I have never run a marathon race before, so it was a fantastic opportunity to run in the Virgin London Marathon for my first. However, I decided to go the extra mile, and tacked on a little post-marathon run to my day - an extra 95 miles to be exact

for the next 15 minutes. All of my targets had been met!The only low I felt at that point was the fact that I had not seen my wife and daughter at either of the two points where we had agreed they would be (at 11.5 miles and at the finish area near Buckingham

Well done to everyone who achieved their goals. This was my first marathon and my sixth "race". I managed to finish in 3:10.16. I'm very happy with the time I achieved, but how the hell do you train for those last four miles?! At 42, I think I may

’s World. In the 2007 London Marathon, 91% of the field slowed down during the race in one way or another. Only 9% ran an even pace or negative splits. And couple this with the heat, basically the whole field was blowing up. I was just blowing up less badly

, speed, speed". It seemed to work and I noticed a definite increase in people shouting my name too.The race really began at 20 miles, as my training had had a few setbacks. My longest run pre-race was only 18 miles. Every step was increasing my longest

only 1:40, so I felt that if I put the miles in, which I had done, then 3:30 should be well within my reach. But in the days leading up to the race I was plagued with doubt. Would I start too quickly? Would I be able to sustain the pace (8:00 min

but it was as though gran was there in spirit and she'd got me in the race!I started training immediately and was soon up to running 10, 12, 14 miles. Whenever I found it tough getting out of bed in the morning I'd think of gran, as though we were going out for a run

I did it, I finished the Virgin London Marathon. It took me 6:38:12 but I succeeded.I had been inspired by a motivational speaker, Miles Hilton-Barber, back in October 2008.  His talk made me want to push my personal boundaries. I have a 50th

This was my first ever marathon and it was the best running event I have ever taken part in.  The race, however, did not go as planned.  I spent nine months training, completing two 17-mile runs and a 20-mile road race five weeks before (3:19

After cramp struck at 21 miles the next five miles were going to be slow, dragging my leg along, and the weather was getting even hotter! The race was going well and everything was on target until cramp struck like a knife in my thigh; as soon