I asked each of this year's LBAC London marathoners to give us a paragraph or two about their experience at one of the world's most iconic races. Their thoughts are all collated below.

Helen Crossland

My very first experience of the London marathon and the 26.2 miles of cheering spectators. The crowds were very intimidating but then again I don't think I've ran that far with a continual grin from people shouting "come on ham, you can do it ham, not far to go ham" – note to self, put nickname on new club vest. Running past six rhinos, a womble, Mickey Mouse, a light house, a camel (yes a camel), Bagpus, Andy Pandy (yes I'm that old!), batman 1, 2 and 3 and many more outfits that defied all reason for wearing such a costume for a marathon distance provided ample distraction along the hit London roads. Reaching Tower Bridge was a grand experience but seeing that finish arch that I've seen on television so many times was deeply satisfying. read more

While many of the “real” runners from the club were battling the 26.2 miles and hundreds of thousands of people in the London Marathon, I opted for a race that was pretty much exactly the opposite.

Over the past few years I have found some great trail races that take place on London Marathon day, and I was hoping to uncover another little secret this year.

The “Aldbury 5” is a 5.3 mile (8.6km) trail run that hosts just 100 runners and finishes with a picnic on the Aldbury cricket oval where the race starts and finishes. The conditions were perfect, with crystal clear skies, very little wind and the mercury sitting just below 20 degrees in the sun. read more

As another Easter approaches, so does the annual edition of the UK's biggest marathon. Approximately 35,000 people will line up in Blackheath and Greenwich for the start of the race on Sunday morning. At one end of the field you have Mo Farah taking on the world record holder, the world and Olympic champion, the course record holder and last year's winner in a battle that is likely to see them running at around 4:45mpm for the full distance.

At the other end of the scale there will be thousands of people simply aiming to complete the course in six, seven and even eight hours for charity for pride and just to get the famous medal that says "I have done it". As a club, for this year's race we have eight people who will all be donning the purple and yellow for the day and should all be somewhere between Mo and the sweeping trucks. Here is a very brief run-down of where they all are; read more

By Elliot Hind 

I’d been planning to run the Brighton Marathon for almost a year.  I’d never run one before, but with a Half PB of 1.21 I really wanted to go for sub 3 hours and retire from marathon running. Unsurprisingly it did not turn out like that! 

Training had been going well and I posted two 1.25 times at Watford and Berko halves at the same time as increasing my mileage particularly on long Sunday runs (including a delightful 21 miles along the Danube whilst away in Bratislava).  Unfortunately on 5 March almost exactly a month until the marathon I felt a huge pain on top of my left foot during an easy run and that was the end of me training for 11 days.  I knew pretty much straight away that was the end of the sub 3 hour dream but was determined to finish the marathon.  read more