hours, having done my first, 2002, in 4:20. I was on a delayed train from Charing Cross, so I didn't get to the red start until bang on 9.45am. I then realised I needed the toilet, so left the start and ran to a Portaloo. I didn't expect to be sitting

to focus the training superbly, especially the speed sessions.I have been euphoric over my 3:27 time as I had set myself a target of under 4 hours when I first decided to do the marathon! Thanks for all your help.Shepherdess, 3:57:09 This was my first

and better training. The London Marathon is clearly a wonderful event, essentially a serious race for the elite runners followed up by a charity fun-run. But it wouldn’t be possible to justify closing down central London for a day just to please a few

the next few hours opening bottles and then got just the best view (and a really cool photo!) of the elites and the wheelchair racers. Then the hard work started as the masses started pouring through, but it was great fun and people at this point were

ran on the day, especially with my pacing up to about 23 miles. The reason the physical shutters came down after that, I believe, was simply not enough miles in training. The balancing act of keeping injury-free and been fully trained for a quick

was suffering from sun stroke, so in retrospect not too bad at all. HodProd, 4:08 It was my first FLM since '99, and how I've missed the atmosphere and anticipation of the great event. Really looked forward to the race and trained well, recovered well, ate

event and it still chokes me.I was expecting my best moment to be running down the Mall, but to be honest when I got there I really couldn't care less!The best bits by far for me were the starting line (knowing that I was part of the best marathon

this year we both finally had places to go. A lot of very hard work lay ahead of us, fund raising, training working at Lincoln Renal Unit 30 Hours a week, running the home, taxiing the children, and keeping our husbands happy. 17 April arrived and we set off

at the start to not need to wear a bin liner. At halfway, a fellow runner points out that one of my shoelaces is undone. Seeing other runners after the finish, hobbling around like I was.Do differently: Trained a lot harder like previous years. Running only a

in that short time and it was hard to get going again; get to the start much earlier so that I wouldn't be squatting in the (gents - sorry guys) loo when the gun went off; train harder!I would like to report the most memorable conversation I heard on the route