When the club announced that a place for the London marathon had been allocated to Brighton & Hove Front Runners and any members could put their name in a hat, I thought why not? I had already booked to run the Brighton marathon two weeks before and I had also booked a half Iron Man in May so I was focused on training for them at the beginning of the year.
The Christmas party approached and I was sipping my gin and tonic as Damo took the mic and announced the name for the London marathon next year representing the club is “Dave Farr”. I had a mixture of feelings all at once of excitement, anxiousness, fear and what am I going to do about the other events I’m booked into!
I soon was able to get my head around this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to run London and I’m going to take this training seriously so postponed my other events. A week after finding I had a place in the London marathon I came down with the ‘100’ day cough they were calling and it put my training out by over 6 weeks as every time I started running I was coughing endlessly and my chest was so tight.
Mid-January I was back on track, increasing my short runs in the week to 3 times and adding a longer run at the weekend. This time round I added strength training into the programme as well at the gym.
As the weeks progressed I felt pleased with the progress and I started to ramp up the miles by running with individuals for the long runs between 15-20 miles. Also, attending the Sunday long runs and adding a few miles to suit the training plan helped massively. Having individuals and the club with the long runs helped keep on track with all the training and I couldn’t have done it by myself.
Marathon day arrives and nerves kick in, the crowds are massive and the runners come in their hundreds all for different causes. I felt proud to be running for the club wearing my bright purple top and name displayed. The first mile and the crowd are shouting names and the buzz is amazing.
I felt all the training had paid off and soaked up the crowd. At mile 11, I met my friend for a quick photo and a bottle of Lucozade to give me an energy kick. I got to Tower Bridge which was just over halfway and the noise from the crowds was huge, with cameras and photographers everywhere. This was such a boost at this point. At mile 15 and knee pain started which I had not had before I saw a friend at mile 18 who was a runner and stopped to see if she could give any advice – keep running, she said you’ll do it! Not sure about this advice but it was good to see a friendly face. With the knee pain not going away I slowed down dramatically and had to stop and stretch several times. Knowing that I was no longer not going to come under 4 hours as I had with previous marathons I was concentrating on that finish line. Coming up to the Mall I knew the end was in sight and I could see Buckingham Palace in sight, 200 metres and the VIP’s were all cheering in their boxes looking warm and cosy. London marathon done in 4 hours and 14 minutes.
You never know what is going to happen on the day with any run and I said to myself that I will enjoy the day and soak up the sights of London and the crowds. I certainly did and would recommend it to anyone so put your name in the club ballot for a place in 2025 and they will support you all the way!
We decided we would start together to help get us through the initial jitters, and after setting off I found I was starting to relax into the experience and enjoying it. It was going to be a very hot day, and realising this early established my game plan of going much slower early on than I had initially planned, in order to conserve energy for later. It turned out to be a wise move, as faster runners that had gone ahead early were already starting to tire, and by mile 40 almost a third of the race field had dropped out, citing overheating and sickness. I was feeling pretty good all things considered, and running with Claire for the first 50 miles helped us to take our minds on how our bodies were feeling, tired and scorched by the hot sun. We managed to sing and chat rubbish to each other most of the way which was perfect for us, perhaps less so for our fellow competitors! Lovely Gary came out earlier in the day to see us and cheer us which was so kind of him and it really lifted our spirits, as we were both starting to really struggle at this point. 
At mile 76 in Housedean I devoured a Pasta pot I’d had dropped there which was honestly the most delicious thing ever at the time, and this gave me the push I needed to get to Southease at mile 82 where my friends were waiting at the aid station with cups of tea and a chair – delightful. This got me up to the top of Firle where I met my crew for the last time and had a quick warm-up in a blanket and some food before I chose to continue on for the last section alone, so I could decide what pace I wanted to do based on how I felt. 
