Wight Tri member Lucy Doorly completed the London marathon in a personal best time to break the 4-hour hour barrier on Sunday (2nd October).
Ms Doorly had previously trained up to 19 miles for the 2020 race, and again for the October 2020 race and the April 2021 race, only to see them be cancelled due to the pandemic. Subsequently, she decided to defer from the October 2021 race due to having to complete the bulk of long training runs during her children’s summer holiday.
Her training didn’t exactly go to plan. She completed some long runs with 2 kids on bikes and a dog in tow, but also managed to pick up a repetitive strain knee injury. At the weekend, Lucy was very excited to be spending some child-free time in the big city even if she did have to run 26.2 miles to deserve it.
Lucy explained how she felt arriving at the start:
“People told me the atmosphere was amazing and the crowds were like nothing else they’d experienced, but nothing could prepare me for the sheer noise and absolute elation this event gave me! If only I could bring a few hundred thousand screaming Londoners to every event with me, I would certainly be a better athlete. Going past the Cutty Sark, over Tower Bridge, seeing the London Eye appearing around a bend in the river and past Buckingham palace were particular highlights”.
Lucy didn’t think she would ever run a sub-4 marathon again, but after 9 miles, she thought it might be possible and just went for it. She kept up her motivation by eating lots of sweets and chatting with other runners. Lucy was even more pleased at the end to realise she had achieved a personal best time of 3.54.30.
