The London Marathon Race Recap

This podcast episode is our long-awaited race recap of the 2019 London Marathon.

We’ll tell you all about our trip to the U.K. and what it was like to run this amazing race.

This is a beast of an episode with lots of stories, tips, shenanagains and sound bites so kick back and enjoy!

London Marathon Race Recap

The 39th edition of the London Marathon was held on 28 April, 2019. This marathon has been continually operating since 1981 and this year there were a record of 42,906 starters (414,168 tried for a ballot place) and 42,549 finishers on The Mall.

The marathon has raised 1.3 billion dollars for charity since it started. Their tag line this year was “thanks a billion.”(3) After several years of not getting in through the lottery system we were very excited to get charity spots with the UK based John Muir Trust and to raise money to plant trees on a property they manage in Scotland.

Pre-Race:

Trevor’s dad flew out from Washington state to watch the boys while we were gone and we’re so grateful to him. However, our trip got off to a slightly rough start when I came down with the flu 12 hours before our flight went out. Fortunately my stomach was fully recovered by two days before the marathon and sickness didn’t slow us down on our site seeing.

Here are some of the things we did while in London … took a walking tour of London, toured Westminister Abbey, The Churchill War Rooms, The Tower of London, and The British Museum, and ate a lot of great meals.

MTA Meet Up:

We had our MTA meet up near the expo on Saturday for an afternoon British tea which consisted of tea, sandwiches, and a variety of deserts and scones. We had a great turnout and are so thankful to everyone who came out! The MTA podcast was dubbed “The People’s Podcast” by Phil Shin, one of the runners at the meet up. I think we’ll keep the nickname.

MTA Meet Up

With Academy member Niall from Ireland

Race Morning

The London Underground offers free transportation on race day when you show your bib, which is a very nice touch. One thing to be aware of is that not all underground locations are open on race day so you want to carefully plan how to get to your particular start line (for us it was in Greenwich Park).

Riding the train to Greenwich Station on marathon morning

It took us an hour and a half to get from our hotel to the start area via public transportation. There was also nearly a mile walk to get to the corral area. You also want to allow for time to get your drop bag to the appropriate location (they provide specific clear plastic drop bags), use the port-a-loos (long lines, bring your own toilet paper), and get into your assigned starting corral by the time limit (although some volunteers were letting people into their assigned corral after the deadline.

The lines to the port-a-loos

Race morning logistics can be a bit more challenging at large marathons, especially since at London there are three separate start areas. Another thing to remember is that depending which coral you are in it could be up to an hour or so after the official start before you cross the start line. This is important to consider when it comes to ditching throw away clothing and doing last minute nutrition/hydration.

The Course

The London Marathon is known as a flat and fast, point to point course. It has blue lines painted on the course which would be the exact marathon distance if you were able to follow it directly (the tangent). However the reality is that you’ll end up weaving around other runners and going further than 42.2 km/26.2 miles. The course was clearly marked with both kilometers and miles and there was a timing mat every 5k.

Pace Teams: According to the website there were 65 pacers from the Runner’s World x New Balance Pace Team, ranging from 3:00 hour to 7:30 pace. Pacers were carrying large flags displaying their times and were available in each of the three starting areas. However, I noticed that the 4:00 pacer for the red start disappeared at mile 5. Trevor finished before the 4:30 pacer but his official time was 4:38. Your browser does not support the audio element.

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