There are many reports today of the virtual VLM, so I thought I would add mine too.
First thing, I don't want to run marathons, it seems like such a long distance and so much time on your feet. I've grown to like the 10k and half marathon distance, it's long enough to be a challenge, but short enough to not be psychological torture... So I have been training for a half marathon (which happen a week ago), but when the possibility of completing the London Marathon, when the virtual race was open to all of us, without the ballot, I thought it was a chance I couldn't miss. I was not going to train properly for the "run" so I had decided on a walk/run strategy to get me through it. I had some practice with nutrition and hydration for the half marathon, so I thought I would be fine...
Ok, so yesterday I left early, it was cold and rainy but nothing worse than the weather for the half last weekend. I started with my run/walk strategy: I was running 1.1 km, then walking 2 min, the plan was to repeat that 35 times 
divided into 3 blocks, with a longer break between those for toilet/nutrition. It worked quite well for the first 16 km, I was feeling good, heart rate was low, and legs fine. But I didn't take the weather into account 
the longer break meant that I cooled down, my clothes were wet and I wasn't producing enough heat as I was walking, and my legs decided to stop working. I tried my walk/run strategy again for the second block, but it was really hard to move my legs, I managed to maintain a new strategy of 0.6 km running / 0.6 km walking, but I was feeling colder and colder, so after 28 km I made the decision of changing my route and going home (the rules for the marathon allowed you to do it in several chunks). I took all my clothes off as I went through the door, it took me a while as my fingers weren't functioning (at this point I was shivering) and got dry clothes on to try to recover. I got a new set of clothes (actually 2 sets, I went for two layers this time) and dry shoes and, once I was feeling warm again, I went back to complete the last 11 km (only walking at this point, I am not sure how I could move with all those layers but I definitely didn't feel cold this time :)). Around 8 hours after the start, I managed to complete 42.2 km according to strava, funny it saves as "morning run", it should have been something like "all day run".
At the end, I managed to run very slowly the last 100 m Today I'm feeling very happy I managed to finish, quite sore but I was expecting a horrible cold and that's not happened yet... Now the problem is that I feel I want to do this properly... so I've joined the ballot for next year! There is a voice inside my head that keeps saying "don't panic the chances are really low" but there is another that keeps saying "we've got this, let's try again!!" Last year in summer I was thinking getting to 5k was all I would ever want, and I'm one of those that said I will never go to 10k, I will never do a half marathon, I will never ever try a marathon, I will never wear leggings... I really don't know if I should thank everyone in the HU forums or if I should cancel my internet connection! But you know the answer to that one...
Thanks for being such a supporting and motivating forum!
And my advise, if you decide last minute to do a marathon, check the weather and wear appropriate clothes!
One year Runniversary and some reflections...
