Race Report: London Marathon 2025

It’s the Thursday after the London Marathon and even though things really didn’t go to plan, I’m feeling good. The blisters have subsided, my little toenail has opted not to fall off and my quads, which were sore after the race, are recovered. I could get up and down stairs after the race, no problem, which was useful as there are plenty of them on the route home! The plantar ache in my right heel which was worrying me in the lead dup to the run seems to have eased off. I might have got away with it?!
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Mentally I’m disappointed with my time. London is an absolutely incredible event, but I’d trained for that elusive 2:59 and ended up running 3:11. I ran a 1:22 half at Retford 6 weeks before London which the various predictor websites told me was roughly a 3-hour marathon. In the end the weather got me. This year’s was the fourth hottest London Marathon in its 45-year history. 2018 was the hottest, a full 2 degrees hotter than this year.

I’ve run about 15 marathon-distance runs in total (including long training runs and ultras), with five being timed road marathons. The fastest I’ve managed was a 3:01:32 last year, and I felt fit enough to fight for those last 90-odd seconds. I was in really good shape after 5 months of training this winter and spring, at roughly 50 to 60 miles a week with plenty of marathon-paced efforts.
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London this year was around 13°C at the start and 18 or 19°C at the end, although it was probably hotter in full sunshine and surrounded by runners and buildings. It peaked at about 22°C for the runners in late waves, but again that was probably a low estimate of how warm they felt. It was even warm in the start area. Ideally, I like to be shivering in a coat at about 7 or 8°C, but this year was sat on my coat in the shade of the loos! 

I got well hydrated in the days beforehand, took electrolytes in the lead up and the morning before, wore sunscreen, a cap and shades, had seven 30g carb gels with salt in them, ran under all but one of the on-course showers (I missed one on the other side of the road), poured water on myself and drank at every water station. Some of the lads had chewable electrolytes too, but I didn’t have any issues with cramp so didn’t feel I needed them.
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All that stuff, plus a couple of other things probably got me to the finish line. Not in the time I wanted, but at least in one piece. I’ve since read of people dropping with heatstroke in the later stages and saw plenty of runners being carried or lying at the side of the road. 

As well as taking care of hydration I ran a conservative pace for the first half. Not on purpose mind you, read on… When I applied for a good for age place, I sent in a predicted finish time of 2:59:59 and was placed in wave 2. Last year I put down 2:55:00, which got me in wave 1. The good thing about being in the second wave is the pacers, in theory at least.
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There were 3:00, 3:05 and 3:10 pacers available in my wave (no pacers in wave 1). Only problem was I didn’t get into the queue for the wave 2 pen early enough. I was there about 10 mins before it opened, but by then there were literally hundreds of runners between me and the pacers. I never saw the 3:00 or 3:05 pacers after catching a distant glimpse of them at the start, and only just managed to catch the 3:10 pacers after about 10 miles of running. I picked up a pace band at the expo though, so knew what splits I needed to be doing anyway (although trying to stare at the band while running and avoiding people was awkward).

Being towards the back of wave 2 meant I was running with folks doing maybe 7:00 to 7:20 min mile pace. I needed to be doing 6:45 to 6:50 to get under 3. Just not possible, at least for the first half, the road was packed. I was a constantly shifting pace as I caught people up, managed to run sideways to get through a gap and on for a few more strides to the next road block. I ran up the pavement at one point but risked not being able to get back into the road. This year London set a world record for the number of finishers with 56,640, and it felt like it on the route. It was heaving! Our coach Micheal ran in wave 1 and said he had the same experience, other lads in later waves said the same too.
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The other thing which probably saved me from a DNF was running to heart rate. From past marathons I know I tend to be able to keep my HR about 165 (I’m 52 now, and it’s dropped over the years). I kept an eye on it and even running at 7 min pace it was up to 168, then 170, and I had to ease off. I’ve since read that as the body warms up, the heart has to divert blood from the muscles (for running) to the skin (for cooling). Also, as the inevitable dehydration kicks in later on, blood volume drops which further pushes up heart rate which eats into your glycogen stores. End result: I had to slow down in the second half, I had no choice.

I break London down into sections. 1. The 6 mile(ish) stretch to the Cutty Sark then 2. another 6 to Tower Bridge, then 3. The halfway mark then 4. 20 miles and 5. the last mile or so from Big Ben. The Cutty Sark seemed to come quickly and I barely saw the ship. I could see I was losing time over these initial miles until I crossed halfway in about 1:32. I tried not to worry about it and thought I might speed up later on. Reality was I hit the wall around 20 miles and gradually dropped over the next few miles all the way down to 8:30 min mile pace.
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The final 6 miles were a very hard struggle to complete and I felt I was barely moving. The 3:10 pacer came back past me and I failed to hold into them, which was really demoralising. I don’t usually seriously consider dropping out of races, but it crossed my mind a good few times on Sunday. I went into a bit of a dark place for a while.

The last mile felt like five. The crowds were incredible. I passed a chap being carried by two other runners and the screams of support were so loud! As you turn onto Mall, with the palace on your left, there is a double right hander. Around the second corner the end gantry comes into sight maybe a hundred metres down the road. I’d imagined this so many times in training, visualising looking at my watch starting with a 2. Not to be, but I at least made sure I found a gap and got my arms up in front of the photographers!

Over the line I came to an almost-halt, feeling light-headed but with it enough to confirm to the volunteers I was OK. They were dealing with folks who needed treatment and ushered the rest of us along towards the medal collection queues. The people handing out the medals are so nice, telling every single runner how well they’ve done. They make you feel so special. I’d suffered those last few miles, and I’ve never been so keen to get my hands on the medal. I really felt I’d earned it, the hard way (and I kept it on for the journey back across London). Spotting one last photographer, I shuffled along with a couple of other guys to get a picture of me kissing the thing!

No foil blankets were needed this year, so I ambled off to pick up my bag (zero queues, more amazing volunteers), drank a meal replacement bottle Ju had sorted for me and went to find her on Horseguards. Anyone doing London will know, that place is bonkers on race day. There are thousands of people, but we’d arranged to meet at a certain point and there she was. I clung onto her and the emotion hit me like a train. This happens sometimes when I’ve had to dig too deep. It lasts a minute and I’m good to go.

From there Micheal had arranged for us to meet at a nearby pub on Whitehall. The road was closed to traffic and absolutely heaving with people. The London Marathon is so damned big! Into the pub for a well-earned cold drink and to share a hug with Micheal, who’d gone under 3, I was chuffed for him but also, I must admit, very relieved to hear he’d struggled with the heat. I’d followed his training closely and expected him to go under 2:50, even with an injury later a few weeks before the race. Gareth and Andy Aiston (from Ilkeston RC) were also there for hugs, hand shakes, stories of the day and mutual respect.
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Job done. Again, not the time I wanted, but I had to be proud I finished. I learned a lot about warm weather running that day which I’ll take with me into the future. No more London Marathons for me though, three were enough, time for someone else to experience that incredible place.

Highlights of this year’s London Marathon for me were:

1. The enormous amount of support and well wishes from my fellow members of Kimberley and District Striders (and even a recovery pack of chocs, foot-repair kits and bubble bath, thank you Linda!). It was worth all the effort just for those wonderful messages.
2. Starting under the main gantry the elite runners start from (only one of the three starts goes under here and I’ve been down the other two in 2023 and 2024).
3. Seeing Eliud Kipchoge bounding towards me on the two-way section around Shadwell. He looked serene as he flowed over the ground, poetry. I felt like a bag of spuds in contrast.
4. The Cutty Sark and London Bridge are always a buzz. I spotted the photographers on the bridge for once and let myself get arms up for a photo I’ll cherish.
5. The crowds this year were incredible. Roughly 800,000 people watched along the course. I mean, they were everywhere, several rows deep. Julie and Orlagh (Andy Aiston’s wife) worked hard to get around to 3 different spots and screamed at me as I went past. I didn’t see or hear them, the noise was just ballistic. The only point there were no spectators was the Blackfriars Underpass towards mile 24, which was eerily quiet but for the rhythmic thud of trainers hitting road.
6. Meeting the other lads in the pub afterwards and hearing of their efforts. I’m so proud to be associated with these incredible guys.
7. Getting my hands on the medal at the end!!!

The lessons I learned this year are:

1. Don’t worry too much if training isn’t going too well in January and February. I only really started to feel really fit in March this year.
2. The half marathon test race at Retford was very useful. It demonstrated I was in good shape and gave me confidence to keep going.
3. Accept the weather on the day and adjust expectations. Everyone told me to do this before Sunday, but I ignored it. If it’s warm in future, and I’ve not been training in those temps, I’ll ease off from the start.
4. Having A, B and C goals is a great idea. This year my A goal was sub-3, B was initially to PB but just before the race I adjusted this to get under 3:07 (the good for age time to get entry to 2026, despite the fact I didn’t intend to take a place). My C goal was to complete, in whatever time I needed.

And one final thing, a most unexpected turn of events in this year’s run. I wrote this on our club’s internal Facebook group after the race (be careful out there folks!):

“There are so many runners at London part of the challenge is avoiding everyone else. At the first water station today, I failed in this regard.
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Bearing in mind the water stations are very long in these big races, maybe 30 volunteers holding out bottles over a 20m long table, so plenty of opportunities to get a bottle.... Also noting there are about 50,000 runners all piling down the same narrow section of road at speed...

At the first water station today the chap in front of me took a grab at a bottle, dropped it and decided to stop dead, turn around and bend over to get it. I get this, he didn't want to waste a bottle. Fair enough.

Only issue was it placed the top of his head in the direct path of my crown jewels. Later on in the run I was barely moving but at this point I was travelling. Nowhere to go, he effectively reverse nutted me in the groin. Oooofffppphhh! Thankfully no damage done, at least not to me.”

I carried on running straight away, only afterwards wondering whether the guy had survived the encounter undamaged. Hopefully he did and made it round OK.

Cheers guys, and let’s go KADS! Jay