The London Marathon ‘Golden Bond’ Training Seminar

I’ve spent most of today at a training seminar organised by the London Marathon for runner which have ‘golden bond’ places – i.e. those of us that didn’t make it through the draw and are raising pots of money for charity. I wasn’t really sure what to expect - I already feel like I have training advice coming out of my ears – but it was an enjoyable day and almost 1000 turned up.

On arrival, conversations were struck up about how much training you had done and how you were getting on with sponsorship. I heard a couple of amusing phrases banding about, including:

“My wife told accused me of being fat and lazy, so I decided I had better run the marathon”

“I do 30 miles a week” / “Really? I do 50”

and, possibly my favourite,

“I’m asthmatic, and so is my son!”

After the initial mingling, we all filed into an enormous lecture hall for the main programme. Nick Bitel (CEO of the London Marathon, who looked like he is more used to eating 26 pies than running 26 miles) opened the day by showing the highly amusing clips of Jade Goody being interviewed before and after the 2006 marathon.

After that, there was a mix of speakers covering topics including an overview of the course, training advice, injury prevention, nutrition, fundraising and what to do on the day itself. There were also two shameful sessions dedicated to sponsor companies flogging their gear – Addidas with a mock fashion show of running kit and Lucozade doing a section about sports drinks. I’m afraid to say that I fell for the patter.

Most interestingly of all, there were two very familiar names on the programme - Dave Bedford (BEDFORD!) the Race Director who’s letter in December advised me that I hadn’t got through the ballot and Sam Murphy, writer of Marathon: from start to finish, my running guru.

The former turned out to be an extremely witty former-champion-turned-race-organiser whose presentation was 50% good advice and 50% stand up comedy. I had forgiven him within the first minute of his routine – excellent, excellent stuff. He took part in a rather lame Harry Potter pastiche (which was to be a theme for the day) and, later on, returned in a big red dress to give us some unique advice on how to get around the course from the perspective of someone who has actually run it (the dress was to indicate that you should wear something comfortable – of course). He was excellent. I snapped a few photos, which I am pasting in here.

Sam Murphy also seemed nice, but I knew pretty much everything she had to say already, having read her book cover to cover. Most excitingly of all, I caught her in the corridor outside the lecture room and got her to sign my book (how sad am I to have even brought the book on the off-chance she might have a moment to sign it?!) And here it is – she even wrote me a nice message!

Sitting in the lecture hall, I took the opportunity to size up some of the opposition. It was a varied bunch, as this diagram will show:

Away from the lecture hall, there was a chance to do some shopping (Addidas, of course) and I spent my ‘10% off’ voucher on a new long-sleeved running top/jacket and some uber-sexy figure-hugging running tights, which contain enough lycra to pull your body into an athletic shape without the need for any training. Just for Helen Heyden, here I am modelling my new kit. ------>

I also got to have lunch with the Shelter Running Team and got to meet my fellow Shelter marathon runners. We were given a bit of a mad talk from a guy named Bill Black, who Shelter has hired to be our ‘coach’. His credentials sounded excellent, but some of his advice conflicted with things I have already been told, for example, how many rest days you should have in your final week (Bill recommends just one, Sam recommends closer to four/five). I’m not too worried - I think I’ll know well enough by then what my body will want to do.

I chatted to some nice people and it was clear that we all shared the same buzz about what lies ahead. I am getting more and more excited as the date draws nearer. I expect some people are dreading it, but I honestly can’t wait!! Is it too soon to hope for good weather?

Finally, I wanted to record a few of the things that I learnt during the day. Thankfully, most of the advice fitted in with the way that I am already training, but I did pick up a few useful tips/bits of info:

-> The marathon starts at 9.45am, sharp. They wait for no one.

-> The World Record for the men’s marathon is 2 hours 4 minutes and 55 seconds. I will be lucky to get around in double this.

-> There were 120,000 entries for the 2006 marathon. Of these, 34,205 were registered (the remainder got ‘the letter’ from Dave Bedford and didn’t pursue a charity place or just dropped out), 33,578 made it to the start line and 33,222 finished. That’s almost a 99% completion rate meaning that, if you make it to the start line, you will almost certainly make it to the finish.

-> Remember to set the video – it will be a tape you will want to keep for the rest of your life.

-> There is a ‘Marathon Expo’ at Excel in Docklands (home of Worldskills 2011!) between Wednesday and Saturday of marathon week at which you pick up such essentials as your number, time chip and kit bag and where you can also get other marathon goodies, including a ‘lid’ for your Lucozade sport (all drinks in the marathon itself are served without lids, so if you want to carry them for a bit, you need to bring your own lid!). You can also get your name printed on your running vest so that people will cheer you on (need to give some thought as to whether this should be ‘Jon’, ‘JD’ or ‘Duffer’)

-> You should be drinking 2-3 litres of water every day and eating a diet which is around 60% carbohydrates.

-> Eat breakfast at least 2 hours before the start. Drink water early and have some isotonic drink to give you some extra carbs to delay the point at which you hit ‘The Wall’.

-> Take some old clothes to wear at the start line to keep you warm after you have handed in your kit bag, which you can throw away as you begin to run.

-> It usually takes around 10 minutes to get over the start line after the starting gun has fired.

-> You can pre-register for your marathon photos from 1 March, which will mean you get them more quickly after the race.