The conditions in London were worse than they seemed

*beating him by using a sensible pacing strategy.

Er congratulations? Pretty ridiculous point you're making. The weather in the UK has been terrible right up to a few weeks ago - there was no way to train in similar conditions without travelling abroad. I had a decent run on Sunday (2nd fastest marathon), but it was hot, humid, and zero wind - just thick, smoggy air. You could feel the intensity of the sun on your skin before 9am on Black Heath, and we were roasting just sat outside a pub at 2pm. It was so clearly not a good day to run a marathon that some of these smug comments about managing heat better are just laughable.

It's incredible how many people on here can talk confidently about weather they didn't experience, to the people who actually ran in it. It's an unhealthy dose of ignorance and arrogance (classic Let's Run?).

If you're reading this and you struggled on Sunday, then you're in the vast, vast majority of runners on the day. Yes some people had great races in spite of the weather, but they seem to be a small minority. Don't let some weirdo on the other side of the world marginalise your own experience because they get some kick out talking down to people.

Cannot emphasize this point enough.

Most of us running it trained through a British winter, head to toe in long sleeves and tights. There was absolutely zero opportunity of getting any heat acclimation over the last four months, other than a brief sunny week in March, and even then that was only in the south of England.

Absolutely. Another important point is how unpredictable the weather has been (and always is). People are talking like we should have prepared better in training for a scorcher of a day - why would anyone do that for an April marathon in the UK?

So there was no way to predict the weather, and then no real way to prepare for it (beyond last minute race pace/hydration changes etc) even if we did.

Incoming comment saying we should have prepared better to run in wind, rain, snow, fog and blazing hot sunshine in 3... 2... 1...

As someone based here, it’s not objectively all that hot but it’s that it came out of nowhere, the entire block would have been in the cold the race day is a sudden change.

It's always a risk with spring marathons that it'll be a warm day and you'll have been prepping in cool or cold weather mostly.

If you're seriously training for a PR there is no excuse to not prep for the possibility of a warm sunny day with a modicum of heat training the last 10 days. Get in the sauna or take a warm bath a couple times and do a couple jogs in warm clothes (or on a treadmill in a hot room) to simulate the heat. Heat training is proven to improve performance in even cold temperatures and major adaptations can be made in 3-5 session so I don't feel bad for anyone who didn't prep for this.

I absolutely suffer and hate the heat but if you embrace heat training it makes life much more tolerable.

I ran too. Elites ran from 9:35a to 11:40a

I finished after 12:30p. Let me tell you, that extra hour at that time of day makes a big difference. It went from "I kinda can deal with this" to "ok this is war". I saw the race pics today at 40K and me and the bunch around me all look dehydrated. Can see definition in muscles I'd never see, and per my count I had grabbed 12 water bottles along the course (both to cool and drink).

It was the direct sunlight (I got a tan). It was however not humid (I was entirely dry, even hair, by the time I walked to Trafalgar Sq). A humid marathon like NYCM 2022 would have been entirely a different level, but for the 3 hour folk, this was probably worth at least 1-3 min. And that's if you managed it well (showers, ice, stay cool). if you did nothing, you did risk heat stroke or complete bonk.

Lastly...the race is crowded. At 3 hour pace, I had 10+ people within feet at nearly all times. This adds to the ambient heat in a way that wouldn't impact the fast folks.

Yeah no sh** the field was stronger than last year and they cope better in hot conditions. It was really hot

It's possible to heat acclimate in the UK, it's just not very nice, but neither are plenty of other aspects of training for a marathon. Run in a blazing hot treadmill room and/or with loads of layers, stick yourself in a hot bath or a sauna after running. It sucks but it works (from someone who ran a PB on Sunday in London, as did the other person I know who heat trained)

What if you do that then it's freezing on race day? April is so unpredictable.

Exactly! Some of these replies are so smug.

I've run 10+ marathons and this was absolutely a difficult day to run one on. I've no idea why people are saying otherwise, or that it was easy to prepare for (as if it was always going to be a hot day. Last time I ran London it was cold and pouring rain).

Ultimately some people here are just desperate to talk down to people for an ego boost - that's universal on Let's Run and it's pretty sad

That’s the excuse of a bad loser.

but heat training doesn't negatively affect your ability to run on a cooler day? It's not an either/or - in fact there are some suggestions it enhances performances in all conditions, although the evidence is mixed:

precisionhydration.com

Should you be heat training?

@precisionfandh

What is heat stress training? How does it work and does it actually work? And, how can you try it out? Andy Blow gives his verdict on heat training in our blog.

Open link

In the absence of any evidence that it harms cool weather performance the answer is surely always do it 'just in case' - worst case it is pointless but you didn't lose anything.

I ran that day and to be honest found it pretty reasonable

Actually clocked a 8 minute PB

Any runner worth their salt would've built in a period of acclimation, just in case.

I just ran 4 long runs in 3/4 hooded tops just incase this happened, one every other week, topping out at 22 miles

I found it quite easy on the day.

Meanwhile I didn't run London but struggled through a 10 mile progression run on Sunday and was totally cooked by the end, it's the sun that totally kills me, not the air temp. About 5c and overcast is my optimal race weather so no big surprise, just shows how it can vary person to person.

Congratulations?

Most people didn't find it reasonable, evidently. You're not actually the arbiter of which runners are "worth their salt" or not - no one here is. You're just the epitome of the arrogant, smug contributor I was talking about.

I know a load of runners who were gunning for sub 2.30 on the day - only one of them got it. They're all worth their salt. It was a tough day. You're in a small minority of people who think it wasn't (or pretend to think so as means to puff themselves up at the expense of others)

Forecast for this Sunday is full cloud cover, breezy and max temp of 13 degrees.

You have to laugh!

I know it's been said before on here but people are getting more and more mean.

Excellent approach and an even better execution.

I ran my first marathon last fall at the TSC Toronto Waterfront in very similar conditions as London this year. Started warm at 15C, rose to 22C, high humidity, no shelter from the direct sun. Completely blew up and missed my goal time by 13 minutes.

I knew a week leading up to it that it was going to be potentially very warm for that time of year(Oct.20 in Canada). Made zero adjustments to my goal time or race strategy. Instead, I went out too fast for my 5k/10k/15k splits and ended up coming through the first half 3 minutes ahead of pace. At 35km I hit the wall. Lost my mental edge and jog/walked in the last 7km

After sulking and blaming the race day temperature for about a month, I went back and did a deep dive on my race day data. Heart rate was well above what I had trained for, especially early on for the race. Power data showed I kept attacking every hill and elevation grade. Ran the first 30km with ego and no patience.

Did an even deeper dive into my training and got completely honest with myself. I looked at the 4 weeks leading up to my taper(did the Pfitz 18/55), and my fitness showed I would be redlining my goal time in perfect conditions.

From the looks of it, a lot of people ran very well in London. Quite a few even ran their lifetime best by a large margin. Everything I've seen on letsrun and youtube/social media, where people blew up similar to how I did in Toronto; 10-20 minutes off their declared goal time. Those people refused to adjust and ran with ego.

Your tip about training in a hoodie is brilliant. The next one I'm running is in November and I'm going to apply that to some of my key workouts in September/October as the morning temperatures cool off. Over dress for the conditions to increase perceived effort and exhaustion. Also going to run 3-5 seconds faster than my goal marathon pace in training to account for any uncontrollable variables during the actual race.