Last night I ran at easy pace along the front for 30 minutes.
Time: 31:32
Distance: 3.05
Pace: 10:21
This will be my tenth marathon, so I know I can cover the distance. I have done so nine times before, in times ranging from 5 hours 20 minutes to my best time recorded on the hilly Isle of Wight marathon, in very wet conditions, of 4:10.
Two of those nine were London marathons, so I know the course well. I am preparing myself mentally for the different sections. One of the tricks to running 26 miles is to think of it in sections, rather than as a whole. Telling oneself that it is two miles till Tower Bridge works better than reciting the information that it is sixteen to the finish. Or , a technique I used to use when swimming long distances, I may take a letter of the Greek alphabet for each mile, and try to think of words beginning with it, which will both pass the time, and test my vocabulary, though that will only last me to mile 24.
So here's my analysis of the sections:
Start to the Cutty Sark: I'm at the blue start again, where I was last year. This is preferable to the red start, where I started in 2005, and took ages to get out of the park and to the start line. Nevertheless, it will take a while to get going, and I remember last year stop-starting for at least a mile after crossing the line. I have a tendency to start too fast; the volume of runners means there will be no danger of that in the very early stages, but I must beware of speeding up too much when the route becomes clearer. As I pass through Charlton I shall look for my friends Elen and Roger who may be watching from the end of their road. At the three mile point we merge with the runners from the red and green starts and at Woolwich Royal Artillery Barracks there's the first of the water stops that then come every mile. The first time I reached the Cutty Sark I was alarmed to see the spectators penned behind cages, as if they were an angry crowd, but here I will be a quarter of the way through.
The next logical division of the route is from the Cutty Sark to Tower Bridge, through Deptford and Surrey Docks. This is not a pretty part of the route, but includes the 15K point, then I reach Tower Bridge at 12.5 miles.
On the north side of the river, runners are now directed away from our goal, the finish in the Mall. It's frustrating to be going eastwards, but I'll pass the halfway point on the Highway, near where many years ago I and others used to demonstrate against Murdoch's mass sackings of printers when he moved New International from Fleet Street to Wapping. This section takes us round the Isle of Dogs to mile 19, where there are a series of twists and turns around Canary Wharf. in the past this has been the part I've enjoyed least, but I think it's important to remember that it is only five or so miles.
At about 19.5 miles I'll turn westwards at last, running back along Commercial Road. By this point, no matter how much it hurts, I'll know that all I have to do is keep going for another hour or so. At Tower Bridge it's 22 miles, through the City and after the Upper Thames Street tunnel underpass, there's only two miles to go. I'll run along the Embankment, where the crowds are now at their thickest and most vocal. One year I thought, though by that point I may have been hallucinating, that an old friend I hadn't seen for ages stood in the crowd, and I imagined that she called out, 'come on ,Tom,' I have never been sure if I really saw amd heard that. At Parliament Square I'll turn, run up Birdcage Walk round the front of Buckingham Palace, and down the Mall to the finish, I hope four and a half hours after I set off
I shall be attired thus:
My running number is 7665. I am using this useful pre-marathon checklist posted by El Gordo on the Running Commentary forum
