London Marathon Success

A big thank you to Laura & Scott at RaceInk for putting this together for me. This was one of my better marathon attempts, a pleasantly warm London in 2007. A bit of background to this...

The evening before the race the BBC weather people did a 'Michael Fish' and got the forecast very wrong. 'Temperatures peaking at 14-16 degrees tomorrow, almost perfect for the marathon runners' is what they said.

On race morning, I was standing in my vest at 9am, it was 16-17 degrees already and we hadn't started yet. Furthermore, the sky was blue, cloudless and the sun was rising.

I risked getting to half way a bit quicker than originally planned to make the most of the relatively cool air. By the time I was into the last 6-7 miles the temps had reached 22-23 degrees. When I finally passed Buckingham Palace, close to the finish, I was surprised to see on my watch that a PB might be on (previously 3:06.09). I did my best imitation of a sprint finish and (close) but I got the cigar in 3:05.59.

The first post race pint didn't touch the sides.  Happy days!

Honourable mentions to the other Tadcaster Harriers who endured the heat that that day...Mark Swinden, Sue Tindall, Elaine Kavanagh, Shirley Steele and Kevin Erskine.