It’s the night before what would have been the 2020 London Marathon.
Actually I hadn’t planned to do it this year, instead was supporting my sister on her second marathon journey (rather than the other way round for a change!).
That being said, that ‘night before’ feeling is not unusual to me, and actually feels like somewhat of a norm. I have run London 9 times (or is it 10, I can’t remember) and is a marathon very close to my heart. Many an evening before, I have written something on social, be it as a tragic case of the last minute inability to run or as a comeback ‘fuck ya’ following surgery, or just as an opportunity to raise some money for a charity or to push for a PB.
This year is off the scale mad, the Covid pandemic has put paid to everything for everyone.
It’s that time of year I have Facebook memories pop up constantly of marathons past, each one with its own story. The most recent one I did 2 years ago. We think that’s maybe where the MS (unbeknown to us then of course) jelly legs really took off! It was the hottest on record, I remember struggling like no other and pretty much having to crawl to the end, and as a result and much to my massive annoyance didn’t get within the Good For Age bracket for the first time in quite a few years.
Good For Age, for those that aren’t marathon au fait, is a bracket of allowed finish time for certain ages that means you can get a guaranteed place for a marathon such as London. It is notoriously hard to get in via the ballot, unless your Sarah Allcock who with a chance of 25 to 1, got in 2 years running - something a lot of runners would be extremely jealous of! Anyway you need to prove you have done a marathon in this specific time to get your guaranteed place. Something I managed to blag probably for the 8 or 9 times!
Even though my legs struggled to go forward towards the end of that marathon, rather than MS in the equation, we put it down to the extremely hot conditions, the fact that most others were way off their predicted times, and that I recovered reasonably fast again. In fact, I can’t be sure I even spoke about it massively to anyone.
Anyway, not here to talk MS really, I am talking about the lack of marathons tomorrow and to plea we get together and try and help the hundreds of charities that are losing out from the events that are currently not talking place, and the millions of pounds that they are down from us good people not putting ourselves out there to raise some money.
TwoPointSixChallenge.co.uk has been started by the London Marathon, pleading with the country to do the 2.6 challenge to help save our UK charities. It can be any activity, from running to swing balling 26 times, just something to fundraise some cash no matter how small.
Tomorrow, Neil and I, Flo and Michael will be doing a team marathon row in our separate homes. I can’t really run far at the moment, so will join Neil on his rowing adventure, and together we’ll hit 26.2 miles. I’ll be donating some money to the MS Society, feel free to join me or to choose your own.
It’ll be a sad day tomorrow, not being able to even watch on TV, so please get involved with your own thing and I might even live feed a little bit of ours.
Well done to the ever incredible Ed Jackson, who walked Everest up and down his own staircase, 5566 flights (89,056 individual steps) raising over £41K and counting for Wings for Life (searching for a cure for spinal cord injury) and the Forever Friends Appeal in support of the NHS. And we all know about Captain Tom Moore’s 100th. Birthday walk - almost £29 million as it stands - so many inspiring people.
Tomorrow is 26 April like you’ve never had it before, it’s the ‘same same’ but very different. Do something amazing, even if it’s 26 burpees and a pound donation.
I’ll be back running the London Marathon one year soon, giving MS the massive finger. In the meantime, we’re still “taking each day as it comes”.
See you tomorrow fellow everyday warriors. :)
Han xx
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