Mixed fortunes on the streets of London

  Sunday morning.  London marathon day.   Been watching the race preview.   Usual focus on the elite runners, celebrities and one or two charity runners. No mention of the leading UK male runners which perhaps is to be expected considering the current standard. 
  The elite women are now in action. Just over 30 lined up for the womens elite start and after just a minute some women are detached at the back. One "elite" female now with a very solitary 26 miles ahead of her.  Why do they choose this elite start when they could run with men as they do for most of their other races?
  The men are off.  6 minutes into the race and at last Dan Robinson and Andrew Lemoncello  are featured for a minute or so.   The roads meanwhile are looking quite wet.  Rain has replaced the feared sunny conditions.  Half a dozen pacemakers are spread across the road towing the elite men along; distinctive in their vest modelled on that of Shaftesbury Harriers, the club London organiser Dave Bedford ran for.
  Paula Radcliffe, commentating for the BBC, has just selected herself for the 2012 Olympic marathon team.  "I'll defintely be there", she declares.  Interesting. Back with the womens elite race and the pacemaker Kalovics. is once again detached ahead working hard to hit the set half way time she is being paid for.  Over Tower Bridge, approaching half way and UK favourite Mara Yamauchi has become detached, a few metres off the group.  Instead of staying with the women as they go through halfway the BBC divert to a map of the race route! First look at the UK males,  Lemoncello and Andi Jones are with yet another pacemaker; Dan Robinson running solo just behind.  They are on 2:10 pace.  
 The elite women reach 30K in 1:41; Yamauchi is now out of sight behind, facing 12K of solitary torment.
Over Tower Bridge, Lemoncello has dropped Jones  and the pacemaker with Robinson, on 2.12 pace a few meteres behind.  Back with the elite women, the lead group is now down to 4.  Russian, Shobukhova setting the pace plus compatriot,                        , and 2 Ethiopians.   At 25K, the world half marathon record holder, tadesse of Erotria has been dropped as the lead group have injected miles of 4.39 and 4.39!
2:10 into the womens race and it's looks to be down to Shobukhova and Mergia.   Yamauchi soldiers on alone;  mention again of the tortuous 6 day journey she has had to endure to get to the event in the first place.  I can't but think that there are men behind her running at the same pace as her. Again, so much for the womens separate elite start.   Inga Abitova of Russia has surged to join the two leading women. Back to 3 for a moment, but immediately Shobukhova puts the pedal down again and pulls away.   She finshes with a determined sprint to dip under 2:22.  Abitova improves her PB by 3 minutes 15 seconds behind. have beaten   Yamauchi  comes in 2:26:15;  she composes herself for a smile and a wave for the cameras.   The leading man Kebede of Ethiopia is now clear having put in miles of 4.33  4.36  4.41  4.51 and 4.33.  Kirui of Kenya 7 seconds adrift.  Mutai (Kenya) 35 secs down.   But Kirui starts to struggle and Mutai passes him as if he's standing still.  Kirui loses 1.40 and eventually finishes 5th.
  Andi Jones (Salford) appears being chased by other Brits  Ben Moreau and Lee Mearrinen.  They clocked
2.16:39, 2:16:44 and 2:16:47 respectively.   But first Brit is Andrew Lemoncello running 2:13:40 on his marathon debut. He expresses disappointment;  commenting on the wind and running alone for long periods.
he has the consolation of having qualified for the Commonwealth and European championships.  No sign of Dan Robinson who might well have dropped out.  
  From the finishing lines camera shot we spot Kevin Ogden going through in 2:45:30. With a faster chip time could be a new PB. Well done Kevin.   Amy Green of Keighley is under 3:08, a PB by over 5 minutes. Sally Malir passes through inside 3:11. Not a PB but faster than Blackpool in 2006.  Another excellent run and reward for all her hard work and surely well up in the F45 age group.  
 Confirmed times were 2:45:16 for Kevin,  3:07:42 for Amy and 3:10:49 for Sal.  Richard B. of Bingley also broke 3 hours. Well done to all.    Looking at split  times, inevitably, many experienced great problems in the second  half  including many runners who are generally seen winning local events over shorter distances.
 So for once it was a late afternoon run for me today. A rare run from the house.  Starting down the steep hill and having to finish up it was welcomed by my  tired legs and reminded me why I generally drive out to "kinder" routes.  But I have been neglecting the hills lately so it had to be done.   The 8.5 capped off the week at 52 miles and nicely brought the year's average back up to a perfect 50 with no zeros on the chart.