British Runners in the London Marathon

Yes I'm running. In good shape. No predictions. It's not wise to predict your time before a Marathon. 99% of the Elite and AAA Championship runners go off at a stupid pace.

Didn't Mark Steinle also run c 29.17/29.20 in the AAAs 10k track in june 05 - damn good club running

Hi Jon,

I reckon I'm in shape to break 2:20, how much under will depend on all the factors that come into play over 26miles. I have had a solid 20 weeks preparation where I have missed very little training due to injury or illness. Of course a lot of things come into play on race day so I am not saying that it will happen, just that I think it should. I ran 2:29 in Dublin this Oct off 6 weeks training after coming off an injury this summer (no running for 4 weeks, cross training for 2 weeks) so I don't sub 2:20 is out of reach with a significantly greater amount of training under the belt.

I have been using the Portugese method that Antonio outlined here. Probably my best workout was 11x1600m in 5:01-5:03 with 1min rest on the track. That was in the middle of a 110 mile week. It felt easy but I'm not stupid, I won't be heading out a 5:00/mile pace! I did 9x2k on the track with 1min rest in 6:25-6:30 a week later but that was in a 115 mile week and the legs were feeling a bit tired. I have done a few longer workouts out on a cross country loop that I have like 4x5km with 1km rest at about 3:20/km pace which felt fairly comforatable despite being a challenging loop. I also did a few really long tempos on the same course, stuff like 30km tempo in about 3:30 pace.

I think I have done all I can do in terms of training. I guess we'll find out in 7 days how it has all gone. How has your training gone?

Bloody hell mate those are some long sessions. I've done it a different way. No long sessions but fairly high mileage at a good pace. I've put 15 weeks together averaging 90 miles with the highest at 110. Injury is always a factor with me. I know any more would have caused me to break down. I was suffering for the middle 6 weeks with bad sciatica. What I have managed is long races and tempo runs. Raced 3 half marathons, one 20 miler as a tempo, and one 30k as a tempo. Also raced a couple of 10k's and the 12 stage. I enjoy racing and it works for me. Reckon i'm as ready as i'll ever be for this. See you down there mate. Good luck,

Andy

Hey Andy,

Different strokes for different folks I guess! You have obviously found something that works really well for you so why change it. I am still pretty new at this marathon stuff but I seemed to adapt quite well to the large amount of intervals. I was most afraid of not being able to do it mentally but with the short rests for most of the stuff I just found I got into a rythm and didn't really have time to think, it was nice actually. I'll see you on Sunday, have a good final week. Matt

It appears that on her best form Paula Radcliffe could beat the males this year.

Without Brown the British contingent is average.

pacing info for London from bud:

dom bannister and ben noad are taking out sub 2 10 group.

phil sly will pace group at 67.30 pace to 17-18 and jason ward a group @ 69 for half pace.

empty head wrote:

It appears that on her best form Paula Radcliffe could beat the males this year.

Without Brown the British contingent is average.

Well apart from the fact Cullen's done 2:13....

nah wrote:

empty head wrote:

It appears that on her best form Paula Radcliffe could beat the males this year.

Without Brown the British contingent is average.

Well apart from the fact Cullen's done 2:13....

And apart from that Keith seems to be out of the running...

arnt the british guys clever enough to work out the pacing for themselves or do they need shelter (from pace makers) to help them achieve a specific time, either one makes them poor marathon runners in my view.

So does that make Bekele, Gebre, Tergat all poor at their events for taking that 'easy' option of having pacemakers to chase target times?

Perhaps some of you knockers should turn up at the Tower Hotel on Sat night to tell the Brits 1-1 how crap you rate them, it could be really helpful.

i dont agree with any pace makers for any level, as i think it spoils the "race" rather than an event trying to get the world record all the time. and no it doesnt make the above athletes poor as they can all run sub 2:10 on their own if they want (so dont see your point there). but to have pace makers at 2:15, 2:18 is in my opinion poor. p.s i havent mentioned any names (so who am i knocking) and i might be one of those runners staying in the tower hotel and dont have any problem telling a runner he is poor if he cant judge is own pace especially at that level

So Paula Radcliffe is poor then.

OK, fair enough, we can agree to differ then. If you are in the Tower then you'll know that the guys getting the 2nd/3rd/4th group pacers aren't daft or innumerate, and that in many of the big city races the sub-elite group get pacers and that in the 2nd/3rd tier international marathons the leaders will often get pacing too. Also that the GB women are having 3 pacers on same rationale as the guys.Isn't that rationale just the same as what applies to the world elite albeit at a different pace?

Part of me wonders how much difference in practice it actually makes (aside from the wind protection issue which can be significant) on the grounds that at this level (c2.17-20 guys and c2.35-40 women) the runners by and large are sound judges of race pace at different distances - they prove this pretty much weekly in racing and training. Also that the pacers will often step out - as they will have agreed - at just the stage where the runners will find it increasingly difficult to mainatin the target pace- and the end of the pacemaker's stint often coincides with a drop in even pace, which may have happended at that point anyway..... On the other hand there's no harm in getting whatever small assistance is available within the rules - and they all know that if/when they end up racing in a Championship there will be no pacers. Only another 6 days to continue the debate.....

I'm going to go out in 69, so hopefully in the group paced by Jason Ward, not as sure as Matt about my target time but 69 seems like a sensible approach. I think I'm as fit and maybe a bit stronger than I was for GNR. Have done a 12 week build up of around 100-110 per week, looking to run it as conservatively as possible. Debut marathon and hopefully a stepping stone to more.

If Dominic Bannister is pacing a group at sub 2.10 pace does that imply there are Brits going off at that pace? Pete Riley?

Good luck everyone next week.

What about Sharon Taylor,she is going to have a blistering run,been setting pbs all year,a real dark horse to spring a suprise in the womans race.

My one tip to people who haven't run London before is beware miles 4-8 (based on what I've seen each time at the 2:30 part of the field). You come charging down the hill at mile 3, and in all likelyhood will pick up 15-20 seconds, which is very nice to have in the bank. The damage is done when people hit the flat stretch along to Greenwich and don't knock the pace back to target level. Last year I consciously dropped back off the group I was on to let them get on with it, and ended up overtaking all that group round the Isle of Dogs as they paid the price.

I guess that's the advantage of having the pacer. He should be well enough briefed to take all of those things onboard, and ideally you'll get to 15 miles feeling like you're on a Sunday group training run. If you still feel that way at 20 miles then go for it, you've got a great run on the way!

I'd love to see Riley go with 2:10 pace and hopefully by the time the pacer dropped out there would be enough from the lead group dropping off that he wasn't on his own.

Heard Kassa Tadesse is also running. Havent heard much of him but would expect him to run sub 2.15. Good luck to all of you who are running.

My guess for any Brit hoping for c. 2.10 from what I've heard is Thomas Abyu - at altitude for many weeks so no UK/Euro racing form in the lead in. Interesting in that pace-wise, unless stuff changes before Sunday, there's apparently noone doing the honours for anyone looking for pace between 2.10/11 and 2.15.