The London Marathon is cancelled – so what now for runners like me?
There was no Tokyo Marathon in March, no Boston Marathon in April. And there will be no marathons this autumn in Berlin, New York or Chicago. Now, after months of waiting and trepidation, organisers have finally confirmed plans for this year's London Marathon: only elite athletes will run.
The race, one of the most prestigious of its kind, would have celebrated its 40th anniversary this October – after originally being postponed from April. It normally raises millions of pounds for charity and attracts around 40,000 runners. I was one of them.
So, instead of taking part in a joyous mass participation event and running through the thronging crowds of London, this October 4, I'll be sat at home, watching the pros run an enclosed biosphere loop in St James's Park. It will be be a bit like tuning into a Formula 1 race on the telly.
The London Marathon has been at the top of my dream bucket list for quite some time. But would I want to run hellish loops around St James’s Park with no one cheering my name? No thank you. It’s not exactly what I imagined when I signed up last year.
Of course, I'm fundamentally gutted about all this. I’ve been training for the marathon since January. I braved storms Ciara and Dennis at the beginning of the year; I did parkruns on (nearly) every Saturday morning for months. I spent hours on the weekends logging double-digit miles and putting up with blisters and stitches and the voice inside my head that told me it was too far, and too hard.
When the race was postponed in the spring, I cried. I was mad, sad, utterly disappointed. But I told myself that the hours I’d spent training weren’t a waste – and that by October I’d be mentally and physically stronger, faster and more determined than ever before.
So I kept training. Not anything crazy. Just ‘ticking over’ and keeping my fitness levels high, averaging around 25-35km a week. Recent weeks have felt like a terrible limbo. The proposed October 4 date started to loom. Should I up my training, tackle longer runs? Could organisers really pull off a Covid-secure event featuring tens of thousands of runners in central London?
We now know the answer. “The health and safety of our runners, our charities, our sponsors, our volunteers, our medics, our communities and our city is always our priority,” wrote Hugh Brasher, the event director for the Virgin Money London Marathon, in an email sent to every runner. “Therefore we cannot embark on that intensely personal journey from Blackheath to Buckingham Palace, with the crowd cheering us on, with the gods of our sport leading the way, running together in mind, body and spirit with tens of thousands of people.”
It's obvious organisers have made the right call. I just wish they had told us sooner.
The good news (and boy, do we need good news) is that runners who have signed up for this year’s race in London will be able to defer their entry to a future London Marathon with no additional payment. We'll also have the option to run the race virtually – where you can run 26.2 miles wherever you can, and still feel as if you’re part of the crowd, even if you’re running alone.
But the even better news is that the 2021 edition of the London Marathon will be held next October, which means we’ve got even more time to prepare and get fit for the race of our lives. Where I'd previously tried to train for a sub-four hour marathon in the space of 16 weeks, now I have the best part of a year to get ready.
“I’d recommend an easier week to recover from the hard work you’ve put in so far, before targeting a new goal over a different distance,” says Jonny Mellor, Team New Balance Manchester athlete and running coach. “There are promising signs that perhaps some smaller events will be going ahead before the end of the year and now is an excellent opportunity to make the most of the miles already in the legs."
"It doesn’t have to be an event though, you can set yourself a new target such as completing a local training route in a faster time, improving different aspects of your training, such as working your strength so you’re better prepared for next time.
“An easier week is important as it will help you recover both physically and mentally and you won’t lose any fitness during this time. Set a new goal and make the most of the opportunity to work on a different distance, such as improving your 5k and 10k times before returning to the marathon distance at a later date.
"Most importantly, continue to enjoy your running. That’s why we all love it.”
Months ago, I made a promise to myself that 2020 would be the year where I would finally run 26.2 miles through the city I was born in, the city I call home. Those dreams – like so many others – will just have to wait another year. So for now, I'm going to heed Mellor's advice. I’m just going to run for the love of running.
