The London Marathon Part 3 of 3

I particularly like the support shown from the local residents. I am touched by some residents who roped in family members to support runners in different ways. It did seem to me they had pre-planned their support on who does what on race day. Well coordinated! Some kids as young as three were handing out jelly beans. Cute! Some gave oranges, some candies; a few others connected rubber hose from the gardens to spray on runners, a lot offered high 5s but most of them cheered, cheered and cheered. It was just magnificent.

I was never worried about the distance markers. It was in the English unit, miles. Markers were on gantries. Each mile was marked. A “Half-Marathon” gantry was also put up several metres after the 13th mile mark. After all it was 13.1-mile to a half-marathon. I noticed that the run up to the finishing line was marked in hundreds of metres instead of yards or miles.

Coming from a tropical country helped a lot. At least in managing cramps. I found the weather hot, but still milder than Malaysia’s. I guess Malaysians are packed with an extra radiator or convector in our body systems so we could handle the heat on that day. I didn’t go through any of the showers unlike the local runners. In fact, from past triathlon experiences, cooling the body with shower was a bad idea. It worsens the cramp.

Applying Vaseline during the race was useful. I did not have blisters after the race. I had always applied it at the start but doing it during the race was also a sensible thing to do, as I found out. There were St John’s volunteers stationed along the route handing out the petroleum jelly to runners. I liked the way it was administered to runners. Volunteers had the jelly butter-spread on their palms and runners only need to tap on their palms to get it. No stopping; seamless application.

The drink stations deserve mentioning. All stations were clearly signed. As the race was sponsored by Vittel and Lucozade, the former provided water and the latter isotonic. Drinks were handed out on both sides of the road to avoid runners from jostling and pushing from the back. According to the runners’ guidebook, the tables were spaced over approximately 80 metres on each side and supplies distributed evenly. Little details like this made tremendous difference to the flow of the race.

Water was offered at every mile from the 3rd to the 25th mile. Vittel handed out water in 330ml plastic bottles with the top removed. I felt it was wasteful to having only a few sips and tossing the bottle away. That’s what the others did as well. Even if the organisers could not agree that they were being wasteful, I bet most if not all runners would agree that the bottles on the road were a hazard to them. Good ol’paper cups were still the most practical, environmentally friendly and safer to runners.

Lucozade was available at miles 5, 10, 15, 19 and 23. It was handed out in 330ml pouches. I like Lucozade and I just wished they could make a comeback in Malaysia soon. Firstly, it was non-carbonated and secondly it tasted and worked better than the carbonated ones.

I met a Pacemaker at the Tower Bridge. It was Quek Ai Ling, a keen marathoner from Singapore. I was not aware it was her until she called on me.

“Hi! Are you a Malaysian?” she asked.
“Yea…” I answered and before I could continue, she asked
“Are you Alden Yap? I am a Pacemaker too.”
I said,” Ah! You must be Ai Ling. PM Tey told me about you! So nice to meet you here!”

The marathon crowd was so huge I lost her within a minute!

Mile 25, Embankment

When I spotted the 25th mile mark at Embankment, my motivation level inched up 2 notches. I suppose this translated to a quicker pace. My time was 3 hour 52minutes then. I was contemplating whether to push for a sub-4 but the math did not make it look simple. I had to finish 1.8km in 8minutes?? No way! But I pushed for it nonetheless.
When I saw Buckingham Palace, I knew it was near. Then I spotted “600m to the finish line”. The countdown moved on to 500m and 400m and that was when I clocked 4 hours on the dot. A straight road after the right turn at the roundabout leading up to the finish line suddenly opened up majestically. I wished the Queen was watching from the palace. I knew I had moved over 4 hours so I finished off the remaining distance in a relaxed pace. I crossed the finish line at 4 hours 1 min and 50 seconds, my personal best for a marathon!
Crossing the finishing line was the best feeling ever in this marathon, probably because of the expectations and emotions that built up towards the race. I felt like I had achieved a great milestone in my running “career”.

After crossing the finishing line, we were ushered to the medal collection area. It was where the champion chip was collected as well. The medal looked great but to us runners, it was more than a piece of metal. Whenever I look at it, I see hard work, sweat and lots of discipline!

The flow from finish line to baggage collection was impressive. The flow was arranged in such that runners would first take a photo with their medals, then collect a goodie bag and claim their baggage.

O yea, my shoes. I wore the Saucony Trigon 4 and it was really good! No blisters, black toe or other foot injuries. I would recommend this for normal foot runners.

I went back to Embankment to do my bit and cheered on other runners. I saw a troop of soldiers marching on with their heavy baggage. It was sort of a touching scene; their facial expression, sweat, pushing forward the last one mile and people cheering them on.

I returned to Cambridge on the same day. I could hardly take the stairs the following day. Both my legs were all sore. But that just showed that I had made great efforts for this race and for my personal best. If I had to describe the London Marathon, I would not regard it as a competitive race. In fact, I would advise prospective runners to not treat it as one or as seriously. It is really meant to be an entertaining, fun and interesting run. I would never trade an entry for the London Marathon for anything else. London being the Number 1 marathon in the world was certainly befitting of the title!