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Just 16 weeks after the New Years training started for Ironman Germany and the London Marathon was upon me. I’ve always loved London, it was my 5th London and 14th marathon overall. It’s one race that I will always want to do. It has the most electric atmosphere of any marathon I’ve ever done including New York City and that’s pretty amazing too. The noise going through Canary Wharf has to be heard to be believed.
 
Feeling in the best shape ever coming into this race off my UKA Half marathon champs race a few weeks ago I knew I’d be somewhere around the 3hr mark, but not sure which side!
 
The race weeks consisted of very little training as there is not much I couldn't do now to get fitter, but a lot I can do to mess things up. So I plan the week meticulously. No training Monday, Tuesday. An easy 3 mile run with short intervals on Wednesday, travel to London marathon expo on Thursday, 5 mile jog Friday, complete rest Saturday. That leaves me nicely ticking over and fresh to go on Sunday.
 
All the logistics went to plan and I arrived at the start line in tip top shape, all 'Acceleraded' up and raring to go.
 
The first few miles of London are downhill so its easy to get carried away. It’s difficult to gauge if you’re going too fast, as you are going to get a little ahead of your even paced split times. I seemed to have gained around 2 minutes by mile 13. (That’s averaging 6:44 pace and 6:52 is sub 3hr) but was finding the pace quite comfortable so decided to stay on this pace which would have brought me home in around 2:56 without fade. But that's never happened in a marathon yet, I’ve always had a little fade. But it’s where that fade starts that makes the difference. I had fed every 40mins on an Accelerade Gel's and I seemed to be holding on to the 2minute gain all the way up to Canary Wharf at mile 18, this is where I usually start to feel the fatigue coming on. Well I made it through Canary Wharf and seemed to be holding pace until around mile 20,then it got hard… real hard. I had to dedicate, each of the remaining miles to someone who had helped me get to this point in the race, this helps me take my mind off the pain and helps count the miles left with a positive mindset. Then at mile 24ish (It started to get blurry at this point) I saw the pace maker for the sub 3hr marathoners alongside me (inc James Cracknell), this was my last chance to get on that elusive sub 3hr train. I hung on for about another mile but I was fading fast and couldn’t hold on, for all I was worth I tried. My legs were just too heavy and my effort rate was unsustainable.
 
I knew the moment had passed and then the doubts creep in, “Am I going to make sub 3:15?” which is crazy, because in reality you’re only losing seconds over a few miles. As I turned onto the Mall with 200 metres to go the gantry clock was ticking over 3:01, the sub3 dream was gone, but it was going to be a personal best by 5 mins I couldn’t grumble at that. 3:01:43 (average 6:56 pace). Sooo close!
 
The last mile was dedicated to my Dad and Paul, who I was running in memory of... giants on my shoulders for the finishing chute...

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