7th – 10th of March – London and Kingston Breakfest Run

We lived in London back in ’86-’89, more exactly in Kingston (“Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames”). Since then I’ve visited London several times but I never returned to Kingston. That was due to a change, and when I saw they had a run in the spring it was hard to ignore. It wasn’t the usual half or full marathon distance, but rather an 8/16/20 mile run, the longest distance promoted as a good warmup for the London marathon 4 weeks later. So obviously I signed up for the 20 mile distance despite not running the London marathon – I felt like such a rebel.

In spite of the extensive train and underground network in London there is no good direct connection to Kingston from the central part of the city (the furthest “in” you can get without changing is Waterloo), but coming from Heathrow there was a direct bus which made it so much easier. 

Don't drink and phone.

I spent a few days walking around and reacquainting myself with the neighborhood. I was reminded how long time ago I last was here because everything felt both smaller and much closer together than I recalled. Hampton Wick station far away from home? 10 minute walk. The building at the far end of the road we lived on? Maybe 50 meters away. But other than that where we lived looked almost identical to how I remembered it. So it was quite eye opening and yet it was nice to walk around recognizing the different places I hadn’t seen in more than 30 years.

There were quite a few of these kinds of statues spread out throughout the center. 

 

The runs were centered around an 8-mile loop, so running the 16-mile run you ran it twice, and the 20-mile run required running it twice and adding onto that a smaller 4-mile loop. The start (and finish) was located on Kingston Historic Market, and from there we went north, circling the Bentall Centre before crossing Kingston Bridge. From there we followed the pathway along River Thames all the way to Hampton Court Bridge which we crossed and from there we followed the road (A309/Hampton Court Way) until reaching the roundabout past the railroad and turning onto A307/Portsmouth Road and basically following that all the way back to the market. Second round was identical except from going directly to Kingston Bridge from the market, bypassing the Bentall Centre. After the second round we once again crossed the Kingston Bridge, but only continued for app. 1 km before turning around, passing under the bridge before looping around and crossing in the opposite direction, looping around and running along the river (almost) parallel with the main loop, but opposite direction. Reaching Kingston Island we rejoined the main loop and returned to the market, finishing the 20 miles.

Nearing the Historic Market.

 

Running along the River Thames after crossing the Kingston Bridge. 

I managed to finish in 2:50:14, a result I was very happy about. That put me as 249 out of 582 overall (top 42,78%), 179 out of 320 men (top 55,94%) and 30 out of 49 in my age group (top 61,22). The relative results were quite a surprise – obviously some very serious runners doing that distance so the competition was tough. I am assuming it could have something to do with more casual runners go for the known distances (5k, 10k, half and full marathons) and these odd distances have less interesting – especially the longer ones.

Happy with the result I grabbed my medal and snacks, bought some cakes at the market and returned to my hotel less than 10 minutes away. The rest of the stay in Kingston was spent either relaxing at the hotel or sitting in a restaurant somewhere eating. My favorite thing(s).

Full album can be seen here. 

Final (?) update for the Abbott World Marathon Majors

As mentioned previously the Tokyo marathon opened up for more participants through travel agents, so suddenly I got moved up 2 years meaning that instead of running Tokyo marathon and completing my 6 Marathon Majors in March 2026 I got the opportunity to do it in 2024. I didn't need much convincing to do that.

This means that I have now completed the 6 marathons majors as follows:

Berlin - September 2019 - 3:58:16
New York - November 2019 - 4:11:53
Boston - April 2022 - 3:59:30
Chicago - October 2022 - 3:58:02
London - April 2023 - 3:58:42
Tokyo - March 2024 - 3:59:06

So this is the final update for the marathon majors.

Well, maybe not completely final; Cape Town and Sidney are considered candidate runs in an attempt to be accepted as the 7th and 8th majors, and further out Shanghai is also lurking on the horizon. Interesting times ahead. But for now, I'm enjoying the accomplishment and my new medal.

23rd – 24th – Post race and return home

In the evening the travel group met up in the hotel’s bar where we had a few drinks before heading into the hotel’s restaurant. It was a mixed experience; ordering the food was easy and it (and the drinks) arrived very fast, but despite ordering individually (we were sitting spread out and not at one single large table) they had completely forgotten who had ordered what, and it didn’t help that people were often engrossed in discussions and didn’t notice a waiter looking for an owner of a plate of food. Or that some people seemed confused about what had been ordered. 

Having a late flight out the next day I left my bag at the hotel before having one last walk in the city. I could still feel the soreness from yesterday but it wasn’t too bad. I definitely also saw people walking who were struggling significantly more than me getting around. The weather on the list day was generally ok – better than the previous – so that was pleasant. 

One last look at the parakeets.

Getting to the airport was as easy as arrival, and I was soon seated in a lounge with a view of the planes. Too bad it turned out that it was probably the lounge I could have chosen that was the furthest away from my gate. That wasn’t part of the plan, and because they didn’t reveal the gate number until less than half an hour before boarding I had to do a brisk almost 20 minute walk to my gate. While I didn’t have major issues with my leg from yesterday throughout the day, I could definitely feel that walk. But with an uneventful flight and a train departure on arrival that didn’t fit at all with when I showed up on the platform, I was soon home resting my legs and feeling happy about another trip done. 

Full album can be seen here.

23rd – London marathon

The forecast for the day had been including rain throughout the entire day, but last night it had changed to looking positive with 10-13°C and slightly clouded with no rain. So it was a bit disappointing standing in the waiting area a few minutes before start and seeing – and feeling – it starting raining. The temperature dropped quite a bit with the rain coming down and I was just looking forward to getting started hoping to build up some warmth. While it didn’t rain for the entire run, we did experience the occasional drizzle throughout the entire thing.

A start in classic English conditions.

Photo taken by Sportograf.

In spite of the weather the support along the course was absolutely amazing. As an English runner pointed out this was completely normal English weather so there was no reason why this should keep people away. And rightly so; there was maybe 500m in total for the entire course where there weren’t anyone cheering you on, otherwise the support was immense: eager, loud and very engaged. There were layers of people on multiple stretches trying to get close to us – but as opposed to the Paris marathon this course had been fenced off so we were able to run uninterrupted. So much energy.

Circling Cutty Sark (just seen to the right of the frame).

Photo taken by Sportograf.

We started off in Greenwich and started off towards east to Woolwich where turned around and ran to and circled Cutty Sark, continued through Rotherhithe before reaching Tower Bridge. Crossing that we went east again, crisscrossed Canary Wharf before the almost same way back past the Tower Bridge, continuing west along the Themes until reaching Westminster where we turned up towards Buckingham palace which we briefly passed before turning down The Mall and crossing the finish line. To be completely honest the course wasn’t terribly interesting apart from maybe the last 5-10km but the support made up for it in spades. Running on the many streets there were often buildings on both sides, keeping the noise from the spectators concentrated, increasing the volume. But impressively, the loudest part on the course was actually on Tower Bridge despite it being completely open; the sidewalks were absolutely stuffed with people screaming. That was quite the experience.

Crossing Tower Bridge.

Photo taken by Sportograf.

At around 25-30km I realized I was starting to slow down – my estimated finish time was suddenly down to around 04:30, and regardless of how much I tried to run faster I seemed to be stuck in the slower pace. Then I tried focusing on passing other runners instead of just running faster, and suddenly I was back to an estimated finish time of 3:58, so things were back to how they were supposed to be. Reaching the last 5-7km my estimated finish time was swinging between 3:58 and 4:01 so things were getting a bit stressful towards the end. 

Nearing the end.

Photo taken by Sportograf.

Pushing through on the last few kilometers I managed to finish in 3:58:42, which I was very happy with. That put me as 17715 out of 48743 in total (top 36,34%), 12993 out of 28397 men (top 45,75%) and 2314 out of 4615 M4044 (top 50,14%). So compared to my other runs this was actually quite a good result in the end despite my struggles along the way, and a result I am now very happy with.

Going through the roundabout in front of Buckingham Palace.

Photo taken by Sportograf.

20th – 22nd of April – London pre-race

With my booked flight in the afternoon I had hoped to be able to still have time to check in at the hotel and then go to the runners’ expo before they closed to get the entire pickup over with before the crowds would arrive on the last days before the run.

My flight was at 1500 with an arrival time of 1600 2 hours later. Despite being almost half an hour late taking off we still made the landing on time. A short taxi to the gate and reaching immigration, apart from staff, only me and two others from the flight was present, so that was the fastest automatic immigration process ever! Following a long walk to the Heathrow Express I had an uneventful ride to Paddington where I changed to a local train. The train here was halted as another further ahead had stalled at a station and they were waiting for a crew to sort it out before we could continue. At home that could easily take 10-20 minutes, and I was prepared to wait for that, but only a few minutes later they had solved the issue and we were off. Reaching my destination there was a 5 minutes’ walk from the train to the hotel and I was checked in and in my room at 1710.

I thought that was pretty impressive considering the size of the airport and the chaos that sometimes ensues. I grabbed the necessary stuff and returned to the train that I then took out to the expo where I spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the booths after getting my bib and pack.

I took the train back but got off a few stations before the one at my hotel to have a walk and see the darkening city. I ended up walking along the Themes taking in the London Skyline, especially with Tower Bridge and London Tower (naturally). A few hours later I was back at the hotel after a surprising chilly walk.

Tower Bridge with Tower of London to the left.

Looking down the Themes from Tower Bridge (The Shard to the left).

The following day I took a slow morning and grabbed breakfast at the hotel. I have always considered it an unwritten rule that if you leave your keycard at the table it indicates you haven’t left but just up and grabbing more food. Not here, apparently; returning from the buffet with some bread rolls my table was cleared including my card. I grabbed hold of the waiter and pointed at the table but before I got to say anything he reassured me it was unoccupied. I pointed out that it had been occupied by me, leaving my card to signal that, and now it was all gone. He huffed, almost rolled his eyes (from me being a difficult guest or from an overeager colleague I can’t say), ruffled through the table with dirty dishes and returned my card when I came back with more drinks to replace my lost glasses. I might bring a jacket tomorrow so I don’t get the same treatment. Then again; they might just think someone have forgotten it and remove that, too.

After this a bit too interesting breakfast I returned to my room, grabbed my stuff and went out to have a walk without any set purpose. I got all the way to outside the hotel doors until I had my first break: it was absolutely pouring down so I felt it was best to wait until it dried up a bit more – just like everyone else standing around, waiting. Only a few moments later I was able to get on with my day.

Passing through – well, around as they were doing renovations – Trafalgar Square I continued on towards Buckingham Palace which required a small detour as they were already preparing for the marathon and the Mall – the main street going up to the palace – is the finishing area for the run. Going through the park there were pigeons, geese, squirrels and ducks as you’d expect from a city park, but to my surprise there were also parakeets which were being fed by passerbys. I did not expect to see them here, I would have thought that parakeets preferred better (warmer, dryer) weather than what you’d get in London, but apparently not. 

From there I circled west through more parks until I reached the Themes across from the Battersea Power Station, probably best know for being on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals. From there I trotted along the river until reaching Parliament and Big Ben, an area which was hard to get through as Extinction Rebellion and other similar groups were protesting with stages, booths and what have you. Managing to get through I continued, ending up away from the river, getting a late lunch consisting of fish & chips. One of the advantages of travelling alone is when you are in a queue waiting for a table, and they suddenly have a small table available you get to skip numerous larger groups in front of you. 

Red tree next to Buckingham Palace.

After lunch I trotted a bit around before returning to the hotel for a break before leaving again in the evening for dinner. I ended up at a nice Italian place with quick service and good food – and it turned out it was only 10 minutes from the hotel, something I hadn’t realized when arriving due to the random walking and zigzagging getting me there.

Found this very alive statue in a small green spot on my walk.

Saturday morning the travel group met up at 0700 to go for a short morning run. We ran to the starting area 2-ish km away and back again. As it was just us the way there wasn’t blocked off so we had to adhere to the traffic lights on the way, and combined with a couple of stops where we were briefed on tomorrow it ended up being a very relaxing almost 1-hour 5km run.

World's smallest hotel room?

Following a shower and breakfast I left on a short walk to not to be holed up in the small hotel room all day. Ending up being almost 3 hours I ended up walking east past Spitalfields market, St. Katherine Docks Marina, Tower Bridge and London Tower before heading back.

For dinner there was a pasta buffet at the hotel. With a major part of the travel group having signed up we got our own section of the restaurant for ourselves. Unfortunately, despite not being able to hear the other groups in the restaurant, the acoustics of the room was absolutely horrendous so as soon as someone started talking, you could barely hear what the person next to you was saying. But the pasta – and desserts – were good.

New update for Abbott World Marathon Majors

With last year's completion of Chicago and Boston marathons, and the mail received letting me participate in the 2023 London marathon, things have been moving forward in more sense than one. On top of that its satisfying being able to cross them off one at a time. This means that 4 of the World Marathon Majors are complete, one is in the near future and one is still some years in the future.

As things are currently, this is the current schedule, past and future.

Berlin - September 2019
New York - November 2019
Boston - April 2022
Chicago - October 2022
London - April 2023
Tokyo - March 2026

So in a few months I will have only one left, so I guess I'll have to find other runs in the mean time to keep me on my toes. Sounds like a horrible concept. Also, there are rumors that they are planning on adding another run to the group, so even if I can see the end of it now it might change in the future. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out as there have been talk for a long time to add more run(s). We'll see, but I worry this will be an endless chase with always another one in the future that has just been added, and not being able to actually finish the group like I did with the Superhalfs. 

Running fish & chips

Towards the end of September I received a mail from the travel agent doing the marathon tours that London had opened up for some more spots in 2023, so anyone who had booked for a later date could, if they were quick, sign up for the 2023 run instead, shortening the wait. I didn't think I was particularly quick, but apparently quick enough, so now I'm going to London in April 2023 instead of in 2025.

London is a nice city and I'm looking forward to going back, even if it is for a marathon.

20th - 22nd of April
Flying out to London in the afternoon I don't expect to be able to get to the expo on the first day. Instead I'll have Friday and Saturday to get there, and also spending time wandering the city and having (another) look at this fine old city.

23rd of April
Race day. The starting point is out in Greenwich and after a quick detour around Woolwich we return past the Cutty Sark, largely following the Themes before crossing the Tower Bridge, circling around in the opposite direction so you get to see the Cutty Sark and O2 Arena from the opposite side before going back, passing the Tower Bridge and ultimately finishing in St. James Park. It looks like a nice course, but also potentially narrow streets so I'm looking forward to see how congested the entire run is going to be.

24th of April.
Flight back home in the early evening. That means I get one last shot at fish & chips before having to return to the airport.

Ignoring the potentially (very) British weather I think this will be a great trip and run. The course takes you around to some pretty nice sights so it'll truly be a running sightseeing. 

Update on the Abbott World Marathon Majors

For someone who enjoys travelling it has been some frustrating years to get through, and carefully laid plans got moved around, cancelled and postponed. With the pandemic seemingly reaching the end one could hope that the current planning might hold going forward.

I was supposed to run in Boston April last year, and after being postponed multiple times it seems like I now have a spot for the run next year. Similarly with Chicago, and with the US borders not opening until November this year it looks like I'll be running that next year. Also, due to cancellation of Tokyo a marathon and them being careful on the first post-pandemic (halving the capacity), my spot for Tokyo has been pushed back to 2026. So the schedule for the 4 remaining marathons (having already done Berlin and New York) looks something like this:

Boston – April 2022

Chicago – October 2022

London – April 2025

Tokyo – March 2026

It looks like, as things are currently, that this schedule should hold, but I have learnt not to rely on any vacation scheduling more than a couple of weeks in advance. Hopefully things settle down and I can look forward to joining some of the big runs in the world again, it'll feel great getting back out and running.

13th – 14th – Post-run and returning home

After getting out of the shower back in my hotel room (which, by the way, I had spent together with my running shoes which were in much need of a thorough rinse) and trying to get my legs working again, I left the hotel a bit past noon to try and find some lunch. Successfully filled with delicious burger I had a short walk before returning to my room and had a very much needed rest for the legs.

In the evening we met up for dinner – at a local Italian restaurant (not the same as the one I visited last night). The food was pretty great, but the interior of the restaurant was something else. Imagine someone walking along a beach and finding several galleons and deciding to use the ships to decorate. It was just a single floor but balconies down along the sides and at the end made room for more tables, with small cubbies underneath these. On the way there I was told to remember to go to the bathroom while there. I first thought it was due to the low quality of food, but when entering the bathroom I saw the walls were covered in detailed… adult… imagery. Not something I had expected to see on my visit there. 

The restaurant was quite peculiar... 

... and the bathroom even more so.

Leaving the restaurant after the successful meal we returned to the hotel, and as the weather was still very nice (as in: dry) I grabbed my camera and returned to Tower Bridge in an attempt to get some better shots than the other night in the rain. Things ended up being much more relaxed this time – funny how that is when you don’t have to constantly stop everything you’re doing to dry off the lens while still trying to keep everything as dry as possible. After a good few hours in the area I finally made it back to the hotel at 0200.

Tower of London.

London Bridge.

Tower Bridge with flashy lights.

The Shard and moon.

I managed to sleep in Monday morning and had a full breakfast at the hotel before checking out just before 1100. I didn’t do much but an aimless wander around – passed by 221B Baker Street but it just being a museum/shop looking like a tourist trap I kept walking past. I ended up returning to Paddington Station and taking the train back to the airport where I spent a few hours in the lounge before boarding and flying home according to schedule.

Overall this was a really nice trip and run. I should probably have rested a bit more after the run than I did – walking about for so long was not something that made me good friends with my legs, especially not after pushing myself as I did during the run. The route exceeded my expectations, I really enjoyed it and the locations we passed by, but I’m probably a bit biased due to my result and the fact that it was the only day during the trip it kept dry almost the entire day, giving us close to perfect running weather. It was definitely a great experience.

Full album can be seen here.

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.