VLM Part 2

Pete Mackrell

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the London Marathon: it’s a fantastic event as a spectacle, but I’ve struggled to do myself justice there. It can be too warm, too windy, too busy and too stressful.  I’ve also missed the last two years due to frustrating late injuries.

This year I was on the Championship start, which may sound special but basically it’s just a different section of grass on Blackheath Common. It has a better runner:toilet ratio, but the rumours of heated toilet seats are unfounded. The main highlight was being able to warm up with the elite men on Shooters Hill Road, where I overtook current world record holder Dennis Kimetto! read more

VLM Part 1

Eight intrepid club members rocked up for the start of the Virgin Money London Marathon in 2015. These are the tales of four of them, the rest come in the second instalment!

Tom May

The road to the 2015 London Marathon was a challenging journey to say the least. The first big hiccup came whist competing in the International Running Challenge in Lanzarote. In the last of 4 races (the half marathon) I went over on my ankle badly with 2km to go. I managed to finish but the swelling and angry red colour meant it wasn’t a minor sprain. A trip to the Physio revealed I’d partially torn 2 ankle ligaments! After the best part of 6 weeks off I gingerly started running again in Jan and built up to 5 miles. Setback number 2 then occurred whist on a ski trip I fell on an ice patch and my ski didn’t release which caused a nasty calf muscle tear! That put pay to anymore skiing on the holiday and another month of enforced rest with no running as it slowly healed. read more

Seeking Marathon Justice

By Andy Inchley

Last October Amy and I “ran” the Chester marathon and both had something of a disaster. Despite putting in some strong training, it simply didn’t happen on the day and we both came home fairly miserable. I was adamant that I was as fit as I’ve ever been and just couldn’t explain it, so was immediately thinking about entering another one in the spring. When Chris (AKA Rodders), one of my Tuesday MK training buddies had a very similar experience in Abingdon I suggested that Manchester might be an option, and so after a month of debate we both signed up. read more

Paris Marathon

by Kate Johnson

This time I was nervous, really nervous. I had run 2 marathons already but this time the pressure was on. I had been running faster and longer than ever before and I felt like a ‘real runner’ for the first time. I had completed the MK 20 in 3 hours 31mins taking 28 mins off my previous time. I had a real chance of being able to run a sub 5 hour marathon as long as I could keep running the whole way. The main challenge was that everyone else knew I had been running well and were expecting results. I had never run a race abroad before so I had no idea how the flight, hotel, food and water would affect me. The week before hand I really felt the pressure and struggled to eat and sleep and by the time Friday came around my nerves were completed shredded. read more

London Marathon Preview

With just nine days until the most high profile race in the country takes place around the streets of our capital I thought I would take a moment to look at the possibilities around the eight protagonists from LBAC.

Adam Haylock – The major concern that Adam has, is arriving too early for the race. If he is there more than half an hour before the start it is likely that he’ll peak before the gun goes through lack of expensive coffee. This will be Mr Haylock’s second marathon. He doesn’t like to talk about the first one, but if you want the details they inexplicably appeared on the Power of 10 site recently! He is hoping to just duck under that time, by a couple of hours! Much of his training has revolved around studying the location of every Starbucks on the course just to make sure he has enough energy to get the pub afterwards. read more

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