On the 23rd April I raced my third London Marathon having taken part in the 2018 London Marathon with a charity bib and setting my current marathon PB in the 2023 London Marathon with a good for age place. That 2023 PB was good enough to get me another good for age entry for this year so I thought I would use it whilst I have it as I won’t always be fortunate enough to be running good for age times. That decision turned out to be a good call as they then revised the good for age standard down by 5mins from 2025.

Just like in 2023, I am running the Boston Marathon / London Marathon double again this year, with the London Marathon coming 6 days after running the 2024 Boston Marathon on Monday. Last year I ran Boston in 3:01 before going on to run a 2:58 PB in London 6 days later. Clearly I hadn’t raced Boston hard enough… With that knowledge and experience I knew that I could run two marathons in a week and two fast marathons at that.

What I hadn’t counted on was Boston being warmer than expected, messing up my hydration and fainting on the metro post race. Hitting my head, a cut to my eye requiring 11 stitches and causing some damage to my shoulder and neck. Two months on I now know that pain was tendon and ligament damage in my left shoulder causing significant pain in my neck and back 24×7. A trip to A&E meant that I missed my flight home and I ended up staying in Boston for two further days not returning back to the UK until Thursday.

Thursday and Friday were spent resting and deciding whether to run London or not. I was worried that something similar might happen again, thoughts like “what if I collapse again and bang my head for a second time in a week” or “I don’t know if I want to race marathons any more” were going around in my head. I certainly didn’t feel confident or motivated. My body was a long way off any condition you should run a marathon in but our hotel and train were non-refundable so we figured we would travel down Saturday morning and do the 2024 Registration and Expo then just see how it feels on race morning.

I got my Race Gear out ready and prepared the nutrition for race day, that kinda got me a little more motivated to give it a try. I toyed with the idea of running it at “easy pace” and just getting around then I remembered that I was fortunate to have got an entry to this race. Many hundreds of thousands applied for the lottery to gain entry only to receive the “Sorry you are not in” mail so I owe it to them to try my best, not throw away my race entry.

To sum up this whole race preparation I couldn’t get to sleep until gone midnight thanks to a number of bars playing loud music outside our room and then around 2am the hotel fire alarm went off so we were all awake and ready to head downstairs before the alarm stopped. False alarm!

Up at 6:30am, ate my porridge oats and decided I would give it a go. Still no race plan or target pace in mind, I will just head down to the start and see how it goes.

The weather was perfect for running a marathon. Maybe a little chilly early on and I did notice it was quite breezy on the way to the start and whilst waiting around but didn’t notice it at all during the run.

Athlete Village – Green Start

I was in Green wave 1, I got down to the start later than usual but still really early judging by the lack of people waiting around but I made use of the non-existent toilet queues before the lines got crazy (and they soon did).

I knew there were a few friends also in the green start area but I kept to myself today, I didn’t want to have the questions “how are you feeling” or “are you feeling up to it today”. I just wanted to sit in my own space and get this race done. No goal, no expectations, no pressure. The only thing I knew was it will hurt for two reasons, 1. second marathon in 6 days, tired legs, fatigued body and the travel from Boston – London still fresh. 2. the fall in Boston. My eye had healed fairly well, the bruising was starting to clear, the lip was improving, my teeth still hurt but most of all, my shoulder was a big problem. I couldn’t carry a bottle in that hand, it hurt to move and my neck hurt when I move my head.

So knowing all that, let’s go run another 26.2 miles around London. What could possibly go wrong.

London Marathon 2024 – 2:57:13 PB!!!

Long story short, it turns out I am very good at running a marathon PB 6 days after another fast marathon and with a totally beat up body. I went 1 min 3secs faster than last year and run the full 26.2 miles without stopping. I seriously have no words, don’t know how I did that.

 Mile 1 – 7: 6:48, 6:37, 6:38, 6:38, 6:44, 6:50, 6:42

Whilst lining up at the start I made my mind up that I was going to start at sub 3 pace, so 6:50/mi and just hold it at that. Let’s see how far I can take it. It may be 1 mile, 5 miles or 10 mines but i’m going to go for it and give it my best. I didn’t think that I would make it the full distance and was fully expecting to fall away in the second half but none of that happened.

The busy first mile was just what I needed, that held me back from the temptation of running too fast too soon. Miles 2 – 5 remained busy but I found a good space running right on the right hand side of the road. I was close to the crowds to high five the kids and feed off the London energy, second only to New York in my opinion. Running out wide probably added some extra meters to the left turns but the space to run my own race was a fair trade off.

The stretch around the Cutty Sark (or Butty Shark as my daughter calls it) at 10k narrows and pushes the runners in closer, this naturally lead to a slower split through that mile but also the crowds are huge here!

Mile 8 – 14: 6:42, 6:44, 6:44, 6:41, 6:42, 6:41, 6:41

After the crowds at 10k and that “slower split” (it was actually bang on the 6:50/mi target) I just got into a zone where I haven’t really got to in a race before. I blocked everything out and just locked in a pace and stuck to it. Mile 7 – 16 were all within 5secs of each other. I wasn’t purposely running any set pace, occasionally glancing at my watch to make sure I wasn’t going stupidly fast.

A highlight of the London Marathon is always the sight of Tower Bridge. You get there knowing you are almost half way home with a wall of noise coming at you from both sides.

Mile 15 – 21: 6:39, 6:41, 6:31, 6:51, 7:16, 6:44, 6:33

In 2023 I had made it all the way to mile 19 at Canary Wharf before the fatigue from Boston kicked in and I ended up stopping and walking 4 or 5 times in the last 7 miles that year.

This year I still felt good, I felt strong and consistent. The tall buildings and a couple of underpasses through that stretch throw the GPS out so I wasn’t concerned by the 7:16/mi split for mile 19. I had held consistent pacing and kept pace with those around me so I knew I wasn’t blowing up again like last year.

Mile 20 I was back on the 6:44/mi pacing of the previous 13, mile 21 was actually my quickest split of the race as I tried to push on a little to see how it felt.

Being 21 miles into the race and feeling like I could push on from what was already PB pace was a huge motivation and confidence boost but I was still weary of what happened last year when I suddenly hit the wall and also had the Boston fall in the back on my mind or you could say, on my shoulder… too soon for those kinds of jokes.

Mile 22 – 26.2: 6:41, 6:51, 7:19, 6:54, 6:57, 7:02

Into the last 4 miles, this is where I tell myself it’s just the typical 4 mile round to trip the train station and back which I run 2 or 3 times a week. I can bring this home now no matter what.

Mile 22 was back in that same low 6:40’s that I had locked in during the middle part of this race, however, this time it wasn’t so much locked in but I pushed hard for it. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t comfortable and it was hurting, the body was starting to struggle but I sure as hell wasn’t going to stop and walk this time. I will not be letting that be an excuse for not running my best time possible today and proving to myself that I can still run marathons after all those doubts in the days leading up to this.

I slowed in mile 23, starting to really struggle and fight that urge to just take it easy from here and bring it home, you have done well to make it 23 miles into the race given everything that has happened this week, you have run further into the race than you did last year but just stop and walk for a bit. Catch you breath and jog it in to the finish.

I let myself have those thoughts just so I could tell myself that there was no fucking chance I was walking, this is going to be that one race you run and run well. That one race you look back on when times are tough and say, remember London 2024 when you didn’t take the pussy option and walk, look what you did there.

I did slow in mile 24 but not to the extent of the 7:19/mi, I think that was GPS issues again.

Mile 25 through Embankment, I felt like I was struggling but still running close to that original 6:50 goal pace and actually, looking at these race photos, looking like I was coming home strong. My form hasn’t gone to shit like it usually does.

I remember turning right at Big Ben, knowing it was less than a mile to the finish but seeing how many people were lining both sides of the course and getting quite emotional briefly before dry heaving for a good 100m. I am sure that would have ruined everyone’s day if I had thrown up close to them. Thankfully I held it in.

That last stretch from Big Ben to Buckingham Palace felt so long, it felt like a death match, albeit a 6:57/mi death march and a couple more instances of dry heaving. This finish couldn’t come soon enough now.

I hadn’t looked at the elapsed time once during the race and didn’t pay any attention to the race clocks dotted around the course so when I was approaching the finish seeing the clock counting up from 2:56 I couldn’t believe it. I knew I had done well given my splits but hadn’t had the energy to process that those splits would be putting me so far under 3 hours.

Judging by my face on those last 2 photos, I not only lacked the energy to do basic math but also lacked energy to smile at the finish.

I soon recovered the facial muscles to smile after the line.

Brief roundup:

I really don’t know how to sum this race up. To have run 2:57.13, a 63sec PB and only my third time running under 3 hours amazes me. I feel so proud of that time and it isn’t very often I say I am happy with a race time. I truly feel like I ran my best possible time today and got everything out of it that I could.

I wasn’t sure I was fit enough to race, I doubted I was physically fit enough but also mentally wasn’t sure I could do it or even wanted to do it.

Running a marathon 6 days after the Boston Marathon is always going to mean the second race is compromised but even more so in my case this year after what happened post race in Boston. To put that in perspective, I am writing this 8 weeks on from the Boston fall and still in pain all day, every day. I have had to stop running because of the pain. Some how running 26.2 miles truly baffles me right now let alone running my fastest ever 26.2 miles.

I do have to question the whole logic behind tapering for a marathon now I have run two marathon PBs in the second race of the Boston / London marathon double in two consecutive years. Maybe I should plan a 26 mile long run into my next marathon taper…

To sign this off, I have always loved a quote I saw many years ago from Casey Neistat – Do What You Can’t. I love that, I have always wanted to go out there and prove I can do things I think I can’t do and sure as hell want to prove that I can do what others say I can’t do.

It used to be, I can’t run 1,500m, I can’t run a marathon, I can’t qualify for the Boston Marathon, I can’t run a sub 3 hour marathon, I can’t swim open water, I can’t do a triathlon, I can’t do an Ironman, I can’t do a sub 12 hour Ironman, I can’t qualify for the Ironman World Championship.

I HAVE done what I can’t. I have done all of the above and today I have proven again that I can run a marathon, I can run a sub 3, I can run a BQ and do it all with a knackered beat up body.

Don’t let others tell you what you can and can’t do. Go out there and do it and make yourself proud.