Hot Bikram and the Marathon: Judgement Day

Gregory Allon is a regular runner and one-time Bikram sceptic who also happens to be Olga Allon’s brother. He recently ran in the London Marathon, and has been blogging regularly about his decision to incorporate Hot Bikram Yoga into his training regime, and the impact it has had on his running.

Hello everyone,

Well the race is done, so I just thought I'd let you all know how I got on.

It was an incredible day, London at its absolute best, from going down to Greenwich early on Sunday with some friends who were also running, the camaraderie of all the runners, the extraordinary experience of being cheered on by a million people lining the streets, especially seeing my family and friends at key moments, giving me an enormous boost to finish what I had started. The photo on this post was taken by Olga which captures one such moment perfectly.

I had (not so secretly) been hoping to finish in under 3 hrs 15 minutes, and I set off at that pace. I held it quite comfortably for about 20 miles, but it then became increasingly difficult to maintain that speed. By 23 miles I was struggling, and the final couple of miles were brutal, as my legs cramped up. They pretty much ceased to function towards the end and I literally had to hop in pain over the finishing line.

I finished in 3 hours 23 minutes – although I didn’t hit 3.15 that was an absolute dream target for which all of the stars would have had to align. I was still absolutely delighted with my time, particularly after my last London Marathon experience turned into a rather unpleasant tour of the portaloos of central London.

I have no doubt that I would not have got close to that time without the Bikram, which has helped keep me strong and injury free right through the training period. I’ll definitely keep it up – in fact, as I take a couple of weeks off running to recover, there’s this big gap in my exercise schedule which needs filling – hmmm…

Thanks for reading, and I hope to meet some of you in a class some time soon. If anyone else ran the London Marathon, I’d love to hear about your experience and how you used Bikram in your training – just leave a comment on Facebook.

Happy running and happy Bikram

Gregory