Following the Málaga calamity in December ‘25, my year-long quest to smash sub-3 continued. Back then I had vowed to put it right - but in Málaga a year later, not here at the Boston Marathon with Faye and the crew. Just four months down the line, this always felt too hard a course, too short a gap, too much of an ask. More importantly, it was our first real time spent away together since we’ve had the kids, which was more important to me. On top of all of that, who knew what the weather would do? Boston is notoriously unreliable in that department. No surprise that friends who’d run it were saying ‘add at least five minutes to anything in your head’. My head was definitely saying ‘maybe not this time, Phil’, not least because my already truncated training block had been cut short by over three weeks thanks to norovirus and a stupidly incurred Achilles injury (moral: don’t train like you’re immortal). ...

A couple of years ago I bought some coaching with Shane Benzie, whose book, The Lost Art of Running, had resonated with me. In two or three visits to his base in Goring-on-Thames, I ran around the village cricket green, and he filmed me, explained in person the things I’d read in his book (essential to do it this way if you want the big changes, I feel - a book alone is not enough) and we worked on every aspect of my running form. With some ongoing online coaching, within 18 months I was running circa three-hour marathons, having been stuck at 3:30 for years. More importantly, I felt my running form had improved forever. I was, and remain, a fan. ...

I consider myself a reasonably experienced marathon runner at this point. I’ve run marathons since my mid-twenties, and although it took me until the last few years to actually get serious about all of this, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on most of what the marathon could throw at you. That was my first mistake. My second mistake was an easy one. I simply didn’t fuel enough. As my friend Yael said to me afterwards, “You get caught in the moment, and the adrenaline powers you… until it doesn’t.” Bang on. I’d had a really solid training block, thanks to my coach Colin’s diligent and generous work planning my schedule and keeping tabs on me. I’ve met some great new people and learned to run in a group for the first time, which I’ve loved. At the race itself I copied last year’s routine down to the same hotel, the same timings, the same food. But for some reason, I decided that three gels was going to be enough to get me around the marathon at the fastest pace I’d ever run. Wrong! ...

I went into this marathon expecting - if I was lucky - to run around 3 hours and 5 minutes. I’d trained for a 3-hour finish, but the build-up hadn’t gone perfectly. My gut feeling was that I was capable of running at about 4:20/km pace, not the 4:15/km required for a sub-3. The forecast didn’t help either: gusting to gale-force winds, especially over the final miles, made chasing a sub-3 feel unrealistic. ...

The London Marathon doesn’t really need much of an introduction, does it? For me, it’s the best - maybe on par with New York - but definitely right up there. I’ve done about 15 different marathons, so I’ve got a decent frame of reference. I had a good-for-age qualifying time, and with a UK driver’s licence, I could use that entry option. You do need to be a UK resident for that to work, which is sometimes a bit of a sore point in the community, but it is what it is. ...

I chose the Seville Marathon because it was local, the timing was good, and a bunch of us from the running club were going. I wanted a race around February time and I’d heard it was flat - which sounded good to me. I hadn’t run it before but people I trust said it was a fast course, so I signed up. My original plan was to go for a PB. ...

This one was a belter in the end with a solid 3:11.06 time, but right to the start line, it felt like it could go either way for me, spectacularly. What follows is my race report, and lots of info about the marathon and the city for those considering doing this one. So what was the issue? Well, having trained really well for 18 weeks, I turned my ankle quite badly 5 days before the run. I only decided to actually even travel to Málaga the day before, having completed a short test jog, but was not even sure I’d finish. ...