John's (occasional) Running Blog

I returned to Amsterdam after running this last year : I had worked out that the right strategy would be start the first half at 5min 30secs pace and then push to 5min 20secs pace in the second half. I was having doubts about this thinking that it was overly optimistic,

It was cool, a little breezy and raining at the start, but that eased soon after. I decided to ‘go for it’ and follow the plan. It worked !! I ran my fastest Marathon since 2019 but also with the second half marathon being 4 mins faster than the first, and the last 10km also the fastest.

I also came second in my Age Group with a time of 3h 47m 47s.

After Cape Town, I focussed on trying to improve my speed endurance by going to the weekday Serpentine Track & Hills training sessions.

I took part in the Summer League 5 mile/10km races where I came second in my Age Group – I came first last year. I’ll be in the V75 Age Group next year so 🤞I can get back to being first ! I also ran a 5k Race, 2 10k races and a 1k & 1mile race. The Middlesex 10k was the Middlesex County Championships where I got a bronze medal – annoyingly if I had run the same time as the London 10000 of the week before, that would have been gold.

While I knew that this marathon was hilly, I had significantly underestimated how tough the first 10k was. This combined with it being a hot day (for me) resulted in a slow time. I’m glad to have run this marathon but its not on my list of those to run again.

Third Marathon in 3 weeks … and slowest. Warmer than was comfortable for me along with too many runners making it very hard to maintain an even pace. So I wasn’t able to match or even better my times from Brighton and Manchester : I cannot be too unhappy with 4h 7m but I do think the Marathon now has too many runners.

It was great to be part of the team fundraising for the MS Trust Charity’s team – their biggest team ever with a traget of £250k. But also to take part in the race that saw not one but two runners break the 2 hour barrier .

And then there’s that great finish !!

Ran this the weekend after Brighton Marathon : Went OK marginally faster than Brighton by ~20 seconds and a modest negative split. Didn’t realise that this was also the England Athletics Masters Marathon Champs in which I would have come 6th had I entered.

Happy with that time and managed a modest negative split, plus 2nd in Category,

The plans are beginning to come together mainly due to two emails I received in recent days.

Firstly this one last week which means I am working on plans to get to Cape Town for the Age Group World Marathon Championships : This should also be my eighth Star

Then this morning I received an email that I had qualified for the London Marathon with a Good for Age place.

These are added to the Hampton Court Half Marathon and the Original London Marathon (over the course of London 1908 Olympic Marathon). I also have places on Brighton, Manchester, Prague & Leeds Marathons but may well not run all of these.

Just back from Florence where I ran the Marathon for what I think was the 10th time. As usual the weather was as good as you could wish for on a Marathon : 10 Degrees, no wind and soft sun.

Getting to Florence nearly didn’t happen : I had a flight to Florence booked leaving in the middle of the day, Friday. Checking details as I was getting ready to leave for Gatwick, I found that the flight had been cancelled without reason but was offered an evening flight which I accepted. As a result I didn’t get checked into my B & B until after midnight, missing out on a decent evening meal. There was talk of industrial action but I now suspect the cancellation was due to the temporary Airbus grounding for a software update after it was discovered that intense solar radiation could interfere with onboard flight control computers.

I met up with some friends on Saturday for mid-afternoon lunch – not my choice – so my normal eating/nutrition routine was upset. The consequence being that I had an forced unplanned toilet stop at around ~33km during the Marathon on Sunday. This cost several minutes unfortunately but my time of 3h 58m 16s was OK, slightly faster than Amsterdam & actually probably 3h 55m allowing for the toilet stop, plus a negative split.

Now to plan for 2026 : I should hear soon if I have a Good For Age place on the London Marathon 🤞

This is all about 2 Marathons.

The first one, 3 weeks after running the Berlin Marathon, was the Amsterdam Marathon. It was a cold and breezy day where I spent much of the time prior to the start hiding in the doorway of a Café trying to keep warm. However all was OK once the race started and was pleased with my time of 3h 58m, with a negative split where the second half of the race was faster than the first.

The second one, 3 weeks after the Amsterdam Marathon, was the Athens Marathon. The course is basically that of the first Marathon of the modern Olympiad in 1896, starting in Marathon and finishing in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. This Marathon is the ‘original’ and had not been included in this form as part of the 1896 Athens Olympics, we would not have had the Marathon as a race. This is the stadium that was the one that was restored in 1896 from what was left of the original stadium from about 2000 years ago. This made the finish uniquely special and quite a reward after completing the challenge of up to 1500 feet of uphill running, with high temperatures & humidity – there were reports suggesting that it was >30 degrees C at some points on the course.

A number of races to report on :

Three 10ks ; Firstly the LDNX 10k in Wembley which is a new race with a course that goes round the area outside Wembley Stadium. Bizarrely it starts in and then later goes through some of the Stadium’s Car Parks : This makes for some challenging conditions on bright sunny days. Then later the Middlesex County Championships in Victoria Park. I won a silver medal in the County Champs. Lastly the the London (Vitality) 10000 which is basically a lap of the London Olympics Marathon course starting in the Mall & then going out & back to the City. Times not quite as fast as I wanted but OK just on 50 minutes % 75% age grading.

The Westminster Mile was the day before the London 10000 : It felt frustrating not to run anywhere near as fast as I used to be able to over this distance but I did at least have the satisfaction of being 3rd in my age group.

The Big Half (half marathon) was as usual, a tougher course from Tower Bridge going in reverse over much of the normal London Marathon course to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. Time was a minute slower than my Hampton Court time but the latter is a faster course.

Finally there was the Berlin Marathon towards the end of September. While it was very hot and very humid, I don’t know why I found this so very hard – my time was the slowest since Sydney for which I couldn’t train while recovering from my Achilles injuries.