2023 London Marathon Race Experience

2023 London Marathon Race Experience

Stephanie Diaz
Marathon, Race Experience, Running

I ran my 10th marathon on Sunday, April 23rd. This was a special race as it was the London Marathon aka the fourth star on my journey toward earning Abbott World Marathon Major’s Six Star medal. It was also special because I ran on the Rays of Sunshine #TeamSunshine charity team. I went into the race with three goals, but since I shared about them so deeply in this post, I will keep this blog post about the experience itself and will share a separate blog post following up on my goals later this week. Read on for my experience of the 2023 London Marathon.

Accommodations

We booked an Airbnb in the Chelsea/Earl’s Court neighborhoods of London. An Airbnb made the most sense as I was traveling with my entire family and it made more financial sense to book an Airbnb rather than an hotel. Location was great as we had everything we needed within a 10-min walk from the Airbnb, including two train stations, a small market, and plenty of cafes and restaurants.

Expo

The expo was held at ExCel, a convention center located about an hour away from our Airbnb via the train. We went Thursday morning and it was as straightforward as can be: I picked up my bib, bought the official race jacket in the New Balance area, found my name on the wall, walked around to see the tables for different participating charities, and then left. Unique to this race that I’ve never seen before is race t-shirt pick up happens after one crosses the finish line. Also unique to this race is that participants can choose to have a tree planted instead of receiving a medal and shirt.

Pre-Race

The estimated start time for my corral was 10:31am (Blue Wave 7). I had already decided that I would be joining a later corral (10:40-ish start time), so I thought leaving the Airbnb at 8am would give me enough time to take the trains to the start area. Normally, the travel time is an hour, but on race morning it took me over 2 hours to get to the start area. It’s also about a 10-minute walk from the train to the start area. The start area is a big green field with bathrooms, trucks for the bag drops, and all the corrals. There were supposed to be special toilets for female runners, so that we didn’t have to wait in the long lines for the stalls, but I didn’t find them. I used the bathroom and then hopped into Wave 11.

Some pre-race notes:

  • There are three color waves and each wave starts in a different area. These waves then converge around miles 1 and 3 of the course. It seemed like everyone took the same train to one central station, then split into other trains that went to the specific start area for each color wave. There were banners at the central station directing runners to their correct wave.

  • Don’t be afraid to push yourself on the train!

  • Give yourself more time than you think is needed to get to the start area.

  • The London Marathon sent out an email with the wave start times, along with suggested times for arriving to the start area and for entering the corrals. This didn’t make sense at the time of the email, but post-race I understand because there were 4 main corral areas and each corral shared waves. So, for instance, corral 1 was for both wave 1 and wave 11 and once the first wave began the race, they would let the next wave into the corral. Each corral was clearly marked with the waves that started out of that specific corral.

Post-Race

Medals and shirts were near the finish line with bag pickup further down the finisher’s area. The race finishes on Buckingham Palace grounds, but you need to leave this area to reconnect with family and friends. As I mentioned earlier, new-to-me in this race was the t-shirt pickup, which was a bag with a unisex shirt, a bottle of water, a bottle of Lucozade (a very sweet Gatorade, in my opinion), and an oatmeal bar. My post-race plan included going to the Rays of Sunshine reception and meeting up with my family there.

Some post-race notes:

  • T-shirts are unisex! I normally wear a women’s medium, but opted for a unisex small.

  • There are no food options post-race, so make sure to have a plan. All the race provides is the bag with water, Lucozade, and an oatmeal bar.

  • Set up a meeting spot with family and friends as it is very busy and phone signal may not be the best. My family didn’t anticipate how busy the area would be post-race, so it took them an extra half hour to get to me.

On the Course

As I shared earlier, there are three different start areas that come together around mile 1 and mile 3. This blew my mind away because there were so many runners in the Blue wave and I couldn’t imagine the race getting any bigger. Well, it did and I was impressed with how seamless my wave combined with the other waves; it was like merging right into incoming traffic without having to stop.

The course itself is a point-to-point course, meaning you start in one area and finish in another. It wasn’t, however, a straight line of a course as there was one big loop from miles 13 through 22. For me, this part of the course was very disorienting as miles 13-14 are run alongside (although opposite direction) miles 21.5-22.5-ish; I couldn’t get my bearings on where I was compared to where those 22-mile runners were (mental state: how much twisting and turning or running out did I have to do to cover the difference of 9 miles?).

Water stations with small water bottles were at about every 2 miles on the course with the Lucozade drink at about every 4 miles. Gels were handed out at some point, but I can’t recall where on the course that happened. Bathrooms were plentiful on the course and there was signage that alerted runners that bathrooms were 200m away. Medical tents with people handing out Vaseline were along the course as well.

The course featured some beautiful views of various London neighborhoods and views of iconic London structures, like Big Ben and Tower Bridge.. Parts of the course did narrow down to a single street lane, making passing runners hard and slowing down easy. There were also quite a few “humps” aka speed bumps and more tiny shifts in elevation than I expected.

The crowds. Oh, the crowds deserve their own paragraph because they were absolutely amazing. There wasn’t much crowd support in the first few miles of the race, but once all 3 color waves converged, the crowds exploded. I felt like I was running down a tunnel of screaming fans! Even with the rainy conditions, the crowd was out in full support passing out candy, offering high fives, and yelling out names and encouragements. Seriously, the screaming of the crowd and the show of support from the various charities was deafening and brought me to tears so many times along the course.

Map courtesy of London Marathon.

Race Experience

I will go into my goals in greater detail in a later post, but I will say this: the London Marathon was an experience. Before the race I was given the advice to “take it all in” while on the course and I did just that. I have never experienced such presence on a course like I did in London. Time both slowed and moved fast while I was out there. As soon as I knew this wasn’t a day for time goals, I pulled back that determination and amped up my awareness:

I am in London. I am in London to run a marathon. I am running the London Marathon. I am running the London Marathon on behalf of Rays of Sunshine. I am running the London Marathon with 45,000+ other athletes. I have a body able to run a marathon. I have a mind that believes I can do this. I am brave for choosing to do this hard thing. Look at this. Look at that. I may never see any of this again. I may never see any of this quite like this again. I am here. Running brought me here. Miles for smiles.

Any time I felt negative thoughts about pace and time come up, I came back to one of the thoughts above. It wasn’t grit that got me from start line to finish line, but gratitude.

The course itself was disorienting for me and made me wish I had studied the course a little bit better so that I not only knew where I was, but I also knew what landmarks I was running by. I knew the big landmarks, but I wish I would have known more about the “smaller” landmarks, like Rainbow Row and Canary Wharf. Physically, I found the course to be “hillier” than expected with all the “humps” and the changes in elevation that come with going up and down streets. That, plus the narrowing of the course that create a sense of crowding and needing to slow down, had my knees telling a story they have never told during any race: “I’m hurting.” So, at mile 20 I made the decision to slow down even more to preserve my knees because the real goal is to keep running days, months, and years beyond London. The best way to describe the sensation in my knees was that of breaking so hard the knees locked up. Instead of getting frustrated, I dug deeper into gratitude and thought about how I would have to focus on more strengthening the muscles around the knees in between and during training cycles.

I cried so many times on the course. The emotion of running a marathon is something that I can’t accurately describe. If you’ve ran a marathon, you know what I mean. Awe, disbelief, pride, wonder, and stubbornness come together in a beautiful way while running a marathon. The emotions can get so big that they overwhelm. I finished the race with lots of thoughts, but this one struck me right through the heart:

1st time or 10th time: the feelings of finishing a marathon will never get old.

Overall Impression

London was a great city to explore. I went in with high expectations because so many people told me the city was amazing and the race was memorable. The city was amazing and the race was memorable, but traveling across time zones with my family took a toll. I love how the trip was planned with 3 full days before the race, race day, and 3 full days after the race. I had enough time to acclimate to the time change and explore the city before running 26.2 miles through the city. Then, I had time to explore more of the city and get a feel for the city beyond race weekend busyness. While the most memorable part of the course for me was how disorienting it was, the crowds were spectacular and the race was a testament to trusting the body’s ability to keep moving forward. I finished feeling grateful for the opportunity to travel and run the London Marathon to earn my 4th star.  

Mile 24-ish tears and Big Ben. The moment I knew I would finish this race.

General Notes on the London Marathon (Pros? Cons? You Decide)

  • Marathon major so it is a big deal event with thousands of runners.

  • London is a beautiful city to run through; bonus points for running by Big Ben and finishing on the Buckingham Palace lawn.

  • Course support with hydration and bathrooms.

  • Crowds. Crowds. Crowds.

  • Runcation and traveling for racing is always fun, but adjusting to the time change can be a challenge.

  • Plenty of pace groups, but make sure to check where they are! I found out about the pace groups from my charity team, but I know pace group information was available at expo.

  • Depending on start preference, race start times are anywhere between 9:30am and 11:30am.

  • Depending on course preference, course can be a challenge with the humps and narrow sections.

  • Depending on travel preference, trains can take long. Expo day is a great example, 1 hour to get to expo, 30 min at expo, 1 hour to get back to Airbnb. Race day is another great example with 2 hours of travel to the start area.

  • Weather is a toss up for this race. For me, it was in the 40s and 50s with rain.

  • Entry can be difficult: lottery, good for age, charity, Six Star Journey lottery.

  • Lots of official race photos, but they are not free.

For those of you who like the numbers, my official time for the London Marathon was 4:53:16. The immediate plan is to take two solid weeks off from running to give myself the time to rest and recover from traveling and racing.  

You can still support my #TeamSunshine fundraiser for the London Marathon by making a donation to my fundraiser here.

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