Winston Guo: You couldn't have run just ONE SECOND faster!? TCS London Marathon

For international mass runners, we all know very well the hardest part of the London Marathon is getting in.

And so after the honeymoon period of getting into NYC earlier last year (odds maybe 10% in general ballot), I figured I would continue the trend and visit the partner in Boston and do Miami Marathon as a fun vacation trip.

One week later after I signed up for Miami, the race filled up. Within another week later, I got an email requesting payment information for THE 2023 TCS London Marathon. I had to check the security features and pinch myself a few times before realizing that I had just won a slot into the London Marathon (only ~3-4% odds in the general ballot).

I'm not crazy to do 3 marathons in a 6-months period I swear! But when opportunities to add two new major stars, you just can't say NO....Considering at least 250K to 450K applicants fight to get into each and every marathon major. I'm in no rush to get them all, but it seems like the race now is to get the Tokyo Star before they add that 7th star forecasted for as early as 2025 and thereby eliminating the current highly-coveted 6-star medal grab.

Prior Week Lead-in

I think it is important to calculate the difference in typical wake-up time vs. the wake-up time at the marathon destination on race day. Normally it is about a 6 days range to make an adjustment.

The lead-in for London for me is about an 8-hour difference.

Typical wake-up time 7am Vancouver time
Time zone change 8 hours to get to London time
Race start 10am (3 hours in advance means a 7am local wake-up time)

I broke the 8 hours difference into two jumps. One red-eye flight to reach Boston for a day to tackle the first 3 hours jump. And then another red-eye flight to tackle the remainder. The second block was harder as I needed some power naps mid-day after exploring the Expo. Keeping fluids in is key for marathon success on race day.

Race Strategy Tips

Watching some Ben Parkes videos, it seemed like a pretty flat course. Maybe a slight downhill at 3.5 mile that we should avoid overcooking. But other than some special landmarks, this one is pretty simple in terms of pre-race homework.

At the expo I realized the pace bunnies were in wave 2 and I started in wave 1. I remember the last time I got a pace adjusted pace band in Boston 2016, I ended up with a PB so surely I had to give the pace band another try. I picked one up at the expo for 3:00:00. Perfect!

The Brits seem to love their Miles. Jen recommended that I carry 7 jels, one for pre-race, and then 1 every 4 miles. Continuing the tradition I used SiS jels. I also carried salt tablets as a contingency. There was also contingency jels pickup at 14/19Mile. Jen also said to aim for 21 minute 5k splits

Race Morning Lead-in

7am wake-up

8:30am leave house

8:45am Jen picks up meal deal for 3.5 pounds (amazing deal for sandwich, snack and coffee - maybe $5cad, which works out to a free sandwich)

Our friend and London marathon expert Paul Blazey recommended that we stay as close to the start as practicable. We chose Lewisham and it was just the right balance of being close to a transit hub, close proximity to grocery shops, and only a mile walk to start line.

9:05am arrives at Blue pen

I panicked a little waiting in the portty lines when they called out the wave one and UK champs to get ready to enter the pen. Luckily there was a quicker urinals-only line for female and male genders. That was a life saviour. The run path from pen to start was really short compared to NYC. :)

10am Elite+ UK Club Championship starts

10:02am I started in the blue lead-in path.

The Marathon

0mile - you get a goosebump grandstand warm welcome to start the race. I felt like a rockstar. The rain and 11C didn't bug me one bit.

2.8mile - all the colours paths merge subtly, and for me it wasn't very noticeable at all unlike NYC when running in Brooklyn.

3.5mile (5k) - a little downhill teaser that we should watch out on. I was keeping the effort very gently down the hill.

8-9mile - I was surprised how narrow the streets were. I knew I banked about 30s ahead of the pace band so all things were good.

12.5mile - Tower Bridge was a highlight. Amazing atmosphere and the halfway checkpoint was just slightly later.

Halfway - I removed my headband and wrapped it around my arm to allow more cooling in the head.

14mile - jel station. I picked one up and at this point. I was comfortably preserving a 30s banked time for reaching sub3.

17-19mile Canary Wharf as anticipated from Ben's video, the GPS signal got a little wonky so I was relying on mile split times rather than GPS data. I picked up another Jel at mile 19.

Mile 21-23 I ran into rainbow row and you start to see the runners in the opposite direction just passing the halfway on the highway. Somewhere along here I remember the crowds singing the Canadian national anthem "Oh Canada" when seeing me come by in the maple singlet.

Mile 24 coming out of the Blackfrairs tunnel, you know it's really close to the finish. I was fighting to hold the 20s banked time and pushed as hard to the finish. I pushed for the last 4km as fast as I could.

Mile 25 - I didn't realize the eye and Big Ben was here as I was tunnel focused on the time goal. I found out afterward that Jen was here cheering me on! Based on a very rough estimate of distance where she was, she thought I was on pace to run another 3:02.

Finish - I made the last turn onto the mall and saw the finish gate. I crossed it and saw 3:00:02 on my watch! I thought there was no more to give and 2 sounds was too much of an ask! My heart rate was going up, up and up with a max of 173bpm (nearly reaching my max around 178bpm).

Post Race Thoughts

Yuki achieved his 6th star in this race, and his 105th sub 2:20 race, which is exciting! Kudos to our friend Nic Browne for improving his 6th stars average time with a sub 2:30! Colin Brander also deserves a shoutout for getting his London Star with me!

It was a perfectly executed race in ideal conditions. I was a little worried about the 2 seconds over 3 hours on chip time but honestly thought I would had been content with it.

Jen greeted me at the meetup and she was estatic to tell me I had hit sub 3! That was when I knew my time was exactly 3:00:00 and rounded up! Sub 3 is suuuub 3! Even if it was by only a few milliseconds!