Running the 2010 London Marathon - am I mad?? by nikkimosdell

It had finally arrived. 28 March 2010 - otherwise known as Oakley 20 race day. The day I had been dreading since signing up for it. My running was progressing nicely and I had reached a nice 14 mile distance.

I had also started reading people's comments on how you shouldn't jump from 14 miles to 20 miles as you'll injure yourself so the concern started to set in. Should I do the race and risk injury or just run a 17 miler instead? The only thing pushing me to do the race was the hooded top you get at the end. That and my subconscious telling me that if I did 20 miles, 26.2 wouldn't seem so bad a few weeks later.

The day arrived and I had resigned myself to doing the race. I'd told people I was doing it so now wasn't a time to back out. My boyfriend drove me to Bedford and we managed to get lost as a result of bad directions from the sat nav. I was slowly getting stressed that I'd miss the race. Then when we arrived with 45 minutes to go, I was desperate for the toilet and had to queue for what seemed like an eternity. Further stress building up! Luckily I was out by the time they were calling people to the start line. I got my hooded top at the start of the race as I was sure that the 4 hour time limit on the race wouldn't be long enough for me despite me aiming for a target of 4 hours. I had visions of everyone having packed up and gone home by the time I crossed the finish line.

10am and we were off. It was slow going for the first 5/10 minutes and then I managed to get into my race pace. Easy going to start with until I encountered the first of many hills. This was a steep one (steep as far as I'm concerned) around mile 3. I was going strong and even overtaking people. What a thrill to get to the top of that hill without having walked or slowed down and the joy of seeing the down slope of the hill at the top was great!

I was averaging around 10.5 minute miles for the first 12 miles lap of the course. It was tough going with all the hills that seemed to go up but never come down. It was warm and windy in some places and just warm in others. I kept up with my little group of runners, determined not to let them pass me. I couldn't believe it when I saw people lapping me around the 10 mile mark. How on earth do they run so fast?? They were at mile 17 already and looked great. must be years of practice!

However, on passing the first loop of the course at the 12 mile mark, my legs started to get tired. All that hill running had worn me out and I was wondering how I'd get round the next 8 miles. I had a rough idea of the course as I had run through a lot of it during the first 12 miles and knew what to expect. I also knew that steep hill at mile 3 wouldn't be there again, thank god! I saw a few people drop out at mile 12, which gave me a little boost to carry on. I could not drop out of this one.

I walked for a little while up the hill around mile 13. I found the running between miles 13 to 17 the hardest I've ever run with there being so many hills and it being so warm. Luckily I had my Lucozade Body Fuel with me, which did very little to quench my thirst but it was something. My group of runners had run faster than me so I was now running on my own. The only time I stopped to walk was at the water stations as I needed to get as much water as possible without running along and spilling it all down my top. I hate foam cups!! I was counting down to each 3 mile water station and tried to run as quickly as possible to each one.

I had one little walk up the last hill on the course just before reaching the 18 mile mark as I knew the rest of it was downhill or flat. It gave me much needed energy to slow down a bit but still in the knowledge that I was making good time and would be in around 4 hours or just over. I then saw my boyfriend running towards me just after I passed the 18 mile mark. He ran with me the rest of the way, encouraging me to keep going and not to let the people behind me overtake. At one point I felt a big pull and pain in the back of ankle on my left leg, which made me walk for less than 30 seconds before carrying on. It had gone by the time I started running again and I kept going all the way to the end.

The marshalls kept telling me there wasn't much further to run but the last mile seemed to go on forever! I then reached the playing field where the finishing line was and nearly died when I saw I had to run round the whole field!! But then I saw the timer and that it was 3 hours and 54 mins!! I was going to run under 4 hours whether it killed me or not. I heard people running behind me getting faster and I was determined not to let them overtake me. I got faster and faster and ended up sprinting the last little bit to get a time of 3 hours and 55 minutes!!!!!

I was so happy to get under 4 hours and nearly burst into tears when I saw another woman come through crying with happiness at her time. What an achievement! A 20 mile with around 5-10 minutes of walking. I never thought I could do it but now I'm more ready for the Marathon than ever. If I can do 20 miles on a hilly course I can do 26.2 miles on a flat course. Woohoo!!!