The London Marathon was a few weeks ago now and it’s been full of different emotions. Everyone asking how it went, expecting me to say I beat last year's time. This wasn’t the case. I had 6 months less training and I knew beforehand that it would take a small miracle to beat it.
As much as you can train for an event like a marathon, there are some things that on race day will just be completely out of your control.
The weather can be one of these things.
This year I trained for the London Marathon and until March, I was training in the rain and the cold. I even did one of my longest runs in a blizzard! Come race day on April 22nd, the weather had done a 180 turn and it was looking to be the hottest run on record.
Come race day, it was hot even as I left the house at 7am and a slight wave of panic washed over me. I soon realised that yes it was going to be a hot day, but there really wasn’t much I could do about it – 40,000 other people were going to have to deal with it and so was I.
Now don’t get me wrong, I won’t deny it’s more enjoyable to run on a nice sunny day than a cold, wet one but when its 26 miles and you’re body isn’t used to it, it seems a bit like life is trying to play a cruel trick on you!
Everyone I spoke to on the start line had a time they were aiming for but the majority of them also knew that there goals may not be realistic now. Some were going to listen to their body and slow when they needed to, some were planning to run for 20 minutes, walk for 10 and some were still insistent that they were going to get the times they wanted. It was interesting to see different peoples’ attitudes and how they were dealing with the potential outcome of not getting the time that they’d been training all those months for!
When you looked around, the majority of people had listened to the sound advice emailed out to us on the days leading up to the events; “We advise you to rethink your fancy dress plans due to the weather”. But you couldn’t help but admire those who had stuck to their guns and stuck with the costumes. From the WWF rhinos, to Paddington Bear to the heroic firefighters who were in Grenfell. I didn’t envy them but I was sure to cheer them on as I went by!
It was looking around at those moments and seeing those giving it their all and although they might not be going to get the quickest time, they were doing it and raising some incredible money for some incredible charities.
So sometimes you can plan, train and plan some more but come race day, something might happen that you just can’t control nor change. So concentrate on getting round and simply finishing because as this year proves, not everyone gets to do that.
