London marathon report

[steve scott]

For all the promise of low temperatures and rain showers on the day we got hot sunshine.You can chart my marathon history and the warmer the weather the slower the time, so with this in mind i set off aiming for 3:15 but running at 3:05 pace.
All was going well i found a great group of fellow runners and reached half way in 1:32, pretty good i'm thinking but all the time i know that as with my previous 8 marathons i'm going to fast. At 15 miles i could feel my legs tightening so i slowed a bit but by 18 my old nemesis cramp came knocking and i was forced to stop and stretch, of i went again this time much slower aware that any change of stride length or step up could bring the cramp back. By mile 20 i knew that 3:15 was gone so decided to ease up and try to enjoy the final 6, then i came across Fiona who was having a rough time so i ran with her to the finish, i could'nt believe how much easier running was with a familier face to chat to and i think that we actually stepped up the pace for the last 2 miles and crossed the line together in 3:33.
Most of the Brighton runners blew up with the exeption of Chris and most of the newbies.