26.2 miles of virtual London came and went and I finished in 3:28, a bit shy of 3:10, though I did manage to keep my pace under 8:00/mile at 7:58. A couple of friends ran part of the course and worked to help nudge me towards a faster time (for which I was grateful) and the Gatorade hand-offs from them and my family went smoothly (for which I was also grateful) but it was a day where things didn’t align quite the way I’d hoped. Racing is a finicky beast. Some days you hit your pace, some days you exceed it, and some days you do neither.
On an amusing note, I have four different finishing times from Sunday ranging from 3:27 to 3:32 based on which watch or app number you look at. (London supplied a GPS app on my phone to “officially” track my distance and time.) Once I enabled the London App, it took me about a minute to get my phone into its pouch and then begin the run. 3:28 is what I was shown when the London App, with fanfare and cheering, announced that I was done. 3:29 was what it said when the app actually got to 26.2 miles. My GPS watch was measuring distance shorter than the app so according to it, I had a 3:32 when I finished. Factoring in the one minute of phone-to-pouch time and applying it against the 3:29 to get 3:28 seems like the most accurate version. Also, that’s what they gave me when they essentially said “You’re done” so I’m going with that one.
My last marathon was sixteen years ago and I wondered how things would look with that many more years and miles on the legs. Will I do another one? Maybe, but it’s unwise to make that kind of decision right after an event. For now, I’m happy I did it, I echo being glad that I at least kept it under 8:00/mile, and there’s a 10K in late November that sounds interesting…
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