Still Running (weakly). Issue 99

PAST – inspiration – On 29th March 1981, Dick Beardsley, Inge Simonsen, Joyce Smith, Chris Brasher, Chris Finill, Steve Till and 7,000 others lined up in Blackheath to run the first London Marathon.  I remember the rain, and I remember Brasher coming on the Public Address system to say that he would be wearing an extra long-sleeved layer because of it.  I don’t remember any fancy dress or charity t-shirts, just 7,000 club runners.

Beardsley and Simonsen would cross the finish line first, holding hands.  Joyce Smith would dig deep to break 2:30 for a new British women’s record (2:29:57.)  Chris Brasher would remarkably run the event in about 2:52, having organised the thing in the first place.  I would run my first sub-3 – and in a world before digital watches and chip timing, it was only when I turned the corner into Constitution Hill and saw “2:58” on the clock that I knew I could do it.

And Chris Finill would start his London Marathon streak!

You had to search for your official time on the sheets of A4 sellotaped to the inside of the windows of County Hall several days later!

EVER-PRESENT – perspiration – Last year, Chris Finill, Michael Peace, Bill O’Connor, Jeffrey Aston, David Walker and Malcolm Speake completed the race for the 44th consecutive time, continuing their membership of the London Marathon Ever-Presents.

As they themselves admit, they are older but perhaps no wiser.  In 2018, Chris Finill was tripped at 3.5 miles, fell and broke his upper arm in two places.  He was strapped up and fed painkillers by St. John’s, but of course continued to complete the race in 3:54 to retain his membership.  He said later that, after he was strapped up, whenever another runner innocently jostled him, it hurt a bit!

He is the fastest of the six, running the first 33 editions of the marathon in under 3 hours, and clocking a 3:07 in 2024 at the age of 65.

FUTURE – suggestion – With three days to go, there is of course no training you can do to make yourself faster in London, although you can easily sabotage yourself by undertaking a bit too much DIY, playing football with the (grand)kids or even doing a parkrun on Saturday.

You are obviously better off having a lie-in the day before the marathon, which will entail an early alarm call itself, and making sure you are absolutely ready for the big day.

Afterwards, well, who cares?  Relax, rejoice, relish.  There are things you can do to speed your recovery, but unless you have another race very soon, this will not be your priority.

You may feel like a little jog by Wednesday.  And, in any case, it is good to keep moving – walking probably followed by a bit of easy stretching and a bath – to optimise circulation.

And then…………. it is a strange phenomenon, but you may notice – as I have – that if you go for a run around Thursday or Friday, you can feel like you can run forever.  I can only put it down to some sort of supercompensation by your body – namely that the long, hard effort has prompted your cardiovascular system to produce more oxygen-carrying red blood cells in response.  Something akin to the effect of altitude training.

But relax now there’s no more training or racing left to do; rejoice in your achievement, even if it was just getting round; and relish that lovely ache in your legs that tells of the effort you’ve put in.

Good luck everyone – patience in the early miles, persistence through the middle, and pride towards the end!