London Marathon 2018

innuendo141

Djoucer wrote: »

Nah. That's bollix.

People do it so the amazing crowd can shout their names for encouragement. And that they do. Really hard to overstate how much the London crowd get into it.

I have to say, I was running in front of 2 lads who obviously had their names printed. Every time I heard "Go on Andy" and "Go on Simon" I got a bit of a boost knowing they were still around!

gucci

Djoucer wrote: »

Nah. That's bollix.

People do it so the amazing crowd can shout their names for encouragement. And that they do. Really hard to overstate how much the London crowd get into it.

I wasn't trying to put it down as a negative, the name thing is great. Some races I done before had your name on the number (Manchester Marathon maybe? ) and it is great when someone calls out your name!

Just was pointing out that it was very easy to get done the day before and in the run up there was quite a push on it, so that's also a reason why there are so many with it on their kit.

I was running along side some guy in a shrimp suit for most of yesterday and he was inspiring me just by imagining how tough it must have been for him, but he obviously benefited from being a cold blooded creature!

overpronator

I absolutely capitulated in the heat on Sunday. Came in off decent if not spectacular training and a new half Pb of 1.20. Felt i was in shape for 2.54 or thereabouts. Feeling the intense heat around the city on Saturday i decided to go out conservative and aimed to work in. Started with the sub 3 group and it felt like i was barely jogging over the first 10k or so. After Cutty sark it all changed and by half way i was totally done. The second half of that was the hardest run (shuffle) ive endured and ive had a couple of big blowups before in heat. I found the heat just so overwhelming. I started shivering at one stage in the full sun around 21 miles which got me worried and came close to stopping there but i came around with some walking
It became a case of run until my heart rate rose to uncomfortable levels and leg pain ramped up, walk 30 seconds and start the routine again. I was a shell at the end. Whilst i wont say i was glad to manage the finish (the 3.17 stings badly) im more surprised i got there. Staring down the barrell of another 12+ miles after half way i didnt know how id get through it. Massively painful.
Awful. Demoralising. Huge blow to confidence all told. Thats how it goes though, sometimes youre the pigeon, sometimes youre the statue.

As others have alluded to, ive never seen so many people in distress in a race and so early. It was unreal to see. The sheer organisation of the event saved lives no doubt about it. Its a truly amazing race. Have done it 4 times now and this year had the biggest crowds by far. Astonishing. What a day it would have been to run well.

I also saw that guy who passed away down at 22 miles. Very sobering and puts things into perspective. However disapointing, its only running. Was very glad to see my wife at the end and get out of the sun. I was a wobbly disoriented mess, feeling ill for about an hour after. Thankfully I came around and as is tradition had a few in the Coal Hole. All good.

innuendo141

overpronator wrote: »

I absolutely capitulated in the heat on Sunday. Came in off decent if not spectacular training and a new half Pb of 1.20. Felt i was in shape for 2.54 or thereabouts. Feeling the intense heat around the city on Saturday i decided to go out conservative and aimed to work in. Started with the sub 3 group and it felt like i was barely jogging over the first 10k or so. After Cutty sark it all changed and by half way i was totally done. The second half of that was the hardest run (shuffle) ive endured and ive had a couple of big blowups before in heat. I found the heat just so overwhelming. I started shivering at one stage in the full sun around 21 miles which got me worried and came close to stopping there but i came around with some walking
It became a case of run until my heart rate rose to uncomfortable levels and leg pain ramped up, walk 30 seconds and start the routine again. I was a shell at the end. Whilst i wont say i was glad to manage the finish (the 3.17 stings badly) im more surprised i got there. Staring down the barrell of another 12+ miles after half way i didnt know how id get through it. Massively painful.
Awful. Demoralising. Huge blow to confidence all told. Thats how it goes though, sometimes youre the pigeon, sometimes youre the statue.

As others have alluded to, ive never seen so many people in distress in a race and so early. It was unreal to see. The sheer organisation of the event saved lives no doubt about it. Its a truly amazing race. Have done it 4 times now and this year had the biggest crowds by far. Astonishing. What a day it would have been to run well.

I also saw that guy who passed away down at 22 miles. Very sobering and puts things into perspective. However disapointing, its only running. Was very glad to see my wife at the end and get out of the sun. I was a wobbly disoriented mess, feeling ill for about an hour after. Thankfully I came around and as is tradition had a few in the Coal Hole. All good.

I really hope you don't take your time too much to heart. Your story is very similar to mine, between your goal time and how you knew at half time that the game was up. I'd put Sunday down as an invaluable learning experience for us going forward. Looking back I would have much rather run the first half much slower, and then try to slowly work on this from there on.

The time and work you did on Sunday will stand to you ten fold for your next day out. The heat really was a b*llocks

robinph

Here is the number of Men running the new GFA standard in 2017 and 2018. Numbers seriously impacted by the heat, but the good news is that the 3000 per gender limit may not be such an issue after all, especially as 500+ of the 2017 GFA times were within the Championship standard so can mostly be excluded.
|Men|2017 Men|2018 Men
18-39|sub 3:00|1093|711
40-44|sub 3:05|541|277
45-49|sub 3:10|407|234
50-54|sub 3:15|302|150
55-59|sub 3:20|138|64
60-64|sub 3:45|103|81
65-69|sub 4:00|58|33
70-74|sub 5:00|83|57
75-79|sub 5:15|?|?
80+|sub 5:30|?|?
Total GFA||2725|1607


Edit: The results were not playing ball for me to get the Womens times, and they don't separate out the V70+ categories.

plumber77

overpronator wrote: »

I absolutely capitulated in the heat on Sunday. Came in off decent if not spectacular training and a new half Pb of 1.20. Felt i was in shape for 2.54 or thereabouts. Feeling the intense heat around the city on Saturday i decided to go out conservative and aimed to work in. Started with the sub 3 group and it felt like i was barely jogging over the first 10k or so. After Cutty sark it all changed and by half way i was totally done. The second half of that was the hardest run (shuffle) ive endured and ive had a couple of big blowups before in heat. I found the heat just so overwhelming. I started shivering at one stage in the full sun around 21 miles which got me worried and came close to stopping there but i came around with some walking
It became a case of run until my heart rate rose to uncomfortable levels and leg pain ramped up, walk 30 seconds and start the routine again. I was a shell at the end. Whilst i wont say i was glad to manage the finish (the 3.17 stings badly) im more surprised i got there. Staring down the barrell of another 12+ miles after half way i didnt know how id get through it. Massively painful.
Awful. Demoralising. Huge blow to confidence all told. Thats how it goes though, sometimes youre the pigeon, sometimes youre the statue.

As others have alluded to, ive never seen so many people in distress in a race and so early. It was unreal to see. The sheer organisation of the event saved lives no doubt about it. Its a truly amazing race. Have done it 4 times now and this year had the biggest crowds by far. Astonishing. What a day it would have been to run well.

I also saw that guy who passed away down at 22 miles. Very sobering and puts things into perspective. However disapointing, its only running. Was very glad to see my wife at the end and get out of the sun. I was a wobbly disoriented mess, feeling ill for about an hour after. Thankfully I came around and as is tradition had a few in the Coal Hole. All good.

I think heat or an icky belly are my greatest fears in a marathon. I wouldn't take the time to heart to be honest, things like that are just totally outside your control. It'll make the next one in cooler weather really easy

robinph

Was spectating around the 800m to go sign at around the 4-5hr point and there was a scary number of people getting carried along the path behind us on heavy duty plastic sheets that were being used as stretchers. To get that close and collapse before the line.

When spectating at earlier times and locations as well it was noticeable how many more people than usual were walking at earlier stages (admittedly I've not been spectating like that before, but I have been in that group of runners in various stages of awesome/ awful myself).

wobblemouth

My experience matched everyone else's by the looks of things. Trained for a PB of sub 2.58, and with the heat on the morning thought I'd go with 3 hr pacers and see how I got on. After 3 miles I knew this wasn't going to be my day - roasting and mad thirsty.

Started thinking of dropping out at 6 miles, but eased back and settled into some 7:10 miles for a while and covered myself with water at every water station. Just felt zapped of energy and had to fight demons telling me to quit all along. Told myself I'd keep going til Tower bridge, then quit. Then said at mile 20 I'd allow myself a walk (I didn't). With the carnage at the end I was picking people off just by running at all, so its always a boost to be passing others and that kept me going.

That guy collapsed beside me at mile 22 - medics were there straight away but he it was clear he was in trouble, Unfortunately not the first time I've seen this happen.

Saw it through for a 3:12. In a weird way maybe prouder of this run than other marathons I've ran as it was so tough. Pity a good chunk of training went to waste. Ah well, its only running.

Kid Pablo

Does anyone know if it’s possible to find out how many negative splits were run on Sunday in London?

Thanks

Abhainn

Don't post much here anymore but it was my 6th time in London since 2011. Crowds have been huge in on all my previous times there but 2018 was even bigger. I’ve experienced heat and humidity in marathons before (24c at Perth Masters in 2016 and 26c at IM CPH in 2015) but training for those were during our summer. The simple fact, that all training was done in cold temperatures and then facing 24c took effect on 99.5% of participants. I couldn’t fault the facilities or hydration on route.
After 2+ years of nagging injuries I arrived in best shape since a 2:36 in 2015. I expected to challenge in the low 2:40’s but revised my goal to 2:48-2:49 just before the off. I was pretty much on target till 25k (HM in 1:24) when HR started to rise into the 90% bracket. From experience I knew I could maintain that effort if it was 10k to go but not 10 miles. I pulled back which was a wise move. I kept momentum going but lost 3 mins +. A 2:52 was a fair effort but didn’t represent a very good 14 wk block of training.
I came away with no injuries, no blisters & not even sunburn, just pride a little broken. I got most things right but one can’t control the other inputs outside of your control.
Performance of the day was Belfast’s Stephen Scullion’s 2:15. A terrific run

Djoucer

That's a great time Abhainn.

Scullion's run was sensational. His splits from 5km on were identical, all 3.13 min/km pace.

overpronator

Does anyone know if Scullion was warm weather training or is he actually just the terminator?

OOnegative

overpronator wrote: »

Does anyone know if Scullion was warm weather training or is he actually just the terminator?

Think he’s based in Flagstaff a lot of the time, open to correction on that though.

adrian522

He's on Strava if you want to check his training:

https://www.strava.com/pros/11204534

Swashbuckler

overpronator wrote:

Does anyone know if Scullion was warm weather training or is he actually just the terminator?

I recall most of his training since the new year in Belfast. Had the world half in Valencia. Did some heat chamber sessions.

tomred1N

Like a few familiar names I see above I don’t post much anymore either but reading this has made me feel a little better!
Same race same result for me. Due to an injury 3 weeks out and heat on the day I adjusted to run 7 min miles after training to run 6:40 mp. Lasted 8 miles and started burning up and seeing so many walking made it mentally more difficult not to join them . Made it to halfway and decided to just forget about watch and try to finish it without walking while heeding the advice of organizers to lay off pace if overheating . I have never thrown so much water over me. Only for having a sponge that I put inside my cap at every water station I would not have made it. Also half the bottles of water I did take were hot from the sun and couldn’t drink just had to spit them out . It was the sun that really fooked things up as even though the temp was 24 degrees a blazing sun with no cover was almost unbearable . Thank god there was some shade in second half . I nearly wanted to stay in those tunnels ! Finished in 3:24 in what I could only compare in difficulty to my first marathon over the last 10k. HR was still at 165 even though I was back to 9min miles. After 1000 miles of training since mid December it’s tough to take but them are the breaks . My second time doing this race and it’s a superb event , with superb support and a great course. It is a bit of a lottery weather wise at 10am and at the end of April though !

tmh106

I assume many of the people on here who qualified for GFA live in Ireland. How do you then get in through GFA given (according to London marathon website) you need a UK address to enter, even with a GFA time?

I'm asking because I was going to target entry through GFA route, but seems only to be available to UK residents.

Thanks.

Gavlor

tmh106 wrote: »

I assume many of the people on here who qualified for GFA live in Ireland. How do you then get in through GFA given (according to London marathon website) you need a UK address to enter, even with a GFA time?

I'm asking because I was going to target entry through GFA route, but seems only to be available to UK residents.

Thanks.

It’s handy if you reside (photo) with relations in the (shop) uk over the period during which the entry process opens and have a bank statement or phone bill that reflects the above.

Happy chopping

robinph

I've started a new 2019 thread for next years discussions here:
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057866120

ClashCityRocker

Similar story for me as it seems to be from reading posts here. I was going for sub 3 too - this was probably a long shot even in perfect conditions but given they changed the GFA time I decided to give it a lash. Had they not I reckon I'd have revised the goal to 3:05 in light of the conditions.
Got through halfway at about 1:29:20 and was still knocking out surprisingly consistent 6:45-6:50 miles up to 17 miles. I stopped for a quick pee just past the mudchute DLR stop and that was the end of that, could not get going again at all. I had a long run/walk shuffle to the finish as many others had, and got there in 3:18:25. No real regrets in going for it on the day, as someone else above said it's only running! Felt horrendous afterwards, had to sit down a few times on the walk back to the bags from the finish line, my vision was weirdly impared. Threw up later on at home, kneeling over the toilet getting sick with my legs cramping is something that will stay with me for a while!
Great event though, as ever. Delighted to have been able to do it the last two years, and hopefully I can get the gfa back in future. The crowds are just unreal

overthebridge

Again a similar story. Blew up around 17 with cramp. Ran/walked home from that point. My slowest marathon in years @ 418.
Fantastic event, really well organised, great crowds, nice medal and a decent tee.
Biggest stinger for me was walking around London the next day and the weather wasn't far off ideal for marathon running. It just wasn't meant to be :eek:

I'll be back someday..

Killerz

Reading through the above reports is almost like reading my own story for the day. Tough day out for all. I had a wonderful training block. Was well in around 2:50 shape. Week before I came down with a bug which I couldn't recover from, that with the heat turned my day into a slog. Went out at 2:55 pace to adjust for the heat but still not knowing how the body would react. 8-9 miles in, if even that, legs started to feel like lead and I had to slow down. Last 6-7 miles were rough. Splits were approx 131 and 145 for a 316 finish. I clearly hadn't shaken the illness - the heat was one thing, but my body shouldn't have felt that bad in the first hour. I'm happy to have finished it but it was a slog. Disappointed the training programme didn't get the result it deserved but I finished the marathon this time (unlike similar circumstances where I woke up in hospital after crashing out of Chicago marathon in 2011), so in that respect I called upon my experience to drive out a result. While I didn't get to cash in on the training I am delighted with how my training block went and that gives me a lot of confidence in what I am doing. I'll resurrect my own log soon to write about it a bit more but for now, I'm adding to the bricks in this wall

Itziger

I think reading all these reports is bad for a fella. My training spin this morning reflected to a slightly lesser extent, these races.

rom

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6167192/london-marathon-imposter-revealed/

Clearly he has issues and the Sun lap it up.

neilc

I suppose it feels a bit reassuring in a way that everyone else had such a similar experience to myself. I went into this marathon after a very good training cycle if a little tired. This wasn't so much from the training itself rather some other life issues. I got out to the green start fairly early on the day and straight away found some shelter from the sun behind one of the many tents. I was fairly relaxed at that stage but becoming increasingly nervous as the temps rose. A quick look at the phone on the start line confirmed 21 degrees!
The aim, had it been a good running weather day was a PB which would be anything under 3:10:28 but starting off last week I literally hadn't a clue what way it would go. Did the first 5 miles roughly 7:15 pace but knew well before then there'd be no PB. At that stage I decided to knock it back 10-15 seconds a mile and kept that going till 8. It was there I went over on my ankle pretty badly on a water bottle avoiding a guy that was veering onto my path. It was pretty bad and took me around 2 miles to run it off. Around 10 I got talking to an inspirational lady living in London but formally from Co. Meath. She had crohn's disease and we chatted about that and other things for the next couple of miles. It was great cause it kept my mind off the heat. In the end I had to let her go on though because by 12 I was ready to drop another 20-30 secs a mile! At this stage I was running through any shower I could see and bar a sip was emptying every water bottle over the head, down the back and legs. You'd get fairly instant relief but unfortunately it'd only last a minute or two. As we made our way from Tower bridge down to the Isle of dogs the leaders came flying past, in what I assume would be myself at close to full sprint! At 14 I was making deals with myself on when I could start taking walk breaks! Kept giving myself a mile more. Met another Irish lad going through the tall buildings in Canary Wharf and we both agreed we were purely in survival mode. I kept making the deals and kept putting the walk off for another mile. In the end I did manage to finish without walking in 3:30:57. Have to be happy enough all things considered. The ankle started to hurt again around 18 but to be honest it didn't effect my race at all really. I suppose the impact was lessened because of the weather but had it been a better racing day it might have annoyed me more. It swelled up a good be after.
It's a pity not to get the rewards from a good cycle so with that in mind I'm considering running Cork! I'm going to train over the next few weeks as if I am and then decide closer the day.

sideswipe

Interesting read-

https://www.marathoninvestigation.com/2018/05/london-marathon.html