Tales from the Marathon

An impressive contingent of Club athletes were out pounding the streets of London on Sunday 23 April, cheered on by an equally impressive crowd of supporters stationed at key points around the course.

Some had earned Championship places, Good for Age places, or Club places. Some were running for charities; and on the elite start, lining up alongside four of the five fastest marathon-runners in the world, waiting for the fastest of them all, Eliud Kipchoge, to start the race, was Hercules international, Alex Milne. To the right of him: Kelvin Kiptum (who was to win the race in a course record of 2:01:25, the second fastest time ever), along with Kenenisa Bekele and World Champion Tamirat Tola, plus defending Champion Amos Kipruto; and Mo Farah in his final appearance over the distance.

Above: Alex emerging from the darkness of the Blackfriars underpass on mile 24.

'This was my ninth London Marathon but the first one from the elite start,' says Alex, who was obliged to swap the gold and scarlet of Hercules for the cool Tracksmith kit (in a similar design!) produced by the American apparel company for athletes on their support programme.

'The conditions were perfect for fast times with cooling rain and light winds, and thankfully I had a decent-sized group to run with for much of the race, led by one of the official pacers' he says. 'I lapped up the crowd support and was reminded about what a special race this is. The halfway split of 67:50 was quicker than planned but it was that or risk running solo. The group whittled down to four around Canary Wharf (mile 18) and when the pacer dropped out at 20 miles only me and (fellow International) Nick Bowker were left. I struggled to stay with him, but focused on not letting the gap grow too large.

'The last 6 miles were a real grind' he admits. 'I dug deep, drawing on the energy of the screaming crowds, and told myself this is what I had trained for. So I was elated to see 2 hours 16 minutes on the clock coming into The Mall and crossed the line, totally spent, in 2:16:30 for a 70s PB to finish 20th overall –18th in the elites. I immediately threw up, but the BBC cameras unfortunately (or fortunately) missed this wonderful footage! 

'With ten Brits ahead of me, the depth of the field this year was inspiring and has made me hungry for a faster time in the near future'.

Alex’s time shoots him up to third on the all-time Hercules ranking list, with only Steve Badgery (2:15:44 set in 1971) and the Chairman, Dave Clarke (2:13:34 in 1989) ahead of him. Of course the comparison of times has been muddied since the advent of the 'super shoes' in 2016, which render discussions as tricky as rating today's tennis players against those from the wooden racket era. Veteran GB international Chris Thompson has likened the technological competition between the leading sports shoe brands to that of manufacturers in Formula One. 

So what did Dave Clarke wear when he set his club record in Stockholm?  'Just shoes!' he laughs. 'What I did for my last few marathons was to take the Reeboks that I wore for 5K and 10K (bear in mind I was sponsored by Reebok) and make them a bit better by getting slightly thicker midsoles put in by John the Cobbler in Petersham. John was a good friend of Chris Brasher – I think they drank in the same pub – and so if you needed any alterations to your shoes he would do them for you!

'You can't help but wonder what times we might have run if we had had super shoes', he muses. 'At the end of the day it is still all about the athlete, but what affected you in those days was the terrible pounding your knees took. So the big advantage of these really thick ultra-light, super-bouncy soles is that they protect your feet so your knees don't suffer the same shock and you don't have the same fatigue in training as well as racing. You can knock out better sessions and long runs and recover quicker'.

Into the unknown

Three of the key members of the men's distance squad who have spent the winter racing over the country and the roads were testing themselves for the first time over 26.2 miles.

First home was men's team captain, Freddie Slemeck, who clocked 2:25:53, pretty much bang on his 2:25 target, earning him 45th place and an instant entry at number 15 on the all-time HW ranking list.

'Having worked at, and watched the Marathon for so long I always said I wanted to do it myself, "when I am older"', he says. 'Now I have a daughter (born three weeks before the race) I've obviously decided I've moved into the "older category" and so 2023 was the time for the debut'. 

So, after all the swapping of training notes, strategies, and tips on nutrition and hydration in the run up to the event, how did his experience match up to his expectations? 'Before the race I was relatively relaxed', he says. "I had a false sense of belief that the pace would be manageable. I'd done my long runs, how hard could it really be', he says. 'As it turns out: hard!
 
'Starting behind the elites, so close to your heroes such as Alex Milne, was an amazing experience. As soon as the gun went off, I immediately got sucked into 2:11 pace, when my target was 2:25. 800m in I realised how quickly I'd started and slowed, but stupidly only to 2:19 pace – still 6 minutes quicker than my target, but given the atmosphere and the adrenaline it all felt very chilled’. However, he says, having gone through the 5K point ‘30 seconds too fast’, he heard the last minute pep talk from his experienced marathon-running team mate, Richard McDowell, ringing in his ears, ‘telling me that 1 minute too fast in the first half is 2 minutes too slow in the second half. SoI did eventually slow down to join a group aiming for 2:25.

'The group worked well together, and hearing shouts from friends and family out on the course gave a massive boost, pulling me through multiple sticky points. Running across Tower Bridge was a bucket list moment, and I arrived at halfway feeling relatively comfortable in 71.48. I knew that this was where the race really started (another McD mantra: 30K tempo, 12K race), and was still feeling relatively comfortable at 30K, but it was at this point that I started to tighten up and began to have a bit of a sense of humour failure over how long the bloody thing really is!
 
'The last 4 or 5 miles became a massive slog' he says. 'My quads and hamstrings tightened up but knowing that my wife and daughter were cheering on at 25 miles became a massive motivation to get to the finish without falling apart. Having gone past them I was almost praying that there had been some sort of protest in Parliament Square and the race would have to be stopped!' he jokes.

"I did slow over the last 4 or 5 miles but dug in enough to finish in 2:25:53,' he admits. 'I think getting my fuelling right throughout stopped me from becoming too carb-depleted and properly blowing up. I took on a gel every 40 minutes, and SIS drink at 9 and 15 miles handed to me by a friend out on the course. 

'Finishing', he says, 'was an odd experience. At first I was too tired for any emotion, but five minutes later I suddenly burst into tears when I met up with family and friends. I went from swearing I would never run again immediately after the race to Googling autumn marathons a week later as my legs slowly started to loosen up (I could now walk downstairs!) and I was already getting bored of not being able to head out for a run. Bring on the track season!'

The elusive 2:30

Third home for Hercules was seasoned marathon runner Dom Kiralyfi (left) who like Ben Toomer (see National Road Relay report below) is based in New York. Dom's time of 2:30:39 was a big PB which came tantalisingly close to his target of sub 2:30 and moves him up to 21st on the all time HW ranking list.  

‘I ran in New York in November and went through halfway in 75:32 but hit the wall pretty badly, finishing in 2:44:48 (though still in 167th place out of of 47,745 runners) so this time the plan was not to go off too hard’, he says. Given he had been feeling good in training, he still aimed to go through the halfway point in 76 minutes (he was almost spot on, clocking 75:50), but this time he surprised himself by achieving a negative split of 74:89.

Over many marathons he has developed a nutrition and hydration plan which seems to have worked well for him over the streets of London.

‘I always try to eat early the night before – typically I have plain pasta with a little bit of chicken. I actually don’t like heavy carb loading, so try to keep everything as close to what I’ve been doing in training as possible', he says. 'During the race I take three honey stinger energy gels washed down with water to help the digestion at miles  7,14 and 21, and I try to sip water every 5K to keep the hydration as high as possible’.

‘To be honest the first 13 miles were quite tough, and for the first 6-10 miles we were all soaked through from the rain, so your vest and shorts feel quite heavy,’ he says, ‘but bizarrely I started to feel good in the second half of the race and it was great to finish strongly with something still left in the tank. It’s quite rare to come away from a marathon and say the strategy worked pretty perfectly!’ Here’s hoping he can carry the experience through to New York in November, where he is aiming to finally go sub 2:30.

True Grit

Also making their debuts were Finn Johnson (below left) and James Stockings (right) who both experienced different challenges, yet still clocked 2:33:59 and 2:37:59 respectively.

'That was tough; so many thoughts to process', said Finn after he had thrown up and recovered from 'a lack of salt' in the back of a St John's Ambulance. 'The cramps were worse than the race!' he admits, 'but I shared the road with athletes from Bedford, Highgate, Woodford Green and Belgrave for 80 per cent of the day, and the running community cheering and supporting all of us from the local clubs was so, so overwhelming'.

Despite a stomach bug in the lead up to the National Road Relays which knocked his marathon training back by 10 days, James Stockings insists, 'overall I’m reflecting positively on the experience. Off the back of a solid winter season my main aim was to enjoy it and cash in on some fitness to ideally to come away with a sub-2:30 and a desire for more', he says. 'After a great build up in March, April wasn’t quite so smooth, and my leg at the National Road Relays was a tough and much needed blow-out!'

Despite the setback, he admits, 'after a 68:30 Half Marathon in March I perhaps naively thought I’d cruise through 74 mins, but this wasn’t the case and I massively hit the wall at 20 miles! However the atmosphere and seeing so many familiar faces out on the course made up for it and I’ll be back next year for another sub 2:30 attempt!'

Grima's Tales

The Marathon wouldn't be the Marathon without Dave and Claire Grima, who rarely miss a chance to race the London streets, and whose bragging rights over the distance have see-sawed from one to the other in recent years. Last year they tipped in Dave's favour as he set a new PB of 2:39:28 at his third attempt to go sub 2:40. Claire however, was forced to cheer rather than run, due to an injury which also hampered her normal build up to this year's race, and put thoughts of regaining the PB ascendancy on hold.

This year, in his 13th London race (the 12th consecutive since 2011) Dave again lowered his time to 2:38:46. 'I went through halfway in 1:19.21, and to go just 4 seconds slower in the second half showed a solid pacing plan – a benefit from all those previous marathons', he says.  

Before the race there was much swapping of notes about gels –  how many and when to take them – amongst the HW contingent. In Dave's case: 'many! I had one just before we started and six during the race'.

Docklands, he says, 'is often the place where I have a wobble and lose time, but I went through feeling as good as I have ever done, and I was confident of a strong finish and ready to embrace the pain!  It's a shame they don't do the "how many people you passed and how many people passed you in the final 7K" stat in the results anymore as I'd love to know that – I reckon I must have passed about 50 people in the final 200m!' he says. 'A huge shout to all the Herc support out there; it's a massive part of making the experience so enjoyable and repeatable.’

As for Claire, she was, 'just really happy to be back on the start line at London again, and having made sure we had courgette in the pasta the night before I thought I would just go out and attack it!' she jokes. 'I was hoping for sub 2.50 and even wondered if I could get close to 2.45, so I set off at that pace to see what would happen, which was a bit of a gamble as I hadn’t really done enough marathon-paced training for that.

'I went through halfway at 1:22 and knew I wasn’t going to keep it going. I was clinging on in the second half, so the gamble didn’t pay off, but I was annoyingly close to my target (she finished in 2:50:01) and considering my injury last summer I really can’t grumble.

'It was a great day out –  Dave had a perfectly executed PB and there were some incredible HW performances all round, especially from those making their debuts!'

Never again... except maybe next year!

'After inadequate training I went into Sunday telling lots of people this would be my last marathon', says M60 Charles Hampden-Smith who qualified for entry in the Good for Age category.  'I must have paced it reasonably well however, because I actually managed to enjoy the whole run (despite suffering from the dreaded runner's nipple!) and finished relatively strongly. My time of 3:24 gets me back for next year and I hope to be there!' 

HW Results

Alex Milne 2:16:30; Fred Slemeck 2:25:53; Dom Kiralyfi 2:30:39; Finn Johnson 2:33:59; Joe Clark 2:37:46;  James Stockings 2:37:59; Richard McDowelll 2:38:08; Dave Grima 2:38:46;  Simon Wade 2:42:03;  Dimos Evangelidis 2:42:52; Alex Tsagkas 2:44:17; Laurence Hill 2:44:42; Stuart Byrne 2:45:44; George Longworth 2:47:22; Claire Grima 2:50:01; Adam Collins 2:58:36; Denis Sorkin 3:01:08; Tom Cheetham 3:10:59; Adam May 3:11:03; Ross Franks 3:12:52; Max Olive 3:16:33; Simon Woodley 3:19:38; Felix Allen 3:22:15; Charles Hampden-Smith 3:24:25; Ben Revill 3:26:43; Alice McCormack 3:28:32; Alice Simmons 3:58:58; Charlotte Jones 4:34:50.

Full results

Mini Marvel

Congratulations to Isabella Harrison, who came home first in the U13 Girls race in the TCS Mini London Marathon which doubles as the British Athletics 2.6K Road Championships.

On the day before the London Marathon athletes aged 11-17 years, representing nine UK regions and 33 London boroughs, race over the final 2.6K of the main course, finishing in the Mall. Not only did Isabella win the individual event, but she led home the 4-to-score London team (in which all the boroughs come together) in the British Athletics team event.

Borough Championships:

U13 Girls: 1 Isabella Harrison; 7 Poppy Guest; 20 Otelia Garcia-Davis; 23 Freia Harper-Tee; 34 Alexandra Bramwell; 63 Beatrice Eminson; 75 Soraya Stevens (of 163).

U13 Boys: 6 Sam Dyson; 9 Theo Creed; 17 Thomas Whorton; 21 Harry Allen; 43 James Fraser (of 151).

U15 Girls: 15 Ava McAndie; 38 Vivienne Jonczyk; 45 Isabelle Sparkes; 51 Lara Delport; 94 Martha Eminson (of 142).

U15 Boys: 21 Noah Fernandez; 40 Sammy Hobden (of 152).

U17 Women: 19 Grace Eminson; 30 Amelie Stark; 43 Sophie Conway; 44 Dillan Quinn; 56 Sophia Anderson;  68 Ariana Shala (of 109).

U17 Men: 14 Theo Webb; 43 Will Taylor; 58 Tom Davies (of 121). 

Full results