Having run at least one marathon every year since 1976, former AW staffer Steve Smythe can claim to be one of Britain’s most experienced marathoners and below he outlines his thoughts on a half century of marathons.

In 1976, shortly after leaving school, I made my marathon debut in Harlow. That summer I had done training runs with my Cambridge Harrier clubmate Barry Watson who had surprisingly won the British Olympic marathon trials at Rotherham defeating the Olympic favourite Ian Thompson. Watson had then gone on to run for Britain in Montreal and led the runners out of the track.

European and Commonwealth champion Thompson missed out on selection and I remembered Thompson had won at Harlow in 1973 as a complete unknown running a then marathon world record debut of 2:12:40.

I was lucky enough to interview Thompson, who ran an European record 2:09:12 in his second as my final feature before retirement from AW.

It was Thompson’s and Watson’s runs that inspired me to want to try a marathon. I’m still running them albeit with minor success and my competitive peak was a British masters title in 2002.

My debut was naturally a bit slower than Thompson's – aged 18 (technically too young according to AAA rules) and I ran 2:53 which would now be regarded as a reasonable start but back then I did not even make the top half of the field.

Despite being one of Britain’s top marathons – it was the Commonwealth trial in 1973 – only 200 took part. Back then, only experienced club runners ran 26.2 miles. There were no fun runners, fitness runners, joggers, charity runners and very few older runners as most became officials when they hit the age of 40. Masters competition was low-key but there were prizes for the first over-40s and over-50s.

Women did not run marathons either. There was just one in my race that year. What's more, there was no televised big city marathon and only major championship marathons ever appeared on television.

The perceived wisdom at the time was that runners probably only had five or six good marathons in them and with no event such as Boston in the UK, runners retired early which is probably why I believe I am the first Briton to go 50 continuous years as I got in earlier than the six remaining London Marathon ever-presents.

This year’s London will be my 51^st season of marathoning and I have run every London Marathon bar 1983 where I ran other marathons.

London is now my only outing over 26.2 miles but I did run Brighton in 2019.

My links to the marathon also include writing about London’s elites as a journalist for over 30 years. There was a time when I could finish the race and still make it in time for the post race press conferences!

I've also coached someone to a British senior international vest and coached numerous athletes to London Marathon age group wins and also been a past coaching editor for Runner’s World, taking over the marathon schedules from the great Bruce Tulloh.

Here I give five lessons – one for each decade of marathoning - I have learnt about running 26.2 miles since 1976.

1 Targets

When it gets tough and it will once you reach the second half of the race, it helps to have a realistic target that excites and motivates you but it has to be one that is achievable based on past races, longest training runs and half marathon results. It’s no good having a target that is clearly impossible once you get past 10km.

I was fortunate in my first marathon that I was just about fit enough to realistically challenge a sub-three which back then was considered a good but not exceptional target for a club-runner.

There were virtually no half-marathons back then with five, 10 miles and 20 miles being the most prevalent distances. From my 10-mile races, I hoped for a time around 2:40 but energy ran out at 20 miles on my young untrained legs and with the aid of a course map and a hand-held stopwatch (there were no Garmins or even Casios in the mid-70s) I did enough to reach my minimum target.

My motivation after that was to run a sub 2:30 which I did in 1981 and once achieving that my target changed to a slower time but I still thought I could achieve a sub-three until I was 61.

2 Pacing

There were no pacers in British marathons half a century ago. During the 1990s and 2000s I was an official sub-three-hour pacer in London. Even though I have not had a pacer vest for 20 years, I still get asked if I am pacing. I would obviously need a bicycle now to pace sub-three.

However, they are a great help now. They are usually highly visible and on multiple starts and run a steady pace and act as a stimulus for those beating targets and it is a time they could comfortably achieve if they weren’t pacing.

Most runners though have to do without pacemakers so have to make their own decisions.

While there might be a temptation to get time in hand on the first half. Ignore it.

I believe the key to a good marathon is to get to halfway feeling as if there is something in hand not that you are hanging on. The longer you feel relaxed the easier the second half.

3 Aging gracefully 

My first marathon was in 1976 and my fastest was in 1981 so I have effectively had 45 years of getting slower.

I could though still break three hours in 2017 and at the time that made me the first to have a 40-year-plus span of sub-three but soon after health issues, injuries and age took their toll.

The basic rule is you usually peak in your mid to late 20s, you consolidate and then each year you get gradually slower and then at a greater rate of deterioration as you near 70 which is sort of illustrated by my five-year bests.

U20: 2:41:35 (1977)

20-24: 2:29:43 (1981)

25-29: 2:35:02 (1985)

30-34: 2:38:15 (1988)

35:39: 2:44:21 (1994)

40-44: 2:42:10 (2003)

45-49: 2:43:53 (2006)

50-54: 2:43:40 (2008)

55-59: 2:56:16 (2017)

60-64: 3:09:25 (2019)

65-69: 3:37:11 (2023)

By consistent, smart and improved training and a certain amount of natural talent you can sometimes cheat age.

In recent weeks John Wright, 66, and Clare Elms, 62,  have set records at non-marathon distances and there have also been astonishing marathon marks.

Guiseppe Damato, 90, ran 4:30:30 in the recent Milan Marathon and there is currently a book just out called Dare to Dream on British runner Mike Sheridan who ran 2:59:13 at the age of 73.

At the other end of the master age scale, the three youngest world marathon bests at M35 (Eliud Kipchoge 2:01:09, M40 (Kenenisa Bekele 2:04:19) and M45 Bernard Lagat (2:14:23) are all former senior world 5000m champions.

4 Technology

Obviously there have been many changes over 50 years in technology terms.

In 1976 footwear was not that different from plimsolls – very light, minimal cushioning and a mile away from the bouncy built-up carbon shoes of 2026.

I can recall foolishly even wearing a pair of waffle shoes in a marathon in 1979 which were suitable for maybe a five mile cross-country on a golf course but certainly not 26.2 miles on the road and deservedly got a foot injury.

There were no gels, caffeine chews or isotonic or beetroot drinks in the 1970s.

For the first London Marathon (where I set my PB), I had no breakfast but just a cup of tea and maybe had a couple of small cups of water during the race. Because it was cold and drizzly I got away with it.

In terms of diet, there was some knowledge and I tried the carbohydrate depletion diet for my 1976 run and early marathons but never found it helped. I did notice though that my ability to hold pace increased when gels became popular in the 2000s and my best run for age (2:43 at 50) was down to the fact that I got the diet right pre-race and during the event.

5 Focusing on London

Because I live around 400m from two of the London Marathon starts and have done for over 60 years, all my focus on recent marathons has been on London. Off reduced training I can cope with one marathon a year and no more.

The days when I could run a sub-three in Boston on Monday and another in London on Sunday have long gone.

With my gym at the one mile mark, I still probably run on part of the course every day and I’m fortunate enough to have the world’s greatest marathon on my doorstep.

Because the clocks went forward on the eve of the first London in 1981, I woke up just 45 minutes before the race start.

With this being my 43^rd successive London (most times through Championships qualifying or good for age) I know the course backwards and have a pretty much set routine.

There are never quite enough toilets and you often seem to spend ages queueing, going and then deciding you might still need to go again and need to go straight back in the queue.

Unless it is very warm, don’t take drinks at every water station, having too much water is more dangerous than having too little and trying to regularly get a drink uses energy as you push your way through the masses. Definitely there was a lot more space when I was quicker although the waved starts do spread the field out. Of course in early marathons there was no such thing as chip times.

It’s a multi world record course so obviously it’s fast (with a quick downhill around 5km) but if London were probably going to design a world record route from scratch they would probably change a few things.

There are quite a few slopes (with one extra hill at Woolwich on the red start) lots of sharp turns and a few bottlenecks but the route has many special parts and the crowds can be incredible if you are starting to struggle in the last 10km.

The last few miles along the River Thames and past Big Ben and then Buckingham Palace is surely one of the greatest in the world.

Having run around London for close on 60 years of my life, I really do appreciate that on this special day and the roads are closed for runners and thousands of people are cheering you on whereas during the other 364 days they are ignoring you!