London Marathon 2011

Two hours, nineteen minutes and forty-five seconds. I'm reminded of last Sunday's achievement by the toaster every morning. Of course I'm delighted to have run my first sub-2:20 marathon, but what makes me particularly happy is the way I ran that time. I passed through half marathon point more than 20 seconds slower than last year, and at that point, I had all but given up hope to get under 2:20. From 13 to 23 miles, I had to set the pace all by myself, with Steve Way (aka 'Fat Boy') and Paolo Natali staying closely behind me. Steve took over at mile 23. I had to dig very deep to keep up with him, but succeeded. I was so happy when I finished.

2:19:45... my ninth personal best on the marathon. Where will this end? How much faster can I go? I'm tall, I'm heavy, I don't do any speed work or interval training. I'm not supposed to run this fast. Who knows? With some cooler weather, and with larger group of athletes to run with, I think I might be able to knock off another minute or so from my time. Or more? The IAAF's A-standard for the Olympic marathon is 2h15'. It's going to be a long shot, but I never imagined even contemplating it.

Split Time 5K 00:16:17 10K 00:32:41 15K 00:49:08 20K 01:05:38 HALF 01:09:13 25K 01:21:58 30K 01:38:29 35K 01:55:21 40K 02:12:17 FINISH 02:19:45