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.
So its summer where day time temperatures are not the friend of runners. I don’t anticipate being able to do anything more than the occasional long run and will focus instead on weekday club training sessions at Paddington Rec. Track and Hills at Primrose Hill.
Summer League is a series of Sunday 3 x 5 mile & 2 x 10km races each hosted by a London based running club : 2 down so far with last one in mid-august. Its clear that I need to work hard on restoring some lost speed over these shorter distances. My 5mile times are about 4 minutes slower than when I last ran these races in 2023.
The club puts on 1km, 1 mile, & 3000m races but I will just do the 1km. I also have some 10km races including the Middles County Championships as well as the Big Half Marathon before we hit the autumn Marathon races starting with Berlin for which I got a last minute pace.
Phew – what a scorcher !! All in aid of the MS Trust.
London knows how to put on a Marathon even if the weather is best for supporters and bad for fast times !! Was wearing my ‘sensible’ hat and went round in 4 hours 8 mins : Took a lot of water to drink & to pour over myself.
Although a couple of minutes slower than Tokyo (faster & flat course), I was pleased as this was a controlled run. But the long inclines showed the lack of hill training.
Here’s a video of the last 3 minutes of the Race but sadly you don’t get the true feel of the noise generated by the supporters, except perhaps when the sound of everyone banging on the hoardings becomes muffled. Thats because it was sooo loud.
(Apologies for my left hand appearing in the Video – the camera moved down & to the left during the race)
I am running both the Paris Marathon (13th April) and the London Marathon (27th April) to fund raise for the Multiple Sclerosis Trust (MS Trust). The MS Trust performs a unique and vital role in supporting MS sufferers and they would really appreciate your support.
Click here to donate and here to find out more about the work that the MS Trust does.
Thank you
Having spent most of last year trying to recover from an Achilles tendon injury which initially left me having to wear a ‘boot’ to walk, it was a relief to be able to run the Florence & Valencia Marathons in November/December 2024 and starting in the New Year, to put in a decent block of training with 4 runs & 3 gym sessions/week.
I was pleased with my time of 1h 52m for the Hampton Court Half Marathon last month and that I was able to gradually speed up over the course. But I was less happy with 4h 10m for the Tokyo Marathon at the beginning of March. Even though it wasn’t particularly warm at up to 18 degrees, the astonishing brightness of the sun in Tokyo had a very dehydrating effect on all runners with water & drink shortages at the later aid stations. It was very congested with many runners on a course that was too narrow in places. But having run the Tokyo Marathon I do now have my 6th Star : Although technically it was my 7th star as I had run the Sydney Marathon Abbott World Age Grade Championships last year.
And here’s a slightly shaky & skewed video showing what it was like at the finish of the Tokyo Marathon.
After the Tokyo Marathon, we stayed in Kyoto which was much more interesting having been the Capital of Japan until the late nineteenth century. Unlike Tokyo it was a city that you could walk around to see the sites and spend time in. Here are some photos mainly from Kyoto : Unfortunately we were a few weeks too early for the Cherry Blossom but the Plum Blossom was just coming out. As you will see, the Japanese do build a good moat !
Running this marathon again ! But this time with Avril, Mairaid & Emily. Great to have their company for meals at 4 Leoni and Coquinarius and breakfasts at Cibreo.
Weather on the day was in theory great for running but somehow didn’t quite feel like that. ~10 degrees and almost windless : Sky was overcast – it would have been good to have the sun we had on the Saturday.
The race itself went OK for me even though I have been unable to train : Pace began dropping from around the 30k mark with a dig drop after 40k where I had to walk for a minute or so. I was a little concerned that I struggled to walk in a straight line at that point. Can’t complain about (chip) time of 410:12. On to Valencia next weekend !!
