:10 and 7:30 minute miling and reassess at the half way. Seeing Tower Bridge at mile 12 was an enormous boost as it was the only landmark I knew I couldn’t miss. What an experience - the crowds, the cameras, the noise - just awesome. At half way we headed off into the Isle of Dogs, where I’d been warned the going gets tough. So with true Amanda-logic I decided to crank it up a bit. Looking back over my mile splits though, I didn’t actually raise my pace, I just maintained it. It was everyone else around me who was slowing down so I had the pleasure of reeling them all back in. The next six miles went by in a breeze - supporters screaming, samba drumming bands and of course the Porty supporters - Scott, Jim and Ian amazingly appeared out of the thickest crowds encouraging me along. I’d decided not to put my name on my vest (why ruin a good PRC vest?), thinking that the crowds would simply shout out ‘Portobello’. For the record, they don’t. It’s like they’ve been briefed to only support first names or cartoon characters!
Coming back to Tower Bridge, I’d hoped the sight of runners behind me running out to the Isle of Dogs would lift my spirits. It didn’t. It sucked the life out of me. Miles 19 to 23 were awful - they just went on and on with no end in sight. It was at this point I noticed my Garmin was clocking mile markers well in advance of the official Marathon Mile markers. The penny dropped that I’d not been hugging the red racing line close enough and that in fact I was running much further than required.
My oxygen-starved brain was also desperately trying to compute an approximate end to this agony…. oh boy it was going to be close to my Loch Ness time. The question was, how close? The underpass at Embankment (Mile 23 ish) gave us all an unwelcome quiet moment to ourselves. There was an irry silence without supporters, just the rhythmic thump of runners’ feet and my own thoughts… of pain building in my thighs.
On exiting this odd underworld we were met by a thunderous crescendo of support. Incredible! I knew the Houses of Parliament were coming up but just not quick enough for my liking. I tried focusing on my running style. Then tried a bit of mental trickery - it’s only the length of the prom. Finally Birdcage walk came into view and my Garmin signalled mile 26. Talk about stealing your thunder. I love my Garmin but really at this point I would have gladly gifted it to the Irish leprechaun I was overtaking. Rounding the last bend the finishing straight came into view - you’ve all seen it and now I was on it! Over the line in 3:12:48.
Now that the DOMs have subsided and I’m back at my desk, I’m really quite chuffed with this. OK, I missed my PB by 11 seconds. But I’m not sure that was what London was about for me. Maybe if I had managed to get there in 2008 it would have been a disappointment. Just getting to the start line was something to celebrate for me and I’m just delighted there was such a great bunch of PRCers there to enjoy it all. Roll on the next race please!
Report Amanda Henderson photos Scott F.
Richard's report...
Good things about London. The organisation was superb – even folk with spare loo rolls lurking outside the portaloos. It is close to my folks, allowing a weekend at the family home, including a surprise visit from my big brother. And I ran quicker than my “ideal” time. But I didn’t enjoy the race. You either like mass events with big crowds or you don’t. The race was incredibly crowded – I was still getting elbowed coming into the Mall – and it was so NOISY. I didn’t feel borne along by the crowd, I felt crushed by the noise – though I think I would have found stopping hard, given the grief the crowd gave to those who were walking in my part of the race. Only in the few underpasses was there any escape from the constant roar.
The arrangements at the start worked much better than I’d expected. There was a separate area for the “fast good for age” folk with its own loos, changing and baggage, and they put us out on the start before bringing the mass runners up behind. But it was still pandemonium on the gun. Fast pandemonium – first mile was 7:20 – but pandemonium none the less, with lots of jostling and pushing. I never really settled into a rhythm since there was never enough space not to be concentrating on avoiding the runner in front and/or those coming past, and my pace was driven by the pace of the group: I felt slowing down would mean getting trampled to death, so the next three miles were 6:50, 6:48, 6:41 – utter madness! I caught up with Amanda around the 10k point, who had a different approach – she was relaxed, doing her own thing and looking very comfortable. I was already battling stitches and aware I was over-cooking it. When would the wheels come off? I found it humid and hotter than I’d like – I drank a full bottle at each of the five lucosade stations, which is far more than normal for me. With water stations every mile, you ran with your eyes glued to the road to miss the bottles, gels, caps etc scattered everywhere – heaven knows what it was like 10,000 runners further back. And the occasional spectator trying to cross the course…
Mens race came down to these 2 and the shorter guy Kebede won.Learning from Amanda, I ran steadily around 7 min/mile out to the half way point in 1:32:40, and then I had another rush of blood to the head – 6:44, 6:41, 5:16, 6:43. OK – one of those was the Garmin throwing a wobbly around Canary Wharf: it packed up completely a little further on. You think silly thoughts during a marathon, and I was trying to get to the 18 mile mark fast enough to be able to run 8 min/miles the rest of the way and still break 3:15 – don’t ask me why, since I was also determined to try and run every mile inside 8 minutes. Once 18 miles came, the pace steadily dropped – but not dramatically, and the distance did seem to go by quicker than expected. Coming onto the Embankment I got one final push from the sight of a large green leprechaun ahead of me, and that I just had to run down, and then it was mercifully all over. My 3:10 means I could do this again next year if I wanted – but at the moment, I can think of more fun things to do!
Report Richard Dennis
Shobukhova is the first Russian to win the womens' race
First British runner over the line was Fifer Andrew Lemoncello (8th place! 2.13) who deserves a round of applause for not leaving it up to Paula to be the fastest GB runner. You can read his blog and thoughts about the run here.
Scott's report...
Scott Storm(trooper)s Round the VLM
I have to say this is probably the most fun I have ever had during a race. I was running with my mate Stewart who was running for charity and we were targeting about 5 to 5 ½ hours.
I was dreading it at first, mainly due to the extreme lack of training and the fact I had never ran for so long before. The plan was however to have fun. I had always remembered Berts comments after New York a couple of years back. He was injured and did a walk-run-hobble which took him over 5 hours I think yet he said it was the most enjoyable marathon he had completed and this from a 2.45 man.
I had at one point been joking with Stewart about running in fancy dress but it had been simply that, joking. On the Thursday before however I just decided why not, I want to have fun so why not dress up. So up in the attic I went on the Thursday night and looked out my stormtrooper outfit. I had bought it to wear to a work party the prior year before you ask.
Stewart and ScottThe crowds are always amazing anyway however dressed as a stormtrooper increases it ten fold. From the off it was high fiving not only the kids but the adults wanted in on it too. The shouts of ‘it’s a stormtrooper’ ‘there comes a stormtrooper’ ‘come on the stormtrooper’ etc were just non stop and really gave you a buzz. There were a few shouts of R2D2 and Darth Vader but hey we are not all Star Wars fans. I think at the end of the race my hands were as sore as my legs. I was even chased at one point by a small boy shouting after me as he thought I was a real stormtrooper, the crowds thought it was hilarious.
We were stopping to do a highland fling where the pipe band was playing, doing the Macarena and a couple of other dances at different points as well. It was just all about having as much fun as possible and playing to the crowds of course.
The highlight however was probably being high fived by Princess Beatrice. My friend had stopped to put a plaster on a blister and I was still hyper at the side of the road shouting encouragement to the runners going past and high fiving lots of them as they passed. A woman spectator and her 2 children then came and stood beside me and I heard her say to the kids’ here comes the Princess now’. Well I am watching out for someone dressed as Cinderella or the like and am still high fiving the passing runners and just as I am high fiving this girl runner part of a group of runners dressed in black I suddenly realise hey that is Fergies daughter that just high fived me. Which one I couldn’t tell you at the time, it was later someone told me it was Beatrice.
I also saw Porty Mark when I was at about mile 13 and he was at about 22 coming the other way. I shouted on him a few times and he eventually looked over but probably just saw this idiot in a stormtrooper outfit jumping up and down waving his helmet in the air, so not sure if he knew it was me.
Mara Yamauchi, GB's top female (running) had an epic journey to arrive at the start line which probably took its toll.
Stewart and I managed to get round in 5.05 which was a great effort from him. We had talked about a walk-run plan however we probably only walked 3 times and for no longer than half a mile in total. In fact if he hadn’t stopped to put the plaster on I am confident we would have been under 5 hours. But hey then I would not have got to touch royalty.
This was the most enjoyable race I have ever taken part in; it is so hard to actually put into words just how much fun this run actually was. I am writing this on the Wednesday after and am still buzzing and this is actually the 4th attempt at this report as there is so much to talk about but I would have completed a novel by the time I was finished. I mean I didn’t even talk about running for a couple of minutes with the real Wonder Woman (aka Michelle Ryan) who was running on her own.
Next marathon however, the outfit will hopefully be kept in the attic and the race shoes back on with sights set on a sub 3.
Well done to all runners of the VLM, especially the Porty runners. A number appear to have done really well.
Report Scott Skywalker Hutchison
Results and website here
Lastly is Emily Ramsay's report...
What Virgin London Marathon 2010 meant for me:
L - Loved the organisation, Expo, fantastic atmosphere & mixing with the celebs at the Green Start!
O - Over the top support from the Macmillan team, friends, family and of course Jim.
N - My best friend/mentor Nat who clocked in a brilliant PB of 2:55:52, amazing.
D - Digging deep after mile 20+, one more step...
O - OMG, the finish line which I've watched every year on the TV, I finally managed to break the 3:30 barrier and crossed the line in 3:28:00! A PB of 13 minutes - beautiful.
N - New goals, new races, next marathon, here I come - yeha!Emily Ramsay - (the Ramsay that didn't quit at mile 20!)
Just in - some more photos of Scott Hutchison as a Stormtrooper...!
