Just about every article I read nowadays starts off by jumping in at the deep end, opening in the midst of a particularly perilous situation near the end of the race – a suspected injury, tales of exhaustion or even just negative thoughts of giving up – hooking the readers with a cliff-hanger before rewinding to the start line for the rest of the story, before resolving said difficult situation with a twist involving say crowd support or a generous passer, finishing off by collapsing over the finish line. I thought about doing the same here, and came up with plenty of scenarios from last weekend which would have worked well enough, but it feels like I would be cutting out the much bigger story, of a near two year build up to actually get to the race in the first place: never has the phrase “It’s a marathon not a sprint” been more appropriate!
Along with maybe the Olympics, the London Marathon must be one of my oldest sporting memories, going back to primary school days when newspapers used to publish competitors times (pre-GPS!) and my school would pin them to the noticeboard. One year my uncle took part and I remember searching through pages to find his finish time. At that age a marathon seemed an impossibly long distance, and being honest for much of the next 35 years things remained the same, until I finally got around to completing one myself in Birmingham in 2017. Whilst it was well supported and more importantly close to home, it has never quite held the same kudos as a major event: I have lost count of the “oh’s” I get when people ask if I have ‘done’ a marathon before, usually followed (not unjustifiably) by “I didn’t know there was a Birmingham marathon”!
This one however is different – so well known that for most non-runners it is simply ‘The Marathon’, whilst for other regular runners it is just ‘London’ – as in “Have you done London?” as if it is the holy grail of running. After year of small and medium sized events this was something I had to experience for myself, but with huge demand to take part, reaching the start line is a challenge in itself. The ballot system gives odds getting in of something like 35-1, and whilst I now have a good collection of ‘sorry’ jackets from years of failed attempts, this time around I decided to push for one of the equally competitive charity places, and in summer 2019 was fortunate enough to be chosen to run for the Bobby Moore Fund, part of Cancer Research UK, with a target of raising £1966 to go towards Bowel Cancer causes, something particularly close to my heart.
I immediately began training with what looked like plenty of time until April 2020 to get up to strength from fairly comfortable half marathon distance to full, this being more of a one off opportunity I could not waste, not to mention the fact it would be on international TV! Winter training was tough – you can always spot those training for a Spring event during December snowstorms wearing full thermals whilst others just turn up the heating and put their feet up – and with my grey Rocky tracksuit I was more than happy to be one of them!
But then Covid struck, and the world stopped. It seems almost funny now to look back at the ‘will they or won’t they’ conversations with friends about re-scheduling but of course it was, firstly to October 2020 which allowed me to maintain my training through Lockdown and Summer holidays, and then when it became clear things were not going away it moved again to October 2021, meaning it would be almost exactly two years between getting my place and taking part – if it actually went ahead at all!
The next 12 months brought even more complexity, from The Good: a new baby in the family, fantastic for motivation but putting a bit of a dent in my to training plans – to The Bad: the ongoing lockdowns all but confining me to my hometown and really testing the limits of how many times I could do the same run again and again – and of course The Ugly: a foot injury and rehab plan that kept me out of trainers for nearly two months during what would have been peak training season.
Fundraising was equally tough, having to ask people for support during difficult times for everyone, for a race that I was not even sure when – or if – it would actually go ahead. Fortunately I had huge support, from both my large family, friends and work colleagues, and particularly from a certain anonymous donor (you know who you are!) and I am pleased to say that at time of writing I have surpassed my target, with my employer even matching the first £500 of funds, meaning the charity will receive vital support, which ultimately is what the event is all about.
Choosing and packing kit for an event like this alone could take up a whole other blog, with months spent reading reviews, buying and testing the most comfortable, least painful and best priced equipment. Trainers were already in the bag, having settled on a decent set of Sauconys at running show last year, although the lockdown extensions meant I was now on my second pair. Likewise my ‘lucky’ running shorts and faithful Garmin were already tried and tested. Non-runners might find it odd that socks turned out to be one of the most important tests, but I found a really good, if expensive pair of blister free compression socks with fancy raised dots which I never quite understood, but after extensive testing actually did work well, more than making up for the £20 price tag. The toughest though was my choice of top, and fortunately my sponsors sent me a lovely Cancer Research running vest at the last minute, with lettering for my name to make me feel like a real celebrity, which alongside my running backpack turned out to be both the best and worst parts of the day… but more on them next time.
Even headphones were not straightforward, as with more than a few hours in the build up plus half a day of running I had severe battery life anxiety for both my Powerbeats and phone, which not only led me to panic buy a second pair of wireless headphones as backup, but a power bank and even to dust off an old iPod shuffle for the warm up to conserve power. The question of ‘to music or not to music’ during a major race like this is a whole other topic, which again I will discuss next time, but either way I wanted to be ready.
Fortunately nutrition was the one area I was comfortable on, having completed plenty of longer races including three half-iron distance triathlons and two 100 mile bike sportives, so after a bit of a play about in my warm up race in Worcester last month, I was happy with my choices of Hi Five & SIS gels, USN cookies, Lucozade drinks and good old malt loaf slices, all of which I knew would keep me going through the distance without any major dramas.
Then just two weeks before the race date, my Dad sadly passed away – ironically due in part to the very illness I was fundraising for. I can’t really put into words here how this affected me as I am quite a private person, but suffice to say that after initially questioning whether I should even go ahead with the race, it ended up motivating me even more to get there and continue fundraising for him – a really tough decision in the situation, but one I know he would have been proud of me for, and the thought of him supporting me along the way definitely kept me going.
Back to the race, the final matter was the logistics involved with actually getting to one of the largest races in the world, taking place over 100 miles away. To make it harder I needed to be there the day before to register, meaning at least two nights away from my family. Fortunately I know the locations well from work, and after moving my original hotel booking twice I got a room just minutes from the expo, and a few miles from the start line. But of course that was not everything, as the week before the race we had a national fuel crisis, which meant even more back up plans of how to actually get there in the event I could not drive, so emergency plans were put in place involving multiple trains right up to the last minute, until I stumbled on a fuel station which actually had some diesel the evening before I needed to go down.
After all that planning, things could not have gone any more smoothly in the build up: the roads were fairly empty (partly due to the ongoing shortages!), the hotel check-in was fine, as was the expo despite the fact I did not manage to find any good running merch or kit to blow my cash on (probably for the best as a golden rule is never wear new kit in a race), and I even found time for a pre-race pizza carb fest before relaxing in the cinema to the new Bond film: the perfect build up to the race – but more on that next time!
Chile Challenge 