London Marathon 2017 Review

So firstly congratulations to Mary Keitany from Kenya for breaking the Women’s only marathon world record coming in at 2:17:01 which was a phenomenal achievement, this beat Paula Radcliffe's nearly 12 year record by 41 seconds. Keitany had previously ran the second fastest time in London 2012 in 2:18:37. For the men we had Daniel Wanjiru also of Kenya who came in at 2:05:48 a time that makes me wince just thinking about it, that’s an incredible 4:46 per mile for 26 miles. To put that into Fatboy perspective at my fastest I could run a mile in around 7 minutes but I would be spent after that mile, the thought of running at that pace let alone sub 5 mins per mile, is simply exhausting.

Also great to see the Legend that is David Weir winning his seventh London marathon in a time of 1:31:06 juts pipping Switzerland’s Marcel Hug at the finish. I love the excitement that these guys can generate as a lot of these races can go right down to the wire, one shrewd move makes all the difference and Weir used all his years of experience and strength to power through that one from second place with yards to go.

Biggest surprise of the day had to come from Swansea Harriers Josh Griffiths who came in 13th with a time of 2:14:49, this self-trained Welshman was running his first marathon and was not part of the elite runners group so instead of having his name on his chest he wore a simple number. The good club runners start just after the elite runners and for Griffiths to not only keep up with these guys but actually pass most of them was an impressive sight. My first marathon by comparison took 6:30:16 to complete but that’s a story for another day.

As for the bulk of the runners, well there were the usual area of nutters in insane costumes from Minions to Chewbacca from French maids to Rhinos even a Mona Lisa, the now seemingly annual wedding, the young royal’s cheering on and helping out with the medals, which was a nice touch, and who can forget those heart-warming images of Mathew Rees helping David Wyeth across the line. Rees had seen the stricken Wyeth so close to the finish line struggling to stand, Wyeth was beyond exhaustion but so close it would have been the cruellest thing not to see him finish. Rees went to Wyeth and you could see the encouragement he tried to give him before walking him across the line with him and a race marshals help.

Yet the story of Davis Wyeth is not a unique one, as any marathoner will tell you every race you will see stories of runners struggling and then other runners doing what they can to help out, I have seen runners help their stricken comrades to the arms of marshals and ambulance crews, seen runners collapse near the finish lines only to be picked up and checked on by fellow runners, yes these are races and we want to get the best times we can but not at the expense of seeing someone hurt. If I see someone struggle I’ll always try a pat on the back and check they are okay. The amazing crowds will also jeer you up when you feel like you can go no further, the most common call I hear is ‘you can do it chubby Jesus’, if I have to stop on the side for a quick stretch it’s not long before someone is checking I’m ok, yes again we want to beat our times if we can, but we have all shared the same experience we all know how hard each other must have trained, worked, bled to be there how can we ignore that when we see someone barely able to stand, because most of us have been there or are not that far off that place.