Marathons: Paul #21, Leah #11 : London Marathon 2013
21st April 2013, London, UK
Finish Time = 3:57:51
What started out as a one-time goal for me carried on for the 6th year in a row. We didn’t need to run this as a sub 4 but we wanted to. I was stronger and faster than when I last did a sub 4 in London, those long 4 years ago and for Leah it was about proving something to herself as to how far she had come after the tough time she’d had at London last year.
Before the race began there was a minute silence for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing the week before. There was an increased police presence and of course we definitely did feel a bit apprehensive, given that like Boston, London is also a World Marathon Major and it had only been 6 days since the attack.
London is a tricky race for times, because it’s so congested with 35,000 runners on the course that it’s very hard to run at the pace you want to run at unless you are in the 3:30 groups or faster. The whole way round you’re dodging around people or getting held up or fighting to get in and out of water stations. However, in my opinion it’s still one of the best marathons in the world. I will always be special to me due to my connections to it and as it was part of my childhood.
To illustrate the point about getting around people, at the end of the race our GPS watches said we had run 26.60 miles, meaning our dodging, zig-zagging and running over to different sides of the roads for water had added almost half a mile extra onto the distance we needed to run!
Crossing Tower Bridge
It was a great day though, with perfect weather and once again collectively the KPF runners raised a lot for the Katie Piper Foundation.
Even with stopping to talk to my family supporting on the course, we cruised over the finish line together in 3:57, easily beating my only other sub 4 London finish which I had struggled so hard to achieve at the time.
The black ribbons were a tribute to the Boston Marathon bombing which had occurred a week earlier
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