It may have been the hottest London Marathon on record, but Strider Josh Nisbett managed to hold his cool and beat his target time of 3 hours 30 minutes.
Despite the mercury rising to an unseasonably warm temperature of 23 degrees, Josh also managed to smash his previous personal best by more than 51 minutes.
Having slightly overachieved on his splits in the first three miles of the race, Josh settled into a steady, consistent pace from mile five to mile 19. By mile 20, he had speeded up by a minute each mile.
Josh had followed the race director’s advice to ‘sip and tip’ water throughout the duration of the race and use the showers provided. He had also seen a number of runners collapse on the 26.2 mile route due to the effects of the heat, making him even more aware of the warm conditions.
He said: “From 22 miles onwards, I started to feel the heat – it was the hottest marathon on record at 23°C. No amount of water being taken on, poured over my head or shaded tunnels seemed to cool me down, and my pace inevitably slowed. This was frustrating as aerobically I felt fine, I was just overheating.”
Josh doubled down and focused on running his own race in his bid to beat his target time: “I knew my first half was strong coming in under target at 1:42, so I had a little buffer to play with. Running the last mile past Big Ben and Buckingham Palace I took in the sights, atmosphere and the amazing support from the crowds. Sure enough, my earlier pace was enough to see me beat my target time of under 3 hours 30 minutes, coming in 3 hours 28 minutes and 54 seconds. All in all, I knocked 51 minutes and 15 seconds off my PB, which in those conditions I was very happy about.”
Phil Carr also completed the London Marathon in 3:38:31.