13th – Run, forest, run!

At 0730 the group met up in the hotel’s reception to gather and go to the starting area for the run. It was easy enough – get the underground just around the corner, change after one stop and go another 3-4 stops and exit just (almost) around the corner from the starting area. Everything went smooth until we had to get onto the second train. The platform was suspiciously full with people, and when the train arrived it was already packed. Somehow, though, we still managed to squeeze everyone in before the train continued. At the next few stops the people there waiting to get on realized that the real challenge today wasn’t the run but actually getting there by train. A few managed to get on, but it looked like at least half waited for the next departure. Arriving at the destination everyone poured out of the train, leaving maybe a handful of people behind in the carriages looking bewildered and relieved. 

The start was in Hyde Park, and while the entire run was on roads the starting area with bag-checks and whatnot was on a lawn. And with the constant rain the previous days and thousands of people walking around it did not take long for it to turn into mud. It was a balancing act to avoid getting too wet (and cold) feet before the run but it was fairly successful, though returning from the run I quickly gave up and had a thick layer of mud stuck on the shoes when returning to the hotel.

Passing by Buckingham Palace at around 2km.

Photo taken by Marathon-Photos.com.

Standing in the 1:40-1:50-group put me surprisingly close to the front, and giving the starting group a 3 minutes head start we were off. It was quite a nice route through London; starting on the south border of Hyde Park we quickly came down past Buckingham Palace and circling St. James’s Park, reaching King’s College London before circling back past Buckingham Palace once again before entering Hyde Park and the second half of the run. With the weather still keeping dry and plenty of people out and cheering throughout the park it was an absolute joy, all things considered.

Photo taken by Marathon-Photos.com.

The fact that I was still feeling this happy close to the finish was a good sign,

Photo taken by Marathon-Photos.com.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to keep up with the 1:40-pacers for the entire run (who, by the way, for the fist 4-7km ran at 1:30-1:35 which was a bit of a dick move) but I managed to finish at 1:41:21. I had hoped to get 1:40:xx but I wasn’t too disappointed with the time; it was still a 1:56 improvement of my 4 week old PR (which again was a 3:07 improvement of my previous PR). I ended up being 822 out of 5439 in my age group (M18-45, which was also called MS – Men Senior. I don’t know how to feel about that. The other groups were just M45+ and M60+), putting me in the top 15,11%, 1017 out of 7750 men making it top 13,12% and 1145 out of 15861 in total, putting me in top 7,22%.

Despite not hitting that 1:40:xx mark I do feel quite satisfied with that result.