TCS London Marathon – 2023

I was lucky enough to run my first London Marathon on 24 April 2023. After years of trying with the ballot, I decided it was about time to go the charity route, so I was glad to run on behalf of Barnardo’s. Raising money for disadvantaged children and enjoy what is said to be the best marathon in the world? Sure, why not!

TLDR: It is indeed the best marathon I’ve ever experienced, leaps and bounds above the only other Major I ran, Berlin, which was already an awesome experience itself.

Training

I ran Berlin in September on average training that was screwed by a hot summer, distractions in August and a busy work schedule in September that turned my taper into a full recovery. I wanted to run somewhere around 4:15/4:30 and I know i have it in my legs, my HM PB in good conditions is a semi-decent 1:52. But Berlin went awful, I bonked bad around the Half area and ended up walking pretty much the whole second section, finishing in 5:52.

I was determined to do better for London and changed my training plan from Palladino’s Stryd plans (excellent but very intensive) to the AI-generated ones from TrainAsOne that adapt nicely to your slip-ups and had brought me to my old HM PB. I will eventually write a post on training tools, but that’s digressing

I kind of like TrainAsOne, but you need to stick to it otherwise it doesn’t really ramp up, so it only works if you put in the miles consistently, 5 times a week as you promised the nice AI at the beginning.

Well, I guess I can admit that my plans flopped badly in January, when things got incredibly busy on the work side. You can see below how my Strava Fit Score develops (essentially a rebranded TSS)

Yes, I won’t hide it pretending I had a great training cycle: I will own my laziness. Work was hard, but I could have gotten up at 4.30am and I did not. A 45km MONTH during a marathon training cycle is just taking the piss. You can see the ‘Fitness’ spike in September from Berlin, then i kept it decent for a while on the way to the new cycle…. And then all went to hell.

The spike in March is a Half Marathon that I ran and ended up being my longest run and only one above 12K.

So yeah, this is how I approached London: disappointed in myself and scared I might not even get to the finish line. When i got to March in that conditions I just decided to take it easy and avoid jumping into a last minute rump up that would end up with me dead in mid April…

Spoiler alert: the atmosphere in London was so great that I finished in a better time than Berlin and I think a good training cycle could have given me the elusive sub-4!

Travel and Start Area

On the way to London-day, I went to the Expo on Friday and you can read the dedicated post if interested.

When doing major races, I try to sleep next to the start, but being a Londoner, that was not the case and I live straight on the other side of town. That said, the trip to Greenwich was perfect and seamless: free TFL travel on the day, quick channelling of runners in Tower Bridge towards the tube/train interchange, clear signs to the right platform depending on your wave/destination. Full marks, really. Crossed London in 50 minutes in the middle of a major mass participation event: impressed

Once in Greenwich, you are asked to follow the herd, you cannot go wrong. But you are never slowing down or hitting choke points. You walk 10 minutes from the station to the park, walk up the hill and reach the Red Wave start area where you walk outside of the gates for a few minutes if your entry time has not come yet. Yes, they gave you recommended train times and entry times and they were bang on.

Once inside, a short walk to the trucks to leave your post run kit bag (efficient) and then toilet queue. No major marathon would be starting without a 20/30 minutes toilet queue, it is part of the experience. Weirdly, after the first pee, I started walking towards the wave holding pen and there were more toilets there nearly no one was using: bingo! Second safety toilet stop, you need that before a marathon!

And then it’s time to walk to the holding pen, ditch the waterproof jacket and let the nerves fizzle

TCS London Marathon 2023: the Course

I could try to describe the video in 1000 words, but I would never be able to do it better than what the TCS-LM staff did on this little video that I’m linking from their official website

TCS London Marathon 2023: Map Video Highlights

The start is downhill, for a long time, like nearly the first 5K down from Greenwich park are either materially downhill or flat with a gentle slope. There is a little bump after a while, but nothing the enthusiasm at the beginning of a marathon cannot get you through.

There will be a couple of bumps later on, but nothing to write home about. For London, the major hills are all far away from the course, so you have been spared!

The first section of the course is all through residential streets south and west of Greenwich park, going towards Woolwich and the Thames Barrier area. It is not necessarily beautiful, but it is still a pleasant area and the support of off the chart, as it will be for the whole route. In this section I like particularly the few ‘disco stations’ that people had set up in their own first floor flats, with commentary, cheers and music. South East London, you definitely delivered!

It’s not long before you reach the easternmost section of the course, shortly after merging with waves from the other two starting areas. The merging moment is very noisy, exciting, busy, and you turn from a ‘busy road race’ to a proper major marathon. Different pacing groups get on top of each other, support explodes, music is at the side of the course. It never gets too cramped, just happily crowded.

At the turnaround point I had hoped we would catch glimpses of the Thames Barrier, but unless I missed, it seems like the turn is just before it and we only briefly see the river before doubling back towards Greenwich park.

After a nice, short run along the monumental avenue at the North side of the park and a few quick turns around Greenwich town, you reach the first, major, traditional London Marathon landmark.

It doesn’t feel like it, but from here you have another 10K to reach Tower Bridge. It kind of flies away for some reason, it must be the boost from the awesome support and noise in the Cutty Sark section and the fact that it is essentially flat as an urban pancake.

Deceptively, in some moments during the next loop roughly following the Thames bend, in some section you see the dreaded Canary Wharf skyscrapers in front of you… so you feel the 20 Miles mark is just there. Hint: it is not 🙂

After a while I started recognising the Borough area, buildings become more ‘elegant’, support is even noisier and dense. Another BBC camera to smile at and greet, a corner to turn, and yet again, another landmark! My legs were starting to get tired, but the Half mark is not that far away and after turning that corner, the view pulls you in, even if gravity and gradient definitely dont.

After getting of the bridge and passing by a fun, noisy and beautiful section of the Tower of London, the right turn I was dreading comes. Off towards the Isle of Dogs. Morale is helped by the short distance needed to reach the Half Marathon mark: it does not mean much and at this stage the mood is more ‘crap I need to do this once more again’ than ‘yahoo, half behind’, but I guess it does help, in a way.

After the HM mark, the longish straight to the fringes of Canary Wharf is actually pretty pleasant. Even here, essentially a thoroughfare with limited residential, support was way above anything I’ve experienced before, with several musical groups and a lot of very welcome sweets being handed out.

The way into the Wharf is nice and the underground roundabout adds some fun variance and makes for a great environment for a drummers group… then you need to climb up again, but it is short and that late in the race I was glad to take the opportunity for a walking break.

Before getting into the Wharf proper, you need to go South and loop around Milwall and Muchute. This was probably the least enjoyable section of the race. I guess a combination of a moderately uninspiring residential area with the late stage in the race and slightly less intense support was what made it so for me. This is also where my pace broke, probably around 28/29K and I started feeling really tired and increasing the frequency of my walking breaks

Usually, this is GPS monster zone. The tall buildings, large streets and reflective surfaces seem to play havoc with it and I’ve seen some seriously absurd tracks around Strava. This messes with the pace your watch reports if you are not using a footpod, so tech-runner beware. You don’t want to screw your race up because you rely too much on some kind of pacing support. My watch held up surprisingly well: good job Garmin 🙂

Crowds and noise kept me running through the Wharf, but then I bonk badly immediately after getting out of it and back into the area where runners going to and leaving the wharf cross. It’s essentially a long straight from the Wharf to Tower Hill to 1k before Blackfriars where the route converges south and starts siding the Thames. I will be honest, I walked all of this section: I was done, dead, kaput.

And then it’s back out of the Blackfriars underpass and on alongside the Thames. I could smell the finish, so I mustered the strength to run again! This could make for a very very scenic section, but there were a lot of construction barriers between the road and the river, so views and pics where spoiled a bit. But it is one of the areas where charities’ cheer squads congregate and I met the guys from my charity who exploded when I passed. Thank you Barnardo’s, you deserve every contribution for the work you do! And for your shouts and high 5s to a tired tired runner!

And then it is all about getting pushed by that last drop of energy you had no idea you had. Pushed by the shouts and cheers of the crowd. Pushed by the feelings of being on the last K of the London Marathon. The last K that goes past Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, Saint James Park and Buckingham Palace and then gets you to an incredible, emotional Finish line just in front of it.

I had done it. I had finished the London Marathon. Even with my crap training.

I have secured my second Abbott Star. And loved it while suffering it

Fancy runners at the London Marathon

The London Marathon is a major charity event. Of the 48,000 people who started it in 2023, I am sure the vast majority was running to support a worthy cause and many went above and beyond to do that.

A lot of very interesting characters can be met over the 26.1 miles 🙂

The above is just a selection of the impressive wildlife I have encountered during my enjoyable of around London.

Obviously we all know that marathons tend to attract Dinos, with a particular pull on T-Rex apparently, butterflies and bees. That’s well known.

However, I have also met specimens who were clearly cheating and that is not cool. I know you are doing it for a worthy cause, but you should not compete in a marathon if you are a horse or a man-in-a-van.

A bone I’ve met a couple of times showed particular agility, as did an open book… and a real one, not even a digital one.

An honourable mention goes to the rhinos… jokes aside, the cause is definitely worth and that thing weights like a ton of bricks! Well done!

And finally, the most shocking and unsettling one was being overtaken by an ovary. It was a fast ovary and we raced each other for a while on the embankment. I beat you eventually, you evil, competitive ovary!

Facilities

Marathons can be huge events, taking over large chunks of cities and often mixing in runners, supporters and annoyed locals. Logistics must be pretty daunting, but small inefficiencies can make or break the experience for amateur runners who spent months training to the culminating event.

Lets go over my thoughts about the main items that can affect the experience then:

• Transport to start line: incredibly efficient and well organised
• Start area(s): not overcrowded, pleasant and efficient
• Kit drop: quick, safe, efficient with the trucks system
• Start area toilets: plentiful but rank
• Waves system: many mid-sized, fast turnaround and on time
• Wave holding pen: in and out in less than 10 minutes
• Start section: first couple of KMs not that inspiring
• Course: nice, flat and scenic. Big thumbs up
• Toilets: a lot! If you dont need them over the first 10K, you will barely queue for them
• Water stations: a lot! More than needed and well stocked
• Energy and food: no solid food at all and not enough gels or energy drinks
• Finish line: beautiful location, efficient setting
• Bling: awesome 2023 medal
• Finisher T-shirt: meh
• Finisher refreshments: the crumble cake was good and filling. Little more providede besides 1 water and 1 Lucozade though

Elites

Apparently there was an elite race up front and the performances were awe-inspiring. The first female finisher ran at a pace that made Paula Radcliffe wonder when she would bonk and the first male winner obliterated competition with a WR scary (nearly)

Plenty of professional writers will cover that better than me 🙂

What’s next?

Marathons are painful, you never want to go through such an ordeal again, right?

Well, no. I guess I have hidden masochistic traits, because this one was my third and within 24 hours of finishing it I was already thinking about what my next one will be.

I want to get through the World Majors, eventually. I don’t know yet which one I would try next… I guess I will try the ballots for New York, Tokyo and Chicago and then pay my way into one if I don’t win any. My gut is suggesting Chicago as the next one: I really like the city and I have not been there for nearly 20 years, since I spent 1 year studying in the Midwest a couple of hours away from the Windy City.

So that would be next year… can I be marathon-less for 18 months? Maybe, I could focus on base and HM fitness and time… I think? Or maybe not, York in October also tempts me 🙂 we’ll see 😀

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Well, I guess you can see I enjoyed it and I also enjoyed writing this blog. If you got this far reading it, thank you for your patience and thank you for clicking on this link as well!

I have also prepared video highlights for my YouTube channel, similarly to what I do for my parkrun course reviews.

Did you run as well? Let me know your thoughts!

Do you want to run it, but think you cannot? Let’s chat, anyone can do it, really!