After more than a year with no marathons on my race schedule, I ran the Flora London Marathon on April 26. What a great experience. And, after a three year wait, I managed to eek out a PR on a rather warm 70 degree day with an extremely crowded field of participants. Wow!Forrest and the girls joined me as we spent a week sight seeing in London and Paris. The marathon was definitely the highlight for me. I can honestly say I felt great through Mile 26...no cramping, well-hydrated, and cruising to the finish line. While my goal finish time was a 4:19, the crowded streets made it very difficult for me to run at my intended pace. In the end, I was happy with a PR of 4:27:19. Thanks to all who donated to my charity...I managed to raise more than 2,000 pounds and was the MS Trust's sixth highest fundraiser out of 44 team members!
As for the elite race, it was also pretty fantastic. Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru smashed Martin Lel's one-year-old course record to win the marathon in a personal best of 2:05:10 after a gripping battle with Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede who finished just 10 seconds behind. In the women’s race, Germany’s Irina Mikitenko became the first woman since Paula Radcliffe to retain her London Marathon title as she held off a spirited challenge from Britain's Mara Yamauchi to win the third marathon of her career and cement her first place on the World Marathon Majors leaderboard. What amazes me is that the men’s winner was 22 years old, while the winner of the female race was nearly 37 years old! There is hope for all of us older female runners!
