# running / London Marathon 2025: Week 11

⬅️ London Marathon 2025: Week 10 London Marathon 2025: Week 12 ➡️

23 Mar 2025

Goals for the week

Back to normal routine, mileage in the 40s
Feeling strong and recovered
20 mile race, probably not at intensity, but at least feeling strong

A comeback week

Back to routine indeed. Smashed 54 miles this weeks, thanks mostly to the race today. So glad to have bounced back after 2 weeks less than ideal due to illness.

Relieved and happy.

Heartrate has been a bit high this week during runs, likely a sign of ongoing recovery. Rest and absorb.

The race

With 5 weeks to go, I want long runs with some intensity, and doing that alone is hard.

I booked this race before I was ill, so I didn’t anticipate doing it off the back of two weekends without a long run. In fact my last long run was the 20 mile race in Victoria Park. That’s a long & precious period of marathon training to go without a long run, or any intensity.

I set my sights low going into this 20 miler in Richmond, but as the week went on I adjusted my hopes upward as I started to feel better.

Going in this morning, I planned to go 10 miles at 7 mins/mile, followed by 10 miles closer to race pace.

The weather at the Old Deer Park was a little colder than expected. I came out in full race kit, the first time I’ve put a vest on in a while.

I found the 7 min pacer at the start and set off beside him, but I found that pace surprisingly slow from the get-go. I was sure that they had gone off too slow, and commited to running at the pace that felt comfortable and right for me. This left me for a bit in no-man’s land, but found a small group to sit with after a mile or so. The first mile was in the 6:50s. Off the line I did not expect that sort of pace to feel comfortable, so I was excited to see what would happen.

I sat with that group and ticked off 6:50s for the first 5 miles, before a bike on the route disrupted the pack a bit and I found myself slightly ahead of them, flowing and back alone. Rather than backing up to the pack I pushed on, finding another little group, and sticking with them through the first lap, which took me to 8 miles, hitting 6:40s.

For the whole race I tried to find groups, packs or even individual runners to sit with, or pull me along. That’s why I was there, to get pulled through a wquick long run. And I did a pretty good job most of the time.

I took my first gel at 20 mins, and it didn’t land well. The second, at 50 mins, went even worse and my stomach felt on edge for a while. This knocked my confidence and I didn’t risk another gel for the rest of the race. Energy wise I was probably a little lacking by the end, but it was the right call compared to taking another one, and wasn’t a constraint today.

I need to get this right on race day though. Not sure whether this was 2 weeks with no gels to practice, or just my stomach today. More weeks of practice ahead.

By 8 miles the 6:40 pack was starting to flag a little and I felt good, so I pushed on and caught other stragglers ahead, and sat with them for a while. They were running strong and really pulled me around that middle lap, while I was worried about my stomach. This is the beauty of pack running: No focus required to clock off the fast miles.

My original plan had been to hit 7 min miles up to mile 10, but I was into the 6:30s by 10, so instead I just sat with it, until the last lap, around 12.5 miles.

At that point the pace was fast but comfortable for my lungs. So as we turned for the last lap, I pushed on. Not crazy acceleration, just pulling gradually into the 6:20s, but that pack dropped off immediately. For the next few miles I ran alone, which was tough, but I felt pretty strong. I caught others and tried to sit with them for a while, but most were quite a bit slower than me by this point, so I pressed on.

The last 4 miles were all low 6:20s, and the last couple started to feel tough. I was begging for the finish to come. The start and finish were on a field up a slight hill. Being able to see across the field made the finish look much further away than other miles, and on the grass felt like a cross country that went on forever.

I pulled it over the line, in an average pace of 6:36, measuring a bit longer than 20 miles.

A very positive effort compared to what I expected going in. That I can reach those paces, without super shoes, at the end of a big week of training, and after a terrible 2 weeks of training – that’s awesome.

Looking back at the data, which I probably shouldn’t, my heart rate was quite high through those last miles. Much higher than my Half Marathon PB which is crazy. That might be the recovery, no long runs for 3 weeks following being ill.

Part of it is surely that I haven’t done any race pace work at all. This pace is surprisingly natural for me given that fact. With 5 weeks to go, I need to get some race effort work in. I think this is a lesson to switch my focus, in moderation, for the next couple of weeks.

There’s also the fact that I was probably suffering on low fuel. 2 gels isn’t really enough for 20 miles.

All in all, a fantastic day of running and learning. I’m feeling very confident in racing a decent marathon in 5 weeks. Whatever else I think, I came out with much more than I would have dared to ask for this morning. I’m happy and proud of that.

Seems that London is probably not a PB day, which is fine. The base in there, but clearly the bottom half of the 6 min range is a struggle.

Goal (A) is enjoy the day, and I’m on track there.

Another cool thing: Anya Culling ran the race. She’s a pro female GB athlete.

London Marathon charge £30 to get your name on your vest. I ironed my name on for £5 Amazon lettering. That was worth every penny today, for getting shout-outs during the race. I’m so excited for that in London.

Thoughts

It seems like we’re in business.

Job #1 now is recover from today’s race, absorb the benefits, and be ready to go again safely this week.

Next is to sharpen up. The base is there, but my heart didn’t like the speed. I will now compromise a little mileage to get the faster work in, and get comfy at race pace and below.

That will probably mean a medium-long run workout in the week.

Next Sunday I have another casual race, a half marathon, which I intend to use as another faster long run, to practice pace & gels.

5 weeks to go. I’m in a good place. Stay healthy, sharpen up, and we go.