I had been running four times a week for 18 weeks straight, and my legs were in need of a break. I was at the TCS London Marathon 2024 running show, the venue where every marathon runner, or at least a family member, has to go prior to the event to pick up their bib and race pack, and at the time of writing, it was just a few days out from the big day itself.
Having grabbed my pack, I was now in the exhibition center, and it was a veritable running convention: talks on marathon mindsets and training plans were taking place on a stage to one side of the room; the best running shoes and best running watches of the moment were on display in lurid, shiny brand activations; and vendors hawked all sorts of smaller items such as energy gels, oat bakes, foam rollers and heat packs said to relieve muscle soreness.
