My London Marathon 2022 experience – by Amy Thomas
I’ve always said I wanted to run the London Marathon and do it before I was 40yrs old. I used to go and watch at my friend’s house on Shooter’s Hill Road and seeing everyone’s smiling faces with their names on their tops or messages to loved ones or names of those they were dedicating or running in aid of always brought me to tears and every year as soon as the ballot would open I’d apply. And I’ve never got a place.
I turned 40 last November and set myself a few ‘goals’ or typical bucket list type things and one was to run the marathon. I work at Demelza Hospice Care for Children in Eltham and when they asked me if I would run in aid of them I couldn’t say no. So, in February this year I signed on the dotted line so to speak and started a ridiculously long training plan. I like to be over prepared for things. So not technically before I was 40, but it’s in my 40th year!!
Luckily, I had 2 fellow school mums who also decided this was going to be their year too! One of them, Katie, only really started running during lock down and had just recently completed the Cambridge half marathon. She was running for Macmillan as she has a family member currently fighting cancer and my other friend Liz had run the marathon many moons ago and wanted to run it this year as it was the 20th anniversary of her dad passing away and she wanted to help raise some funds for the Royal Marsden.
I have run 3 half marathons before, and one was when I was raising money for my local primary Mead Road Infants. So, I’m not too unfamiliar with longer distances but I wasn’t really prepared for what I was about to do.
This October marathon was going to the last year (thanks to Covid) that it would be in October. So it was the last time you’d be able to train for it in the summer months. I’ve heard many miserable stories of people getting up at 6/7am on a cold, wet Jan/feb morning to go and run 16 miles. I couldn’t think of anything worse. I’m such a fair weather runner. So training for this one we were all able to top up our tans training! (you have to find positives in all situations). It did mean training over the school summer holidays which wasn’t ideal but we made it work and even managed a little camping holiday together to the Dorset coast and ran along some beautiful scenery. It made a change from the Scadbury, Hawkenbury, Orpington and Petts Wood routes we can now all run with our eyes closed.
Many of these runs were great form of therapy! Running is a great way to catch up, unload and destress and when you know you have to run for 1.5hrs it’s great to be able to do it with friends rather than a podcast (although there was much talk of these too – Parenting Hell being a favourite. We even bumped into Rob Beckett on one of our runs too and had our photo with him).
It’s crazy now that a half marathon to me seems like a fairly short run. We all commented that we all at some point said, ‘I only have to do 14 miles today’ or ‘I only have to do a 2hr run’!!! It’s crazy to think of this as ‘only’…
I didn’t really comprehend how far running even 16 or 17 miles is. To put into context, one run I did, was from Chislehurst, through Orpington and over to Farnborough village, up into Downe, through Cudham, over to Knockholt, then Badgers Mount, down Polhill and into Otford! I mean that’s sounds so far away and yet the marathon was still another 10 more miles on top of this!
All the training plans have a 19/20 miler to do. It’s the longest one in the plan and we made ours fit with the London Half at the beginning of September, by running 6 miles before starting that (again something else we thought we’d never do and be one of those runners, running to the start of the race)… we did see some of these on our way to the marathon start line too ! Crazy people!!!
We are lucky to have some amazing, sporty friends who also love a run and a chat and with the help of Harriet from Amos Personal Fitness and Sarah J Hamilton (SJHamilton Art) they helped us cross that finish line! That felt immense and the thought of doing another 6 or 7 miles on top of this for the real thing filled us with fear. Everyone says the last 6 miles of a marathon the crowds carry you round so I had this in the back of my mind and pretty much just trusted this.
The actual marathon week is whole kettle of fish I also wasn’t prepared for. It’s all consuming. Constantly worrying you’re going to get injured, staying away from anyone with a slight cold or cough, trekking all the way to Excel to pick up my race bib and trying not to buy anything new at the Expo … this was hard, trusting in the plan and not doing more than 2 or 3 miles. When I’ve been doing 30 or 40 a week, that’s actually quite hard to do.
Then the day before!
The food, making sure your carb loading, getting the right amount of fluid, getting enough sleep, packing your kit bag! There’s a lot to think about and when you also have your daughter’s 10th birthday, conveniently being the same weekend, you have to make everything work and juggle many balls.
We had a marathon WhatsApp chat and it exploded over those few days with all kinds of questions and nerves and chat!! Especially when the good old English weather predicted torrential rain! (Which never came thank the lord). That just added a whole new dimension and a lot of added stress! But it all really helped not only us, but our marriages, as our husbands were so bored by this point of the constant questions… we all calmed each other down!
Race Day
We had all amazingly been given the same holding pen for the start and were within a few minutes of each other to start. So, we headed to Blackheath and Katie and I started in much the same as every other long run that we had done together! Although this was it! The enormity I don’t think even now has really settled in. We were very conscious of pace and being swept up in adrenaline of it all, so started at what felt like walking pace (although 24 miles in I was much much slower than even this)…. It made such a difference to have friends and family along the route. It really helped, it gave you something to focus on knowing where and when they might be and looking out for them. It was exciting to begin with and then the further along you go the more it was just an actual relief to see a supportive face, let out a few tears and to get some words of encouragement.
Running the marathon doesn’t just affect your life, it affects everyone around you. Those closest to you, literally live and breathe it as much as you, without doing any of the running and it was really nice to also share the day with them. For them to witness what all the training was for. Especially for our children. It was lovely to see them cheering us on, shouting out ‘Go Mummy’ and ‘You’re nearly there, not long now’ ,‘We Love you’. All of our children are at an age where we want to set good examples and I can’t think of a better one than training and running a marathon. There’s so much grit, determination and perseverance that goes with it. My youngest always would say, ‘Why are you bothering, if it hurts that much?’ or ‘Why are you getting up so early?’ And I would always say, ‘Because I’ve made a promise to myself and to Demelza. I’m running this to raise money for the charity that will help so many families (My just giving page by the way is -https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/amyt-lm2022) and I want to prove to myself that I can do something that I never thought possible’.
And I did. We all did. Liz, Katie and I. We all did what we thought we never could. And that speaks volumes!
It was an amazing experience, it was hard. Really, really hard. I’m not that emotional but this has really broken me down. I cried literally every time I saw someone I knew. I cried at all they lovely things I saw along the route, all the support, the cheers, the music. It’s just a whole day of love really! As cheesy as it sounds!
My top tips would be:
- Defo factor in some kind of strength/weight training. I didn’t do enough of this and regret it.
- Defo plan your runs in advance and your routes and ideally find a friend who can do it with you. It’s much more enjoyable.
- Don’t walk. I did for a little (to drink the Lucozade they put in cups, which is really hard to drink and run) but when you start walking its then it’s really hard to start running again.
- I’d also say turn your music off or down low, I missed a few people because I zoned out at some points and listened to my music.
- Take paracetamol. That was an eye opener for me! It was the first run I’d used it on and it really really helped.
- I didn’t use any of the stuff I freaked out about to put in my kit bag! So don’t over think that! And don’t look at the weather forecast!!!
- I’d also say if you don’t put any pressure on yourself or a time you can enjoy it more. You can stop to hug your friends and run across the road to get to them, it doesn’t matter. Harriet told me planning to run a marathon is a bit like a birthing plan. It’s nice to have but don’t worry if it all goes out the window. I had pace and times written on my hand but by mile 18 I was 15/20 mins behind schedule, so I just had to let it go. I couldn’t physically do anymore or run any faster so I just enjoyed it as much as I could.
As I sit here now, unable to navigate my staircase and unsure about how I am going to get off the sofa (thinking I may turn to my side and reverse up and sideways) I’m not 100% sure I’m in the best frame of mind to recommend running a marathon, but looking back at what in have achieved does blow my mind and I do find myself thinking what’s next? Maybe a triathlon??? The London Classics medal maybe? But currently I’m right back at where I was with this marathon, there’s no way I could cycle 100 miles… or swim 2 miles or could I????
If you would like to donate to Demelza Hospice Care for Children, please click on Amy’s Just Giving Page HERE
