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.

London calling

Training for a marathon requires a fair bit of running before crossing the start line (yeah, you can’t go from couch potato to marathon without training – shocking, I know). So I’ve been spending a fair bit of time getting to know the area around my apartment quite well. It does get a bit repetitive at times and sometimes you just want some kind of variation to try and make things a bit interesting. 

I regularly run a half marathon just for practice purposes and try to find half marathon races I can implement into my training to get a much needed break in the otherwise quite monotonous routine of running in familiar surroundings. And when I find one that fits me it’s hard not to sign up – even if it isn’t necessarily just around the corner.

11^th – 14^th of October

Fly out early (early!) in the morning to London, giving me most of the Friday in the city, followed by a relaxing Saturday before participating in the Royal Parks Half Marathon, the route starting and ending in Hyde Park and circling around through The Green Park and St. James’ Park (and a bit further out to Somerset House). A relaxing run before I Monday evening fly back home.

The run is squeezed in between my Berlin and New York marathons so will mainly be for recreational purposes. I probably won’t be able to not push myself a bit, but my focus will be to using the race to recuperate and keeping myself mobile until the next race. A few people have hinted the risk of burn out with so many races in close succession and I am fully aware of that (CPH half, 2 weeks later Berlin, 2 weeks later this and 3 weeks later New York) which is why this won’t be one where I’ll be pushing myself. And also, if I had been staying home, my running route would likely have been longer than the 21,1km anyway. In any case we’ll just have to wait and see…