Maria Hamilton reports:

Pretty flat but with a few inclines and cobbles, this is a fast course
but I now have a lot more respect for Wilson Kipsang’s near-WR time
from 2011.

I went to the Breakfast Run on the Saturday, and having thus acquired
medal and free food and drink, was a bit short on marathon mojo come
the Sunday! I wanted sub 4:20 for a Pen F at Comrades next year, had
printed out a pace band with slight negative splits, 2:11 vs 2:08:30
for a 2:19:30 finish, and had grimly stuffed my face with rice cakes
for 3 days. In the end (desperate for it to be over) I ran 4:18:56,
and once across the finish line, threw up, promptly, twice (on the
lino, not the red carpet!).

Job done, but not the jolliest of days. At some point in the first
five miles I saw a middleaged runner being given CPR by paramedics
while the runner who’d, presumably, had been closest by and had called
for help, stood by, all thoughts of a race gone. There’s been nothing
in the news but few are as lucky as Fabrice Muamba or Alberto Salazar
– we can only hope that this man was. A sobering reminder to make the
most of the life we have.