With Kurt’s race complete, we left Boston behind on Tuesday evening and touched down at London Heathrow on Wednesday morning. All of the stairs to navigate the public transportation system were not his friend less than 48 hours post-marathon. We took the train to our hotel near Victoria Station, The Tophams Hotel (which I had chosen based on its relative proximity to the marathon finish line). In my jet lagged state, I was frustrated that we couldn’t check in early to our room because I wanted a shower and a nap. After resting in the hotel lobby for a little bit, we ventured out to get some food and walk around. The food hall by Victoria Station turned out to be a great quick option for us throughout the trip. After our early lunch, we stretched our legs and walked over to Buckingham Palace where they were busy setting up bleachers for the coronation in two weeks. To my surprise, no race fixtures were being set up yet on the finishing straight in front of the Palace.
When we returned to the hotel, we were thankful to be able to get into our room early (the staff were likely tired of having us sitting in their lobby). So, we eagerly showered and napped…because we had a big night ahead. Our first stop was dinner at Dishoom Carnaby in Soho (my last “daring” meal before race day). Just like the soda that I had was called, I give it a Thumbs up!
Then, we walked over to The London Palladium for a solo, acoustic concert by Ryan Adams. Front row seats to see one of my favorite artists perform in this iconic venue were magical. The set included a lot of classic hits interspersed with some covers that had a local flair.
It was a late night by the time that we got back to our hotel after the concert and settled down for bed, which helped force us to adjust to the local time zone. We had another packed day ahead on Thursday, starting with a morning reservation (free) to visit the Sky Garden, London’s highest public garden that boasts impressive 360 degree views of the city below. We were thankful for clear skies this morning!
After admiring the beautiful views, we hopped on the train to ExCel London in the Docklands for packet pick-up. The large facility offers numerous event spaces and restaurants. I picked up my race bib, bought the official marathon jacket by New Balance, and then walked through the rest of the Expo (which primarily featured booths for all of the official marathon charities). This was my first time raising funds as part of my race entry, and I chose the Alzheimer’s Society as my beneficiary (the total raised by race participants for this organization this year was well over a million pounds in support of people with dementia – incredible!).
We had a quick lunch at the ExCel while we waited for Ellen and her dad to arrive (having flown in from Austin this morning). It was great to see a familiar face from home and to celebrate that we were finally here with a strong training cycle complete.
Just as we did in Boston, we made our way over to the new Tracksmith store in Marylebone to pick up a race swag bag and shop. Since we finished everything up a little earlier than I had expected, I actually had time to get in a shake-out run in the afternoon (ahem, running is the whole reason that we’re here!). I ran back over to The Mall where they had started setting up the finish line and through St. James’s Park. Now, things were getting real!
Then, we were on the go again, this time for dinner at Ave Mario in Covent Garden. The colorful decor and yummy pizza made the rainy walk to get there worth it. Afterwards, we headed toward the Embankment where I would be running my final miles on Sunday. We made our way to the Golden Jubilee Bridge before hopping on the train back to the hotel to wrap up another busy day.
We were able to secure a last minute booking for a tour of Wimbledon on Friday morning. So, we had an early start to head out to the All England Lawn and Tennis Club. It turned into a wet morning on our walk from the Southfields Station (who goes to London without an umbrella? apparently, we do). We were among the first visitors to arrive for the day, so we had to wait for the grounds to open before making our way over to the gift shop and museum before our tour of the facility began. The first rule of visiting Wimbledon: Do not touch the grass! While it would have been nice to have better weather while we were there, I’m really glad that we were able to fit this into our schedule on this trip.
We could have easily spent more time perusing the memorabilia in the Wimbledon Museum, but we had to rush to get back to Central London for our next booking. Thankfully, we were able to grab a quick and yummy pizza lunch special at Franco Manca (I’m taking my carb loading seriously, haha) on our walk back to the train station from Wimbledon. And, we made it to the Churchill War Rooms in time for our afternoon reservation.
It was quickly apparent to me that the museum was quite large and that my history loving husband would want to spend quite a bit of time here (he likes to read all of the informational displays). After making my way through the underground bunker and taking a perfunctory tour of the museum itself, I told Kurt to take as much time as he wanted and that I was heading back to the hotel to get off my feet. I was then able to get another short shake-out run done in the Belgravia neighborhood where many countries have their embassy located. When Kurt got back, we walked over to Chucs Belgravia right down the street from our hotel for more carbs.
Given that Saturday was the day before the race, I tried to keep our schedule for the day light. We toured the Palace of Westminster in the morning, which included the House of Commons Chamber, the House of Lords Chamber, and Westminster Hall. The self-guided multi-media tour was quite informative to learn more about the UK Parliament (and, I tried to sit whenever possible!).
On April 11th, I received this much anticipated information by email from the race organizers regarding my start and recommended travel logistics (based on my predicted finish time):
Your Start colour: Green
Your Start wave: 4
Closest station to your Start: Maze Hill
Your recommended train arrival times: 09:00 / 09:10 / 09:19
Your Start Assembly Area arrival time: 09:22:00
Your Start wave opens: 09:59 – 10:09
Your Start time: 10:11 – 10:14
So, when race day finally arrived on Sunday, Ellen met me at my hotel at 7:30am (with a throwaway shirt for me to wear that was sure to please my Ohio State fanatic husband) and then we met Ashley at Victoria train station. Even though I wasn’t in the same start corral as they were, I opted to ride over to the starting area with them via the 8:07am southeastern train to Blackheath station. All of the corrals are accessible to the runners regardless of where you arrive (some may have a shorter or longer walk than others though). I’m glad that I traveled with them, as it allowed me to ease my pre-race jitters a bit.
After we wished each other well and headed our separate ways to our respective assembly areas in Greenwich Park, I was shocked to see how long the lines were for the bathrooms once I got to the green corral. I knew to expect this, but it was still a surprise. It was recommended to get in line immediately upon arrival, so that’s what I did. It took awhile, but I made it through the line with just enough time to drop my bag at the appropriate gear truck. It started to rain, so I tried to stay as dry as possible with my throwaway rain poncho (due to the wet grass, I also didn’t put my race shoes on until the last minute when I had to drop off my gear bag). I didn’t have too much time to wait though before the individual waves started to open and we were allowed through to queue up for our respective starts.
And then before I knew it, we were off on our 26.2 mile journey through London! The course starts at Blackheath, passes the iconic Cutty Sark around 10k, goes over the world-famous Tower Bridge at 20k, and through Canary Wharf, before finishing on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.
With three completely different starting lines, the courses merged at various points: Green (me!) and Blue merged fairly soon just before the first mile and then Red joined up with us around mile 3. Another unique aspect of the London Marathon is the number and variety of runners wearing costumes, including the infamous rhinos! Several participants who were attempting a Guinness World Record in their specific costume were placed in my starting corral.
Race day weather was thankfully mild (mid 50’s) and overcast (although, the sun was out during our train ride to the start and all of us were questioning our decision at that point not to have sunglasses). It rained intermittently throughout the race, which I honestly didn’t mind too much – I’m used to running while I’m wet because I sweat so much! But, I did at least try to keep my feet as dry as I could by avoiding the large puddles in the road – it didn’t matter much anyway because runners ran through them and splashed water onto my feet, much to my dismay.
For hydration, I intended to start with a throwaway water bottle that had electrolytes in it. But, I ended up drinking it all on the journey from my hotel to the race start line. The first water stop on the course was at mile 3 then every 2 miles beginning at mile 4. This was the first race that I have done where we were given small plastic water bottles instead of cups with water. I was unsure how this would work, but I actually really liked it because the pop tap cap meant that I could easily drink from the bottle rather than throwing a cup toward my face while running and hoping some water goes into my mouth. While there was plenty of water on course (and, I even carried the water bottle in between aid stations as needed), there were far fewer stations with an electrolyte drink: Lucozade in cups at miles 9, 15, 21 and 23. I needed more.
With a mid-morning race start, nutrition is an important consideration. I was well topped off with carbs from the days leading into the race. I had a bagel when I woke up around 6:30am then a Picky Bar on the train ride about two hours later. I took a UCAN gel right before I dropped off my gear bag in the race corral then I had gels every 5 miles or so. But, I was craving sugar and caffeine in the second half of the race (around lunchtime). I started to take some of the gummy candies that the spectators were offering, and I even asked a woman for her can of coke just before mile 21 (no shame in a marathon, folks).
Unpopular opinion: the race was hillier than I expected. I am in no way saying that this is a hilly course like Boston or New York. But, it is not as flat as Chicago or Berlin either. I think that my expectation that it was going to be flat hurt me, as I wasn’t mentally prepared for why I found myself going up at multiple points and why the effort felt harder than it should have at the start. By mile 8, I knew that it just wasn’t going to be my day out there. And, I accepted it and shifted my mindset to enjoying the opportunity that I had to run this world famous marathon that is unlike any other in terms of spectator support (Rainbow Row just past mile 21 was a highlight) and iconic landmarks. Making a right-hand turn and seeing the enormity of Tower Bridge suddenly appear in front of you was incredible.
The best moment of my race occurred around 10k when I was queuing up on the right side of the road to ensure that I got a picture by the race photographers as I ran by the Cutty Sark. I heard my name (twice) shouted from the massive crowd, but I didn’t think much of it because I didn’t have my name on my race bib or shirt (unlike most of the race participants). Then, I felt a swipe of my right arm by a spectator, and I quickly turned my head to the crowd as I ran by, spotting a familiar colored jacket. It served as a good distraction for the next couple of miles as I thought to myself, “No way. Could it be? How?” And, sure enough I got my answer around mile 15 when I spotted Jen and Ron in a less crowded spot on the course. I ran over to them for hugs and questions – so many questions! What were they doing here?!?! It meant the world to me that they had traveled over from the U.S., unbeknownst to both Kurt and I. When I saw Kurt shortly before mile 26, I first told him that I had no idea what happened to me out there today in terms of my race fitness (in hindsight, it’s pretty obvious that a week of travel and exploration before the race took their toll on my body). Then, I told him that Jen and Ron were here (I wasn’t sure at that point if Jen had been in cahoots with him about this surprise).
After crossing the finish line, I grabbed my finisher’s shirt, picked up my gear bag, and changed out of my race shoes for the walk over to the Horse Guards Parade to meet up with Kurt.
We walked back to the hotel then took the train over to meet Jen and Ron at their hotel (race participants had free public transport until 6pm with their race bib). I had a burger at a pub near their hotel then we took the train to Donutelier in Covent Garden for a celebratory donut (and, a coke!). Having them there allowed me to avoid getting down about my race not going well, as I was able to focus on what really matters – having great friends who show up for you.
Knowing that I likely wouldn’t want to walk a lot on the day after the race, I had booked a bus tour to explore a couple of sights outside of London. First up was Windsor Castle, a Royal residence located about an hour east of London. We independently explored the castle grounds and visited St. George’s Chapel (where Queen Elizabeth II was buried last year alongside her parents and sister). Then, we admired Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, which is furnished in astonishingly realistic detail. We concluded our visit with a tour of the State Apartments, still used for state occasions and Royal receptions.
The highlight of our day though was the unique opportunity to visit inside the stones of Stonehenge with the limited Stone Circle Experience. The first rule of visiting Stonehenge – don’t touch the stones!
We wrapped up a long day with fish and chips for dinner at The Victoria, a local pub by our hotel. Then, it was time to pack up to head home tomorrow with another World Marathon Major complete. With lessons learned, we’ll be back for London Marathon 2024!
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