TCS London Marathon 2023

3 lurkers | 46 watchers
TROSaracen
TROSaracen
Apr 2023
12:08pm, 25 Apr 2023
26,601 posts
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TROSaracen
I remember Boston being approx 3x the entry cost of London - and that with a stronger pre Brexit £, not sure what the current differential is.

Both superb, but very different races.
larkim
larkim
Apr 2023
12:29pm, 25 Apr 2023
20,958 posts
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larkim
btw, did anyone use the "GPS" feature in the app and get any benefits from it? I switched it on, hoping it might help with overall tracking somehow for family members, but they said my "dot" got stuck around 4 miles and all they could see was the 5k splits accumulating. And post event there is nothing apparently "recorded" anywhere in the official app.

They saw other runners' dots get stuck too, but they hadn't switched on the GPS in their app I now know, so the "stuck dot" wasn't just GPS linked.

My result has a picture of a satellite next to it, but it doesn't seem to "do" anything.

Just curious tbh!
Velociraptor
Velociraptor
Apr 2023
12:31pm, 25 Apr 2023
63,563 posts
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Velociraptor
Back in the Flora days the t-shirt was cotton and came in one gigantic size. I think the 2007 one was synthetic material but black, still gigantic, and an A-line shape.

Smaller races manage to provide much better goody bags and that flapjack had never seen the inside of a hot oven.
larkim
larkim
Apr 2023
12:45pm, 25 Apr 2023
20,959 posts
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larkim
48,000+ finishers on Sunday vs 40,000+ in October according to the results tables.

For some reason I'd expected the total participants to be in the range of 38,000 so those numbers surprised me.

Flapjack came in handy yesterday whilst running out of energy at work, but I've noticed that same "unbaked" style in lots of them these days - give me something with a bit of colour / caramelisation / burnt on any day. In my childhood home, a flapjack had a crunch to it!
Big_G
Big_G
Apr 2023
12:54pm, 25 Apr 2023
2,440 posts
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Big_G
I’ve got a cotton shirt somewhere from 2010.

Can’t comment on the GPS feature Larkim. I do think the proper wave starts helped a bit with congestion compared with when I did it last. Still really busy of course but it looks like it enabled them to get more people out there.
larkim
larkim
Apr 2023
12:59pm, 25 Apr 2023
20,960 posts
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larkim
I was pleasantly surprised how free running it was, right from the start. Red start is pretty narrow compared to blue I think, but they funnelled it even more narrowly through the start gantry which meant that when you took your first few running strides you had fewer people about you.

The only times I had any issues with congestion were in the latter 8 miles or so where you'd often be on / close to the blue line and suddenly find someone who had pulled up / stopped running. Didn't happen more than 5 or 6 times, but other than that I had all the space I needed to run my own pace, I felt.

Having googled a bit for the company that made the app, it looks like the GPS thing is just meant to supplement the timing mats.
mattglen_
mattglen_
Apr 2023
1:28pm, 25 Apr 2023
441 posts
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mattglen_
One thing I’d be curious to get opinions on is the drummers under a bridge/tunnel. I think there were two cases of this and the sound was incredible. Personally I liked it but I noticed a few runners covering their ears, and I can see how it could be too much.

I saw several bands of some form around the course, but perhaps being under the bridge intensifies the sound too much for some.
.B.
.B.
Apr 2023
1:32pm, 25 Apr 2023
46,157 posts
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.B.
larkim I had friends and family follow me on the tracker ok. In London (where signal was a problem at times) and at home where there were no problems
Velociraptor
Velociraptor
Apr 2023
1:37pm, 25 Apr 2023
63,565 posts
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Velociraptor
I thought the drummers under the bridge were a little surprising too. Not a problem for me, but potentially really unpleasant for people with particular sensitivities.

My only musical escapade was almost giving another runner a jelly nose when we passed the Salvation Army supporters and I decided to play air tambourine.
TROSaracen
TROSaracen
Apr 2023
1:40pm, 25 Apr 2023
26,602 posts
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TROSaracen
Suspect the bands headed under the bridges due to the rain - better than standing in the rain for hours.

I remember from my previous London's the eerie quiet under bridges, the only time you could actually hear the slap of shoes onto concrete.

About This Thread

Maintained by Kirsty
After getting lucky in the ballot yesterday, I couldn’t find a thread, so thought I’d start one. Bit of background: I ran 7 marathons (2 London, 2002 and 2006) between 2002 and 2016, fastest 4:06, slowest 5:09. Major health issues in 2017 and 2019 and I felt that my marathon days were over, but I kept entering the ballot, safe in the knowledge I wouldn’t get in - and now I have! I am probably looking at walking the whole way, or possibly jeffing. I’m very excited and very nervous!

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