On 23rd April I raced the London Marathon for the second time. After gaining a charity place for the 2018 London Marathon, this year I had a good-for-age place from last year’s Paris Marathon and was aiming for a much better time than the 3:58.13 I ran in 2018 whilst dressed as a Love Heart.

Training for this year’s race had gone really well, I had gone through a 16-week training block without any injuries or niggles. I did pick up COVID in early February but on the whole, that didn’t impact the plan too much. I had set a 5-mile PB at the Alsager 5 (the root cause of that COVID) and also set a new half marathon PB in March at the Stafford Half Marathon so things were looking promising.

I did run the Boston Marathon 6 days before London so my only real concern was around how much the body will have recovered (or not) in those days between the two marathons. Clearly, I will be feeling the effects of a hard marathon and will no doubt feel more fatigued in the latter stages in London but my plan was to go for it, I will set out at 6:45/mi and just see how long I can hold that pace for, it might be 1 mile, 10 miles, 20 miles or highly unlikely, the full 26.2 miles.

So, as mentioned, I ran the Boston Marathon on the Monday of race week. I spent Tuesday traveling back to the UK arriving back at home at 10pm, and ran a few shakeout runs Wednesday – Saturday morning to firstly get over the flight and also see how they felt after Monday’s marathon. Thankfully, there were no major aches or pains and the usual DOMS didn’t kick in around Thursday so I felt ready to run another marathon on Sunday.

We traveled down from Stoke-on-Trent on the Saturday morning, went straight to the London Marathon expo, and spent the day taking our 7-year around London.

I got up to find that the forecast of rain had moved back a few hours, meaning the journey to the start village looked set to be dry and in fact, a very low chance of rain in the hours I would spend at the start. Usually, you can take a low chance of rain in the UK as a certainty that it’s going to rain.

Athlete Village at Blackheath

This year I was in the blue start village at Blackheath. The tube trip over here went well and quicker than expected, it didn’t feel too crowded either. I chatted with a couple of other runners on the way out to the start, shared Strava details then headed in.

It was actually quite nice when I arrived, there weren’t that many people around and the weather was good. A bit cloudy but the sun was poking through. This didn’t last for too long as those clouds got darker and darker then it started to rain about 10mins before my start time.

This is going to sound really sad, but I was really impressed with the toilets. They had a lot and in my 2 hours waiting around, I didn’t have to queue once.

London Marathon 2023 – 02:58.16 New PB!!

Time to get going then, let’s see how the legs feel 6 days on from the Boston Marathon.

So the start was somewhat confusing. I was in wave 1 so we were called up to the start area just as the Championship wave was setting off. We pretty much walked to the start line then someone blew a whistle and we were off.

It felt a bit low key but it is what it is.

 Mile 1 – 7: 6:40, 6:35, 6:24, 6:25, 6:38, 6:37, 6:51

The plan was to go off at 6:40/mi pace just like in Boston and see how long I can hold it. I wasn’t putting any pressure on a goal time, just see what the body has left.

The first couple of miles were a little crowded but nothing you wouldn’t have experienced in any other big city race. Mile 3 was where we were joined by the other start waves so things got more congested around there but that was supplemented by a really good downhill stretch.

By this stage, the rain was coming down more but the heat from my face combined with the damp air was making the sunglasses mist. I persevered with them for around 7 miles then put them in my pocket. It’s always helpful if you can see where you are going.

So funny fact, there were two Mark Hatton’s running this one. We know each other and both come from Stoke on Trent, so you just know that we would bump into one another at some stage. Somewhere around 5 miles I heard someone behind me shout Mark Hatton, I turned around and it was Mark Hatton… ok, it’s not that funny but made me smile. We ran the next 17 miles within 100m of each other.

Mile 8 – 14: 6:36, 6:38, 6:42, 6:38, 6:40, 6:44, 6:36

The pace over the first 7 miles had felt really comfortable and the legs weren’t feeling too bad at all. I was surprised I had made it this far but thought I would keep plugging and see if I can make it to Tower Bridge.

Spurred on by the crowds I just kept in that zone and wasn’t paying that much attention to my watch now, just settled into a pace and was sticking at it. The flat course in London really helped me stay consistent to this point. Boston had felt comfortable up to the halfway point but it had come in surges as the first half is a big net downhill but there are uphill sections that disrupt the flow.

Mile 15 – 20: 6:34, 6:54, 6:40, 6:46, 5:35, 7:00

I had gone through halfway in 1:26.54 and still felt good but I knew that wouldn’t last for much longer, it will then be about how mentally tough I am and if I want to push through it again with the Boston pain still fresh.

The pace slipped back slightly in mile 16 for the first time but I think this was mainly due to running through a tunnel and GPS dropping out, I was back on target in mile 17 then miles 18 and 19 were around Canary Wharf where GPS was dropping out again.

At mile 20 it started to bite, the legs went from feeling ok to feeling like lead blocks in the space of a few meters. The body was tiring and it all started to feel labored. On the plus side, I had got further into the race before slowing than I had in Boston.

Mile 21 – 26.2: 7:13, 7:09, 6:57, 7:23, 7:23, 7:21, 6:40

I knew many months ago that the last 10k of the second marathon in 6 days was going to be a test. Essepecily after running a 3:30 in Boston then running the first 20 miles in London under 2:50 pace. Now I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold on to the 2:50 pace but there was a chance of a PB here and a second sub 3hr marathon if I just kept it under 7:30/mi.

I stopped to walk a couple of times, I used those moments to try and stretch out the quads and calves. This tactic had worked in Boston and was getting me through these final 6 miles.

The crowd support on those last 3 miles was amazing though. That really pushed me to keep on and give it my best and let’s face it, I had half expected to be walking or at best jogging in around 9min pace by now so to be turning in 7:30 miles was a bonus.

Brief roundup:

Well, where do I start with that one!

To run two marathons in a week was something I knew I could do, I have done it a few times before, and deep down I felt that London could be the better course for running the faster of the two. To run 3:30 and 2:58 in the same week was something I didn’t expect.

Being able to run a PB on tired legs really gives me confidence that I could give a sub 2:55 a good go on fresh legs and a similar course to London.

In 2018 I finished London in 3:58. Five years later I finished my second London Marathon an hour faster, ran my second sub-3-hour marathon, set a new PB, and qualified for Boston and London again in 2024.

Really, really pleased with that, and for once, I can say I feel proud of my finish time. I always cross the line feeling like I could have done better and that often takes the shine off those races and times but today I know I gave it my all.