Andrew Tong | Triathlon coaching

Following on from my account of the London Marathon, here is what Ellen has to say about her race.

I am not sure I can better Tongy’s account of the run. My time was beyond what I had ever hoped for in terms of improvement on previous results. Thanks to Tongy’s training plan so far, I was more confident than before about my ability to sustain a certain pace. This really helped when I was lucky enough to join a group of runners following the 6.50/mile pacer and stay with them at a fairly constant pace until around the 20 mile mark, when they slowed down – slowing seemed unnecessary to me, since that was exactly the point when I had planned to stop holding anything back and give it all I had left. Knowing that I was in a position break the 3 hour mark by a good margin did a lot to spur me on at that stage, in addition to hearing Tongy on the final stretch. Whereas I managed to miss most others watching, there was no mistaking Tongy’s remarkably vocal presence for someone fresh off an epic ash impacted intercontinental flight. Then on the finish the sun came out with perfect timing, after it had been wet for the first part of the race.

Yesterday Ellen ran the London Marathon and with the limited air travel during the week, it was an absolute miracle that I managed to get on a flight to London in time. therefore i did find it a little surreal to be watching the Marathon yesterday.

I am sure Ellen will provide a better account of the day, but in what could be described as very good conditions for running London was taken over with Marathon fever.

Having discussed with Ellen her goals for the race over the last week and reviewing recent training, we set two goals, the first to go quicker than last year and the second to target sub 3hrs. Both of the goals were achievable but you never know what can be thrown at you on race day.

It was an absolute joy to spot Ellen on Bird Cage Walk with only 600 meters to go and definitely on target to achieve both goals. The end result a massive pb by 10minutes and under 3 hours. As the finishers T-shirt says “LonDONE”, well done Ellen.