Dan Ashcroft – winner of the club’s ballot for a place in the marathon, reports:
London Marathon 2024 – It’s just not Hull!
As I got the club place this year, I thought it would be worthy of a write up of my experience.
What can I say about the ‘London Effect’, well for a start I probably got as many, if not more messages of support and encouragement from family, friends and clubmates than I did for all 14 marathons which I did in 2023 combined. There really is something about London which captures the Country’s hearts, what with the Elite runners, championship runners, good for age runners, charity runners, fancy dress runners, TV and celebrities. It has to be said that the level of organisation required is phenomenal.
For me it was the National Express down to Golders Green on Saturday morning, at £13.80 return, what’s not to like, apart from the snoring man in front of me and the two louts drinking and swearing behind. Next step is to make my way across the City to collect my race pack from the ExCeL centre, where I have arranged to meet Greg and Megan at 11am, we get off the same train, from almost the same carriage and bump into each other on the steps leading away from the platform, that was lucky because I hadn’t a clue where I was going! The ExCeL is rammed but fairly painless, we collect our packs, find our names on the wall and sneak a quick photo in front of a backdrop, on the end, because we’re not queuing for half an hour to wait for the middle section. Then it’s an easy afternoon in preparation for Sunday, hydrating and watching football and snooker.
I get up early, usual race routine sort of thing, then head out of the hotel to get the tube and overground trains to Blackheath. One of my clubmates has warned me it will be really busy and another has said don’t leave it too late. I arrive at King’s Cross, only to have to wait for 17 minutes before the first tube of the day will arrive! At least it’s warm in the bowels of the underground. Anyway, when I arrived at London Bridge station to change onto the overground, I met Belper runner, Damian, who was running his first marathon and we found our way onto Blackheath for the blue start area.
It really was quite fresh, with a chilly breeze, so many runners were taking shelter from the wind by using the baggage trucks and any fencing surrounding urinals as a form of windbreak. At Blackheath, the funny, if not so legendary Joel Dommett was interviewing runners before the giant TVs started to show the BBC coverage. When the iconic theme music started, my thoughts and reflections turned to someone who is no longer with us who loved watching the London Marathon purely for the theme music. After I had removed a layer and dropped my bag off it really did feel cold. I made my way closer to the start area and was visibly shivering so much, a friendly Japanese chap offered me his foil blanket, which I politely declined.
Then it was into wave 3 and ten minutes later we were off. For the first few miles I was expecting it to be really busy and congested, but to my surprise there was loads of room. I think it was somewhere at this point I was on TV. However, when the runners from all three start areas started to merge, I started to feel fairly packed in, especially where the course gets narrow. This was really noticeable around the Cutty Sark where I took a really wide line. Before the race I had been advised to follow the blue line which denotes the shortest route/racing line, but this proved to be impossible and by the time I had run 5 miles according to the markers, my watch was saying 5.25. At this point I knew that my pace would not be good enough for a sub 3:30. It also doesn’t help when another runner drops their gels and thinks it is a good idea to turn around to try and pick them up.
From just before the Cutty Sark, the crowd were all shouting “dinosaur, dinosaur” and shortly thereafter a T-Rex overtook me. Then I could hear them shouting “lion, lion” and funnily enough a lion overtook me. But at least when they had overtaken me, I didn’t have to listen to the crowd shouting “dinosaur” and “lion” anymore – wrong! The dinosaur kept stopping with people in the crowd to give me enough time to overtake him, before he set off again and overtook me before stopping again. At least when he got to Tower Bridge he stopped to talk to the BBC and I never saw him again, thank goodness.
Tower Bridge was great and the section afterwards towards the city was good, especially looking out for the ‘slower’ elite runners coming the other way. When you hit Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs, things really did get congested and at one point things got noticeably slower. It was in this section that a group of 3:30 pacers came past and there were lots of people trying to keep with them, so it did get packed in places, particularly when barriers had been shifted to allow more room for the crowds. At some points on the course, it felt a bit like the Tour de France when spectators encroach on the road. There was also a few Lucozade stations on the course, but at the one near Canary Wharf, loads of liquid had been discarded and you had no choice but to run through a few sticky areas.
Following that section and going back to Tower Bridge, the road was a bit wider so it was easier running. However, there were water stations every mile on the course and all runners had been advised that when they get a plastic bottle, they should drink, drain and discard. I was fortunate not to roll my ankle when I inadvertently trod on a nearly full bottle, but some poor guy was holding his very limp hand up in front of medic, screaming that he’d broke his wrist. Towards the end, one chap was hobbling with cramp and one spectator went right up to his face and shouted “COME ON KEEP RUNNING”. I know what my response would have been!
I tried to push on and pretty much maintained my pace but with the additional distance, it wasn’t to be, so I finished in 3:31:24. Still I’m happy with that and that’s marathon number 31 done. I collected my medal and Lucozade, but they don’t hand out food now at the end of the race and we were speculating as to why this could be. If it is for allergens or dietary requirements, it doesn’t make sense, surely a Mars Bar, bag of Walkers Crisps and banana can’t hurt anyone and if so, just don’t eat them!
However, I do believe that, as always, there is an element of greed involved in these things, has the food at the end been axed to save money? Similarly, I believe that entry fee was £49.99 in 2023 and is now £69.99 and they made it clear that they were hoping for over 50k runners. After the race I have heard that some tube stations were overwhelmed with spectators and couldn’t cope, which maybe in part that there were more family and friends watching and needing to get to various points in London. I really hope that the organisers look at this for previous years.
With all that being said, I would recommend that everyone does run the London Marathon at some point if they are lucky enough to do so, and yes I have put my name into the ballot for 2025. However, if I don’t get in, then it will be Manchester instead. One day though, I do hope for the return of the Hull Marathon, as it remains my favourite.
