Sam documents his 11-week push to break three hours in the London Marathon. He battles shin splints and hamstring injuries while juggling work travel, gets VO2 tested, and executes a 4:14/km pace on race day. He crosses in 2:52:59, then immediately plans to hit the weights again.
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Can you see me? And that if I. I lie down like this. It's like a good documentary. Opening scene too close. That. Just hold it. Something for a little intro. I mean it in shot. I'm not. What's he saying? Yeah, there you go. It's got me like that. There you go. Eleven weeks out from the London Marathon Sub three attempt. My first ever marathon. I think my fitness peaked about two weeks ago. I was doing a 122, half a 35, 30, 10K. But then my legs started to fucking hurt. I didn't run for a week and I ran yesterday and I feel way off fitness wise. I'm scared to run to the. I was used to a half marathon today, but I think I'm gonna run to the gym, run in the gym and then run back in the gym to do like 20k. But I've got a foam roller, ice packs, and the therapy starts today. I've got a long way to go. I'm not sure I can make it sound like bear grills, mate. I thought I was fit enough. I thought I was fit enough. Two weeks ago. I think I could have done it. I did a 25k at 355 pace where my sub 3 needs to be. 4:15 pace for the marathon. But yeah, I'm. I'm nervous. This is when I have to get it done anyway. Right. Sub 3 training. I just tried to do my first half marathon for a while and 7k in my leg feels like it's snapped in half. I'm generally quite concerned that this keeps up. Camping's off, it's not feeling good. My right shin is absolutely ruined. I've had two weeks off running, nearly stretching it, massaging it, whatever I can do. Just doesn't feel normal at all. Left one feels fine, but it's my right leg. The shins are absolutely fucked. It's killing me. Let me take it back. So the whole running thing, as anyone that follows me knows, started probably in about, I'm gonna say end of March 2022. This one I started like regularly running. So I would say it's about six month journey in total. From that to the marathon. I only started recording, I think it was start July, call it end of June. So like halfway between that. So end of March, end of April, end of May, end of June, I started completely just Chad running. All my running was like sprinting all the time. Not all the time, but like there was no, there's no structure to it. I was still doing weights in the gym. Bit of calisthenics here and there, just randomly sprinting around and then my leg completely gave way. Ended up having to go to a physio, as you see later on. And it was that point where I was like, alright, fuck it. I may as well have a goal with the running because I'd lost loads of weight at that point. I got super quick, like super quickly as well. I went from like 45 minute 10k to 35 minute in about 3 months literally. Which is insane looking back, but all my training was killing my shins, my knees are fucked, I had shin splints all the time. And I suppose halfway between that six month period. So end of June when I started recording this doc is when I decided, fuck, we actually put something in place. And it's also when I thought, fuck, maybe the marathon's not even possible because my legs were absolutely ruined. But just thought I'd give some context. That's what was happening. You can see on screen my times. And back to the story. 11 weeks out from the sub 3 attempt. Side note, I look fucking lean to be fair. Seven weeks out. Sorry, seven weeks out. I rang my brother earlier and was like, fuck, I'm actually not sure I can do this. Then I did a run on the treadmill in White City with an incline and my shin pain wasn't there. So I might start training a lot more on treadmills for now. Like the, like the more hardcore treadmills. I don't know what they're called, they're not like standard treadmills. But yeah, with an incline. I've got these ice packs on my legs which I'm going to start using on a daily basis. But you know, whatever. This running has been getting me lean. To be fair, this is probably the leanest I've ever been and it feels like sustainable and yeah, it's pretty aesthetic. But to make sure I'm actually fit as well in 11 weeks because I felt like I peaked. Just kind of concerning. But I ain't gonna back out. Yeah. So some more context on this. So this would have been early July. Like I was saying, I didn't want to be some stick beam with the running. I was actually still training with weights to not calisthenics. I wanted to be aesthetic basically. Like my whole thing was I want to go sub 3 but still fucking look good. It's fucking half 8 on Tuesday the 12th of July. I'm going next door literally over the road to a physio. Did not know there's a physio literally opposite me to get my legs looked out basically to tell me if. If this campaign is off or not. Assess my running all that sort of tell him how painful my leg is because feels like it's completely ruined my ability to be quick and I haven't lost my fitness that much I don't think. So we're gonna go see if I can actually be fixed or see what he says about my leg. Four hour R D, whatever that means, recovery and development or something. Session and see what he says and we'll go from there. Sub 3 baby. But I went to physio this morning and I've got a pure sport fucking CBD rub along with my physio exercises. Get this leg in check. 45 minutes on the treadmill today. Felt bad to be fair. Don't know if this actually does anything, if it's a complete scam, but this leg is going to be fixed. Fucking WI fi doesn't work in the house right now, which is ridiculous. The whole area is fucked. But I'm gonna do this shit twice a day along with my exercises. So this was arguably a really bad time to try and train to a marathon. And this is the other thing. Like I work probably 12 hours a day most days. It's not my main thing. I'm not, you know, not doing anything. Retired and I'm gonna go running all the fucking time. And it was also in summer when I was training for this and I travel a lot. I think I away like eight times this year for like week long plus trips. The thing that made it harder in my head was I was trying to do all of this while going away with the boys while still partying quite a bit. This was in Mykonos for example, at Sohos, training on a shitty little treadmill. But that was part of the challenge was to fit it into my, into my day to day life which obviously the priority is running the business as anyone that watches this knows. And yeah, just that was part of the challenge, the whole drama of it. And I was doubting myself here. Yeah. But I'm starting to think I didn't think about that. Hell, I've got 10 weeks left. I'm not really training them until I peaked about three weeks ago. And I'm starting to think 19th of July was it 3rd of October. You only been running for like anyway though. Yeah, true. I can get fit very quick. It's just the shins. In the back of my mind there's a little voice saying I can't do it now. And this is another thing worth Noting, like I said flippantly to myself and a lot of other people, I think I could have done the Marathon sub 3. And I still think that probably in June, July, like my peak training, but then I obviously have to wait and do it on the day. And that's part of the challenge with anything in life, is like, can you do it on the day? And the event was my first running race ever of any kind. It was my first marathon and I had to do it on the 2nd of October. And come rain or shine, treadmill or road, I ended up mixing it up a lot. I found treadmill helped my leg, that I'd fucked up and a lot of it was super lonely because none of my mates run, basically. So it became like this solo pursuit that was kind of always going on in the background and, yeah, took over a lot of my life. Training's been going well. Last week was a lot of treadmill stuff. Shin splints pretty much gone consistently, but I've now got a weird super bad pain and really stiff on my left hamstring, which makes me think we could be entering another chapter of injuries. After my 30k yesterday, I don't have to push it too hard, 48 pace. And yeah, I just. I literally can't stretch this leg fully. Can't really run with it, can barely walk with it, but we'll move. I found myself running into so many different injuries during this period. So the shin splints actually going back before that, it was probably my knees were fucked because my body wasn't used to running originally. Then my knees are fine, then my hips were fucked, then my ankles would be fucked, Then the shin splints came and I thought, it's all over. But eventually, with the consistency of everything, I was literally running at least six days a week, I reckon, average over the past three months, probably 100k plus a week. So, you know, maybe eight to 10 hours a week of running on top of weights and everything else. I was also doing, like in this video, I ended up doing a lot of calisthenics, which I just felt was safer because I found, like, if I did weights, my back would get fucked or whatever. But then I was still traveling. So this was in Marbella, in, I think paddle, real club paddle. So I went here twice, went to Marbella with the boys twice in summer, and that was part of the challenge. Like, even when I was going out sending, I was still making sure I was on the treadmill for an hour a day, basically on top of everything else. And the consistency Element of it was probably one of the biggest challenges. I didn't want to sacrifice any other area of my life really. Like certainly not my business and work which is obviously the main priority. And like I said before, it's not like I took three months off to focus on doing a sub three marathon. I just read online that that's, that was the big daddy goal and that's what, that's what a lot of runners you know that aren't like professional athletes. That's like that's the number. And being used to running I had to fucking go for it. Four weeks out and I feel unfit. Felt less fit than I felt two months ago. Maybe it's just today I just that Merv on Monday just out doing a standard one hour of what should be marathon pace and that's like 150 bpm and I'm creeping up to like 165. I don't know if it's just an off day or what but ankle feels. I feel slower than I was quite a while ago. Starting to think if I just peed too early and injured myself which is meant that all the slow running isn't doing much. I don't know. I feel pretty unfit right now and I meant to do 40k this weekend, tomorrow and Sunday. Don't know if this in my head at all. See 4 weeks out my sub 3 attempt which 2 or 3 months ago I was confident in doing on the day and now 4 weeks out can't even fucking run 10k at like an average pace. Don't know what the fuck is going on. But right now I don't feel like I can do this marathon let alone sub F3. Whereas like I say 3 months ago I was doing super quick half marathons. 25k so 4 pace. Even 3 weeks ago 30k at 4:06. Now since it's going away, doing a mouth workout, fucked my legs, my ankle's. It doesn't even just feel like it's in my head either. Like my legs literally feel like stones. Just done 10k at 4:05 pace. I was meant to do 20k 4 or 5 pace at like sub 160. Heart rates are pretty steady. I can't even do 10k without my legs like jelly. My heart rate going 31. Suddenly I don't know what the going on. It's over training. It's in my head. It doesn't feel like it's in my head. It feels physical. It's fucking worried me after yesterday's 10k suffering so honestly, to give some more context here because a lot of this shit is super dramatic and it might seem like almost like satirical and I understand that, but it's not because I put so much pressure on it. Because I think putting pressure on things and like the competitive element and doing things that I know on paper should almost be impossible given I'm not a runner. And you know, a lot of people told me probably fucking impossible. And I'm just arrogant by saying it. But I think about those sort of challenges are what gives what, you know, hard things, we do hard things not because they're easier, but because they're hard. Like there's some classic saying like that. And honestly, it was fucking hard. There were some times where I said it was mentally harder than physically. Like I was back at home for a week, just like a month out, a month before the, before the marathon. And I honestly thought like my fitness was fucked. But actually that was just the first time my body was like we are over training. And it properly got to me. And yeah, a lot of this probably seems super dramatic, but it's how it actually felt. And it's three and a half weeks out. Yeah, I was honestly doubting myself. This is not just for effect because I don't remember filming half this, but whenever I felt terrible, I probably to look back at fitness is there again. I can feel it, my mind is aligning. Just got to get this wrapped up on the day. So I hadn't really tested myself with like proper runs that often, but the half marathon three weeks out was a significant point. Sub 122 on the half marathon with a very sub optimal route. I think I probably had a sub 121 in me today if I hadn't gone that route and I planned to do half, didn't plan on doing half, planned on doing the steady, got over excited, but pretty confident in the fitness given how much I've been training, getting up, sore. I was going on that three weeks left. It's a lonely fucking road. It was also around this time that I started to research tapering for the first time because I knew nothing about running and certainly nothing about properly prepping for a race. And I was starting to think I might have been ignorant to how difficult it was going to be. But that's also when I decided it. I'm going to do a VO2 max test. Because I'd always been intrigued how fit I actually was. Because can you chew with that one? I was obsessively chew when I'm running. But I Mean it's kind of one thing doing decent times and people telling me I'm really fit or whatever. But I wanted to know like actually where am I at fitness wise. So yeah, I found this place in London and was super gassed to do this. And trust me that this is probably. It doesn't look that bad on video. And it was also one of the ones where they did incline instead of making it go super quick because that's, I think basically because they didn't have the harness or some shit, some health and safety thing. But anyway, so we start sit like super slow or like on a standard pace, whatever. And because you're wearing the mask again, that looks like nothing. But even right at the start when you're walking that feels like you're suffocating and can't fucking breathe properly. It was not nice. But this was like 20 minutes total. And when I say it's probably like the most intensely hard thing I've ever done, I actually mean that like the marathon is probably harder in hindsight, but certainly at this point like I was ready to faint at the end and I want to go over 60 because the Internet says 60 was elite. And I think he says at the end I got 66. Two weeks out of Taper. Started to feel ill yesterday. Didn't do my long run. Not good timing. I'm still feeling fit and uninjured about two weeks out Taper. Not good timing to start feeling ill. So service guys, Marathon pace 45 minutes. Felt nice and easy. I feel restless as because after the first initial 20 minutes every run when I warmed up, I just want to fucking go and actually race. Which probably means come Taper is working eight days out trying training kit, racing kit gels and shit. I feel very fit. I feel ready to go. Eight more days to taper it out. I look like absolute shit because I haven't had a haircut in like five weeks. Getting a pre race trim on Friday which is why I've been holding out so long. I've been getting up at 5am for the past few days to basically recalibrate because the race is at 9am or half nine. Something I feel at the start line like half eight and I'm. I'm nervous to be fair. It feels like it's taking over my week but at the same time I feel this table makes me feel kind of ill. It makes me feel unfit, which is what everyone is telling me is normal. Yeah, I'm doing like 20 minutes a day at the minute just like taking it over A few sprints to like keep the legs feeling good. Yeah, I just want to fucking race. I'm feeling the pressure. I keep probably doubting myself deep down and thinking I might just been ignorant of how difficult this is gonna be. But nah, I'm gonna fucking. I'm ready to go and I just gotta wait three days now. 72 hours time I'll be on the start line pretty much. I'm gonna fucking break myself. You guys have three. And I genuinely in my head was willing to die to go sub three. And it sounds flipping or whatever again. And I don't know, like, I've always just found there's a real beauty in pushing yourself physically to the absolute limit and just becoming a fucking stronger, better, more relentless version of yourself. And reading David Goggins book months and months ago again probably sounds super cliche, but I just relate it to a lot of what you fucking said. And battling like the demons from your past or whatever and yeah, like giving yourself this epic quest, I guess especially solo quests in this case. You want to break my motherfucking legs, so be it. I will reverse that pain and suffering and I will take your soul. You have to have the will, the heart, the courage to go that distance when you're exactly jacked up. You have nothing left to give and give more. It's a day before the marathon. I have had a haircut finally, which looks like shit. I'm feeling soft and a bit sluggish to be fair, which has been the general theme of this taper, which is kind of weird. Nothing I can do now. I followed the tapering information that I read online. You know, I've been training for this, I don't know, fucking, I guess like in my mind for like three months. I was running a lot before that. I just need to go and do it now. I know I'm fit enough and I've trained. I'm not injured. I'm feeling ready. I feel nervous and excited and fucking like I just want to run the fuck out of this energy out of my system. And you know, I've been looking back at my times and my training and. And probably overanalyzing it way too much. But yeah, I really just got to go and do it. My race plan is very simple. I know I need a 414 pace. It's actually a 415 pace to do sub 3, but I'm calling it a 4 14, you know, just in case. Like Apple watch. I always. I always find if I go by my Apple watch time Strava is always 2 seconds quicker per km, which is good. So I'm always quicker than I think. I don't know what the official time is because to be like. So I have to assume it's like Apple watch. So I'm going 4:14 pace in my head is what I need to achieve it. Average. My plan is to not try and be a in the first half. I want to just hold 4:14. I know 4:14 for halfway. I'm gonna feel cruising and feel good. Then the next 10k just try and hold it. You know, I've done 30k runs at four or six, six pace in training and that's without like, without carbs or even liquids. And I was in hot weather. So I'm confident I can, you know, I'm confident I'm fit enough. The engine is there. And then my plan after 30k is really just to see what I got left, see if I can, you know, just get a better time. Go like 2:55 or even sub 255, which for some reason I feel like I can do. But again, my plan is just execute on sub 3, the first 30k at that 414 pace. Then see where I'm at, see what's left to see if fucking Goggins speech in my playlist can really push the last hour or so. And yeah, I'm looking forward to doing it. And I've probably built it up in my head more than maybe most people and more than I should have for my first ever running race of any kind. But I quite like the drama of it all. And yeah, I feel like I used to feel when I was 16 years old getting nervous for a running race. And yeah, I just. It seems like it would be a fucking movie moment. First marathon ever. The London Marathon, which I think is one of the biggest in the world. Do the sub 3. But yeah, 24 hours time, I'll be about 2 hours in according to my start time. So see how it goes tomorrow. All right, I'm leaving in 20 minutes. Been up since half four race day. I have an S class coming because I figured that would be less stressful. Feeling now is to feel ready, feel fit. I don't think I could have prepared better. Just got to go. If I can do it. The weather looks optimal. 14 degrees, low wind, no rain. So we'll see what we can do. It could be something special in the F tank. But sticking to the plan, I've written this. 414 per k 21 roughly per 5k. 14 minutes per 10k is what I Need to successfully achieve the go of the sub 3 with a second per km leeway for tracking differences. So. Been a pretty long road. I put a lot of pressure on it, but it's just time to go and fucking do it and enjoy the pain. See you at the end. I probably wish I remembered this moment clearer because honestly, the whole thing was a fucking blur. I seemed to execute the race to perfection. Almost couldn't have gone any better looking back. And it honestly feels poetic the way it went. Beating the goal by seven minutes and one second in the end. And this was a very, very special moment. I think I'd be lying if I said I wasn't very close to crying. I almost wish I did. I think the adrenaline from just fucking doing it had me on the edge of crying, but I didn't. But there's something unique about that feeling. I think because it's a physical endeavor. It's. You feel it more in the moment than something that takes years and years. Like a business. Yeah, it was a special moment and having everyone there. How do you feel? 252. 59 in the end, baby. What was the aim? The plan worked. Aiming sub degree. What was the hardest part of that run for you, Matthew? Halfway. When I thought I it. Speaker. How close is it? No, it's not close. When I thought I it halfway. And then Goggins came on tactically in my ears and decided I would rather dive and not finish it. So when did the. You said your earphones cut out. Five minutes to go. So sorry, but how do you feel overall? Feel like I broke myself. So, yeah, I thought it was gonna be slower, but the training obviously works. Yeah, hard work, eh? Yeah. Good job, bro. I need to get back on the weights now. Yeah, There we go. How much weight do you reckon you lost? Well, in the whole progress, probably like 15 kilos. What do you think was the biggest achievement for you doing this marathon? What do you think it brought you? I think setting a ridiculous goal and then following through, putting the pressure on myself. There we go. Most people scared of pressure, but pressure makes you win. There we go. Right, fellas. Fucking done it. We didn't just do sub three. We did. Yeah, we did 2:50, 2:59 official time. Bit me. Thought maybe I could do sub 255. I mean, I didn't want to make any public any exclamations of that because I didn't run a marathon for today at all. But I don't know what happened. That felt like the most perfect way as possible. And given it's the only marathon I've ever done. Pretty happy with it. Felt like the nutrition went perfectly. My pacing was exactly how I planned. Pretty much stayed on pace, had a bit of a wobble at halfway. Yeah, I started to think, fuck. Like, I don't know if I got this in me. But then the Goggins speech came on in the playlist, which was tactical. Something just happened and then I just. I just wanted to get to 30K. That was the plan. Get to 30K. And then I got 10 more and then two, which I just do because it's the end. And in that last 10 I found another gear. So I held, I think like 412 average on the app. I feel like the split times are actually not accurate at all because it's telling me my average is 411, which just isn't correct because of 252, 59. It's an average of 405, which is what it says on the Internet. So, yeah, I was confident in sub 3, but having never done one, I didn't know what the to expect. I thought I might have issues with nutrition and all that, like feeling sick with the gels and that I'd never even had them before. I had one in my room before. Never run with them. And I thought, you know, people say, oh, don't get arrogant, you're never in more than 30k. All this sort of. And I tried to respect the distance and I just found them a gear, which I guess is testament to my fucking training I've done. But I guess during it I started to think, have I not done enough long runs? Like, am I actually as prepared as I think? I don't really know. I don't want to go in being naive, but I think one thing I've always been good at is finding another gear. Obviously I trained for it, but it's also a mental game because you just got to fucking go into the pain. And I think a lot of people pull away and there's. I found myself overtaking a footload of people at the end that, I don't know, maybe gone off too hard or whatever. Quite a lot of people that had overtaken me at the start were looking super slow at the end and like walking. But, yeah, I'm just happy how it went. I think it's probably going to sink in and I'm being super dramatic about it, but I have made a huge deal out of this. It's been like my main focus outside of the business certainly for like the past three months. I've enjoyed making a big deal out of it because it gives training meaning, but it's been a lonely road and it's been many, many, many hours and hundreds, probably thousands of kilometers, actually. Yeah, a few thousand kilometers over the past few months, running by myself. And it was a fucking special moment, finishing that. Yeah, I don't know. I think I already feel like I need the next challenge, but I haven't figured out what that is. I suppose ultimately it's fucking scared of business, but this is different. It's physical, you know, and, yeah, it was very emotional, crossing the line and doing what it's out to do. And I think there's power in that. You know, you say you're gonna do something, your word should be fucking iron will. You do everything in your power to make it happen. And that's what I did here. So I think it's not about the run. It's symbolic of coming from a worse place many months ago and rebuilding myself mentally. And I guess the run is symbolic of that as well as obviously just fucking losing a lot of weight and getting in shape again. But I'm enjoying. I'm gonna enjoy now going back to doing some weights, putting on some. Focusing on aesthetics a bit more for a while, instead of just purely fucking endurance. Because, yeah, it's been a tough, tough few months of training, and I'm just glad I did it because I put a lot of pressure on myself and hopefully I can inspire someone else to go out and make a change with their. Their physique, their mind, their whatever it is. And I've even surprised myself today, to be honest. And I proved that I am capable of. I do have that dark, demonic side, I guess, that I used to bring out in, like, rowing days. And I thought that I'd gone, but winners win, I suppose. So we got it done. Thanks for supporting and see you in the next episode. Sam.
