Dan’s Journey from Abingdon to London (via the Vale of York) – Part 4.

During the week before I ran last October’s Abingdon marathon, I was lucky enough to get one of the HPH club places at the London marathon in April 2017. I promised to blog about the training and the build up … Part 1 came just before Abbey Dash, my last race of 2016; Part 2 came just after parkrun on 7th Jan 2017; Part 3 just before Bradford 10K; and this is Part 4 – the final part! Pull up a seat – it’s a long one. 😉

With 5 weeks to go until race day, I dodged the chance for another long run and instead had a crack at the Bradford 10K. Conditions were tougher than at Dewsbury and the legs were more fatigued, so I was happy enough with 41:48. I was even happier 6 days later at Woodhouse Moor parkrun when I bagged a rare sub-20 (19:56). Two days later came my 4th and final treadmill fuelling test at Leeds Beckett – another 17 miles of misery but I just kept telling myself it was helping science and that it was all good training! The next session of significance was the following Sunday (3 weeks to race day!) where I did 23 miles on the canal towpath at 8:55/m – comfortably below MP but close to the time I’d have to spend on my feet on race day. Everything in-between these various sessions/races consisted of either run or bike commuting (10-11 miles per day). This week ended up with 43 miles of running and 32 miles of bike … I took the Saturday off and then went off to the Vale of York 10 mile to see if I could bank some of this fitness before taper began. As with all my races, I carb-loaded the evening before, despite training and living on a low carb diet. Conditions were perfect and I came in a minute faster than last year in 68:35. All good with 2 weeks to go! Time to taper.

Taper is a place where things can go wrong and in the past I have become a bit sluggish with the relative inactivity. Hence the plan was to have some hard sessions, while backing off the “filler” mileage. For this race, the situation was perfect as I was off work for Easter so could drop the run/bike commuting. I had a couple of days off after Vale of York, and then did a Lactate Threshold Test on the treddie at Leeds Beckett (my “reward” for being a guinea pig for those four long treadmill fuelling studies). Aside from being a tough session in itself, I also came away with some useful info telling me my LT pace was at 12 km/h (8:02 min/mi) … very close to my planned MP (8 min/mi). I also got some pleasing blood lipid results back – seems the low carb nutrition had also pushed all my numbers in the right direction (TG & Ldl down, Hdl up). The only other session that week was parkrun – I planned to go all out for sub-20 again, but Woodhouse Moor was cancelled and so I did the hilly Temple Newsam in 20:50. With 1 week to go, I ran 10 miles at MP on Sunday, and then 3.6 miles easy on Tuesday, bike commuting on Wednesday, and finally 3.6 miles with 4 x 400m intervals on Thursday (immediately followed by carb-loading). And that was it. So much time, thought and sweat invested … I just needed to execute. But I’d been here in 2014 when I got a ballot place … that ended in 3:37:35 … just under 2:40 at 20 but with a disastrous final 10K. I’d trained so hard for that race and it had ended in misery.

London! We travelled down on Friday evening and stayed in west London with my brother’s family. On Saturday I had to go all the way across the city to ExCel to get my number and visit the Expo – it was crazily busy! In 2014 things had been simpler – it was school holidays and we went down early and did all the fun stuff on the Friday. So this time I made an effort not to get exhausted by traipsing around all the Expo stalls – instead I let the family look around while I took a seat, ate food, and listened to the “advice” from various speakers on the central stage. Then it was back west, lots of carbs and kit checking, and an early-ish night.

The Plan. The maths for sub-3:30- is easy … 8 min/mile. After Abingdon’s 3:31:02 PB, when I’d consciously attempted to improve my fat burning metabolism (see Part 1), I managed the final 4.2 miles more than 4 min quicker than at London ’14… but still at 8:43/mi. This is where I hoped to make the difference this time. I believed that there was scope to squeeze more from the metabolic approach but, as I read into the scientific literature, I realised that you basically become fat-adapted within 3-4 weeks of carb-restricted training and it was becoming clear to me that it was very likely I’d already got there last year. So the low carb training was now more about keeping things topped up, and keeping the weight down, rather than making more gains. However, I did believe that I was in better shape than at Abingdon and that I could beat that PB time and get under 3:30.

I’d been taking on a lot of carbs since the 4x400m on Thursday … the main aim of tweaking my metabolism to become a fat-burner was not to avoid using carbs but to enable me to conserve my carb stores over the marathon … carbs produce more ATP per oxygen molecule and so are more useful than fat when working hard and oxygen is limited … but this time I hoped I would still have some left to utilise in the final 10K. So the plan was simple … set off at 8 min/mi … first gel (SIS) at 20 min … remaining 5 gels every 20 min … no more fuelling after 2 hours (to avoid gut issues) and rely on my conserved stores … drink only water … and run at 8 min/mi for 26.2 miles. Easy. Ha!

Race Day! I was up early as I needed to leave the house at 06:30. Breakfast was 4 slices of toast and honey. On the train to Waterloo, I ate a couple of energy bars I’d picked up at ExCel. I also had a couple of small bananas (which I saved until I was at Blue Start).

I felt very lucky very privileged as I approached Blue Start. I had thought 2014 was my only chance – I’m not good enough for GFA but after many attempts I’d finally got a ballot place for ’14 and I’d trained really hard. But it ended badly. To get a 2nd chance via the Hyde Park Harriers club ballot 3 years later was very special – I was here again and I had a chance to put things right. Since then I’d done Nottingham ’14, Dublin ’14, and then Abingdon in ’16. I’d learned a lot but I hadn’t yet cracked the code.

Being at Blue Start again was useful – it was familiar … there was a lot of time to kill but this time I knew what to expect and I’d come with a plan. I took it all in – I appreciated it all – and I felt very privileged. BUT I did not get excited. I had a plan. I was here to execute it. No messing up this time.

On arrival … obligatory photos … then the mega-efficient toilet queue … after that I found my baggage truck and made my base nearby. I ate my bananas, drank my water, had a snooze, and made use of the Vaseline. I waited until 9:25 before giving over my bag. It was still cold, so I kept my gloves, popped on a bin bag and headed for the pens. It was still early and I was getting cold, so I did a bit of light jogging before entering Pen 4. First thing I noticed was the 3:30 pacer was in Pen 3 with a hoard in between … not much chance of sticking near him then! The hot air balloons were taking off and the helicopters whizzing around. I tried to take it all it. Such a special event! Great to be here … but my mistake last time was going too fast in the first 5 miles… so focus focus focus!! After a gradual walk towards the start line with plenty of chit chat and banter, we were finally off.

The Race! I crossed the line with the clock on about 1:50ish and made a mental note in case anything went wrong with my watch. I was definitely further back than in ’14 and it seemed to be very congested … no problem, I thought, as I needed to go slow. Miles 1 and 2 came in at 8:31 and 8:13. After that things started to clear as we hit the downhill section … 7:22, 7:49 and 7:45 for 3, 4 & 5 … a bit fast but not concerned given the terrain and the fact I was 2 minutes slower than my over-ambitious 2014 start. Nevertheless, time to get focussed and control the pace … 8:01, 7:55, 7:55, 8:05, 8:05 … brought me up to 10 miles. I was about 30s in front of target but was actually feeling pretty rubbish … my legs felt jaded and my feet were hurting (especially my right sole – too much Vaseline!).  My heart rate had also been knocking on the door of 140 bpm ever since mile 4 … in training, MP was a stable 132 bpm over 10 miles. Worrying. Very worrying. But I kept running to the plan. 7:55, 8:01, 7:53. Tower Bridge … the Red Start 3:30 pacer came past with his disciples in tow … half way in 1:44:27 (a minute slower than ’14) … then 8:05, 8:05 and 7:55 to get me to 16 miles. We had now passed Canary Wharf for the first time and were on the Isle of Dogs … it was hot and it was hard work. 8:16 and 8:15 – the 3:30 pacer started to gradually pull away and think I was mentally ready for the worst. I got to 30K in 2:29:30ish … OK, but I’d been here before … and the last time the wheels came off. I looked out for my family and thankfully spotted them – stopped for a quick hug and then went on. Felt better now but was thinking that it must be time for the wheels to come off … but until they did, I kept on running. 8:06 and at 20 miles in just over 2:40 – a tad slower than ’14 and 90s slower than Abo ’16. Just about on target but it was now getting hard. And it soon became absolutely grim. But this time the wheels didn’t fall off at 20… 8:06, 8:04, 7:59 … now at mile 23! A minute down on my Abo ’16 split. The legs said stop but I was here now and I maybe I wasn’t coming back. So I just kept running. And I was passing so many people. They were grinding to a halt but I wasn’t. But this was just as hard as any other marathon I’d been in. Maybe worse. I lost track of where I was, missing the mile markers as I just focussed on moving forward. I was in a dark place that only someone who has run a marathon knows about. Finally I spotted Big Ben … part of me still believed that sub-30:30 was possible, so I kept on pushing. In the end, those last 3.2 miles came in at 8:04 mi/mi, and in the last 7.2K I gained 641 places… only 26 people passed me, while I passed 667. I’d done 7 marathons and it had never happened before. But I can’t say I enjoyed it – it was grim work.

In the end I crossed the line in 3:30:14 … 48 s off my PB but still 15 seconds away from a perfect day… but I had no regrets. The splits were 1:44:27 first half and 1:45:47 for the second – given all the downhill is in the first half, that’s probably as close to an even split as I could have hoped for. Maybe I could have gained those extra 15 seconds at the start … or on the Isle of Dogs … perhaps … but I know for sure that I could not have run that last 7K any faster than I did. The closing 4.2 miles were 2:48 faster than Abo ’14 and a whopping 5:43 faster than London ’14. Result.

So at last I feel like I am a marathon runner. London is a very special race – impeccable organisation and unbelievable support. Thank you Hyde Park Harriers for making it possibleJ.

I’m ready to crack 3:30 at Chester in October.

Except that I now have to become a temporary triathlete … Leeds ITU Olympic distance next in June!

Dan Donnelly