 It was 6am when the alarm went and I dragged myself out of bed having spent the night in a church car park in the film My Run Van. Don't worry, it's not as dodgy as it sounds. I'd driven up to London the night before because today I was racing and with a start time of 8am I didn't want to be rushing. So here we are, we're in the middle of Kingston upon Thames. This is the Christmas market here, basically the middle of the city centre. It's organised by River Thames running this race and it's called the Breakfest Run or something. I've just registered, I've got my number and that's round here. There is a Costa Coffee which I'm going to any second now. All runners are supposed to arrive by 7am and it's 5am to 7am now. There's not thousands of people here. So we'll just see what happens. It's drizzling, it's not absolutely pouring with rain which is good but I think I am going to run with my jacket on. For breakfast I'd had a bottle of This Is Food which is my new favourite meal in a drink nutrition solution. I'll pop a link in the description for you to get some of your own. Suffice to say we love it. I waited ages for Costa to open but eventually I gave up and spent half an hour in Starbucks instead before heading back over to the start finish area in the marketplace. OK, 10 minutes to go to the start of the race and it is a lot busier now than it was earlier on. I was kind of a bit worried that it was going to be like about 30 people running around but that is definitely not the case. There is probably a good, there are probably a couple of thousand people here now in the square here. It's still just drizzling a little bit. It's not pouring with rain, chilly but not freezing cold. And then before I knew it we were lining up. I stood optimistically next to the 7 minute 30 pacer. Well, there's nothing like chasing rainbows on a wet Sunday morning. Welcome to film my run. We are in Kingston upon Thames for the breakfast run. It's like essentially an 8 mile, 16 mile or 20 mile marathon tester where you test your marathon pace, see if your training has gone to plan. If not, then you're in trouble because the marathons at springtime are not far away. There are lots of people here. We've got paces. It's raining but we don't care. It's flat as a pancake, let's see what happens. Now normally you'd expect a countdown and a gun or an air horn to start the race. But we got this. What the heck? Was that a go? That was the start, apparently. It had not escaped my notice that most runners around me were wearing singlets. Was I being overly cautious wearing my jacket? Probably. But in my mind this was a training run, not a race. And there was every chance that at some point I might slow down to walking pace. Hate to tell you this but I need the loo already. I set off in the rain confidently following the 730 pacer. We made our way through the town centre and out over Kingston Bridge. Once over the bridge we joined Barge Walk on the Thames path heading west. For some reason I hadn't been expecting mud or slippery conditions but that's exactly what we got two kilometres into the race. And I was already regretting wearing my favourite racing shoes. Five kilometres done in 23 and a half minutes. So initial thoughts are I don't think I'm going to be able to stick with this 315 pacer for the whole run. Already feeling sluggish. Although we might just need to settle into the run. You never know. Just passing Hampton Court Palace now on the right hand side. I've run on this path many times before. The last time being when Victoria and I ran the Thames path 100 which I'll link in the top right there. Once past the Palace we crossed over Hampton Court Bridge and onto the A309. This was the first of two laps for those doing the 16 and 20 mile options and the loop was nicely broken into three distinct sections. The Thames path, the A309 and then the Portsmouth Road starting at this corner right here. That's 10k in 47 minutes. The 315 pacer is gradually slipping away very gradually. Last time I ran here was the Hampton Court half marathon which I didn't enjoy at all because of the open roads. I'm not a massive fan of running fast races on open roads but this is very well marshaled so it's not quite as bad as that. If I could hold on to the 7 minute 30 pacer that would be a good indication that I might have a chance of running a 3 hour 15 minute marathon in London in April. And as long as I could still see him in the distance that was okay by me. So 20k left to go. The lead runners are over there on the other side of the river now. Problem is I'm dying for the loop. I am going to have to stop and go for a wee at some point. I know that's too much information but these are the realities of road running. You can either wet yourself or stop or have a very uncomfortable run. And it is only a training run after all so it's not the end of the world if we stop for a wee. So let's stop. Okay done. So rejoining the race. We're now doing one lap. So we're coming back to the start finish line. Okay so away we go on lap 2 now. Through the Christmas market here at Kingston. Please don't ask me why I keep calling it the Christmas market when it's March I have absolutely no idea. I think I just saw it listed as that on a map but it is just the marketplace. Okay feels a lot more spread out now on lap 2. Thank you. Jess are you doing the 20 of 16? 16 sorry. That's alright what are you training for? Reading half. Reading half? Yeah. Enjoy. Thank you. 10 miles done in 1 hour 15 minutes. So we're halfway so if I was to keep that up obviously that would be 2.5 hours for 20 miles. I think it's unlikely that we'll do that but it's a very muddy section here which really slows you down but anyway we'll keep this up as long as we can. Still raining. The muddy section of the Thames path was causing me no end of trouble with my road shoes and I noticed my pace drop off each time I went over it and I was always glad to get back on the tarmac. Look at the back of my legs here. Passing Hampton Court Palace again for the second time. 18K in. Despite the rain and the mud and my lack of fitness I was just about managing to maintain around 4 minutes 40 per kilometre or 7 minutes 40 per mile. Not quite 3.15 marathon pace but not too far off. So I was feeling rather encouraged as I started along the A309 again through Thames Ditten heading towards Isha and the famous Sandown Park race course. The rain was falling harder than ever now as we approached 13 miles just before the turn back onto Portsmouth Road. So there's half marathon done 21km in 1 hour 39 minutes so that equates to if I didn't slow down a 3 hour 20 marathon. Go! Go! Definitely starting to tire now with 11K less. Despite a growing feeling of lethargy creeping over me I was able to maintain consistent kilometre splits for a little while longer as I approached the end of lap 2. The finish was definitely in sight now and the final shorter loop didn't seem like such a long way. Although I'd now lost sight of the pacer I'd been following it was just a case of holding my form, rhythm and speed as long as possible. 15 miles in 1 hour 54 3 quarters of the way through 5 miles to go so we won't be too far away from 2 hours 30 probably 2 hours 35 2 hours 40 if I really slow down very tired now the rain has definitely eased off now starting to get warm in my jacket getting closer to town I could see runners on the lower path clearly doing their final 4 miles on the shorter loop I was very happy to hit 16 miles and make it back to the start finish area and the man with the mic Lovely job Keep it going man Okay that's the end of lap 2 so now we just have a 4 mile loop to do to finish off the 20 miles I haven't needed any water today or any gels or anything like that so 20 miles with nothing that's fine one of the few mini inclines in this run sorry I'm sure they'll show us in a minute I think we go along that path and then there's a turning sign so there'll be a turnaround point somewhere up here because we can see runners coming down on the path just adjacent to us here I am definitely going slower now but that's okay not the end of the world Hi guys 27 kilometers in 2 hours 7 minutes 20 seconds 5k to go just a park run left just a park run to go Well then guys right there's that minute pace they've just gone past the turning is not far ahead so they've not gone that far ahead of me there it is there's a turnaround thank you yes yes thank you very much right there we are that's the turnaround so still about 4.5k to go now I know some of you will be saying if I'd taken a gel I wouldn't be slowing down now and yes if this was a full on race effort I would probably be taking something at this point but this is a training run and I'm reminding my body that it needs to use fat efficiently as a fuel source so I don't have to rely so heavily on sugary rubbish really slippy section that really slow through there pretty much dead on my feet now though with the muddy terrain and my increasingly lacklustre legs my splits in the last miles took a bit of a tumble I'd been hoping to stay under 5 minutes per kilometre but couldn't manage it for 3 of those last 5k thank you sorry what say again turn around here just keep going this way bit of confusion there whilst I didn't have any significant issues with navigation other than this I did hear a couple of people complaining that they had gone the wrong way the lady behind me here seems to have come down the steps from the bridge average heart rate for the whole run was 142 BPM and max was 157 by contrast for last year's Paris Marathon my average was 154 and max 169 so this certainly wasn't an all out effort and with a little more endurance training I'll be able to go a bit faster for a bit longer at the London Marathon 31 km 2 hours 27 minutes but there's just a bit more than the kilometre to go I think we didn't long pass the 19 mile mark so it's probably going to be 32.5k but hopefully under under 235 around about what I was aiming for so I'm quite pleased with that really but definitely slowed down in the last 5k there bye guys well done thank you in this final section next to the river and then back on the road to the finish I tried to speed up and put in a good run to the finish line but I was definitely cooked by this point and my final kilometre was only just under 5 minutes but at the same time I knew I had to be pleased with my effort here we go just up to the finish that last 5k was horribly hard work thank you thank you very much yeah thank you guys thank you for volunteering cheers 2 hours 33 minutes and 34 seconds do you know what I'm happy with that I've got to be happy with that I think that is a generous small isn't it thank you very much indeed appreciate that I've got a mug, a t-shirt, loads of drinks and bits and bobs in a goodie bag and it's not raining which is very nice and body mechanics giving massages here so as I quite often do I did that training run with no gels, no water nothing, didn't stop at any of the aid stations so this is well deserved and well needed now it's always nice to cheer a few runners across the line at the end but of course the most important thing to do which I couldn't do prior to the race because it was closed was go to Costa Costa is not as busy as I thought it would be why isn't everyone in here getting a coffee okay okay you don't do anything else other than get a Costa after you've done 20 miles that's just standard okay time to get back to the van get myself dried up and get myself home that's it for Kingston upon Thames 20 mile of the breakfast run I'm pleased with 2h33 that's absolutely fine thank you for watching if you want to watch last years Paris Marathon where I got my PB 255 last year click just here and you can watch that and until next time take care and we'll see you on the start line bye bye