London Marathon!

One prolonged break later, I'm back, and fresh off a painful but quite satisfying London Marathon. Unfortunately, I was a couple of minutes off my personal best time, but taking into account the bathroom break and the traffic jam at mile 1, it would have been very close. Oh well, guess that's a reason to do another one...

My last few marathons were rather haphazard affairs. I think I did them mostly just to do them, not necessarily to test or improve myself. So even if I was a couple minutes shy of my goal, I was proud of how I ran London, in a competitive state of mind. Some notes and observations:

- Beautiful day at the start; patches of clouds, mid 50s. For some reason there were about a dozen hot air balloons as well.
- Marathons tend to double as charity clothes drives. Right before the start, thousands of people shed a longsleeve shirt, a jacket, etc., and just toss it to the side. As if the 10 minutes between when you drop off your bag (to be picked up at the finish line) and the start must be spent at the perfect temperature. The good news is that at many races, the clothes picked up off the street are donated.
- I passed a group of 6 or 7 Masai warriors around mile 6. These guys were decked out in their tradition garb, carrying spears and massive shields. Rumor has it they drank cow's blood and used pieces of tire rubber as shoes. Impressive.

- Rainstorm from miles 12-16. Nice change of pace I suppose.
- Brought it along, but didn't end up using the ipod. In events sanctioned by the US track and field association, listening to such devices is illegal. In one race last year, officials pored over photos of runners crossing the finish line and disqualified anyone with headphones!
- Accompanying the commercialization and soccer-mom-ization of the marathon (hey, nothing wrong with that), name-bearing shirts have become all the rage. This way, thousands of spectators can follow the directions and yell "GO (insert name on shirt here), GO!!" Apparently I spent much of the race nearby a "Jess" based on several dozen shouts.
- Ok, time to rant about the course. First of all, with 35,000 runners, you would think they would route you down large roads, no? Not so much; in many cases, we were on side roads...and often one lane of said road. There were also some major traffic jams (particularly at the beginning) due to some poorly positioned toilets. Secondly, one of the best parts about marathons is that they provide a chance for a city to show itself off. In DC, the course goes by the Pentagon, Georgetown, the Mall, the White House, the Capitol, etc. At Disney World, you get a tour of all four theme parks. In London, you get a tour of sketchy East London back roads. Other than a traverse of the Tower bridge at 12.5, we didn't see any awe-inspiring parts of the city until the last 2 miles.
- The crowds were amazing - so much energy when I had none.
- A race number earns you a free day's worth of Tube rides! Given prices of one-way tickets (more than $14) that's not a bad deal.
- Got a jolt of inspiration seeing the elite men on the other side of the road during the switchback. Saw Felix Limo (last year's winner) and Ryan Hall (US champ)...clearly household names. Seriously though, 5-minute miles for 26.2 miles is insane, and seeing it in person makes it even more impressive. I know it's apples and oranges, but world-class marathoners have my vote for best athletes on the planet.
- My sources tell me I was a couple minutes behind Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef.
- One of the best things about a marathon is that it's such a mental game. I'm convinced anyone can do it, it's just a matter of willpower. But one of the worst things you can do is convince yourself at mile 16 or 17 that you're almost there. At this point, you're still feeling pretty good, past halfway, no problem, right? Not at all. Get to mile 22 and then we'll talk.

So it was a great race despite my few complaints. Great crowd support, great enthusiasm on the course; a reminder of why I enjoy running such races so much. And with that, enjoy a clip of yesterday's champs here.