London Marathon 2002 - race analysis

During the first miles I felt slightly insecure cos my heartrate was about 5 beats higher than 4 weeks before when I ran a 20 mile race on the island of Sylt where I even managed a faster pace. Initially I blamed it on the starting fright. Later I reassured myself that the temperature today was 10°c higher than at the recent race. Ex post I have to admit that my shape was obviously better 4 weeks ago.

My target was to run each mile in a time of 7:50 to 8:00 min. I found it difficult to meet the desired pace. But I took it easy as I already knew a proper excuse with a just survived flu. First little doubts occurred at 15K when my legs felt a little tired far too early. However, at 30K I roughly could stick to my plan and from now on I felt fairly confident. The sag at mile 25 didn't happen due to a weakened condition but cos I was frightened to get a cramp in my left thigh which hardened noticeable. But all went well as the final mile shows. For the first time in a marathon I managed to keep my heartrate high right to the finish line and I even could increase the pace a bit.

Conclusion: The long runs, particularly two races of about 21 miles, payed off. With a bit more of a nip on the final 10K even more would have been possible. This time I prefered to prolong the enjoyment to the final part of the beloved London Marathon for the first time.

If you like to download this small Excel file with analysis, training plan and time table, here it is.