Luke Goodman writes:
There are many reasons that people run marathons, from going for a specific time to the challenge of the distance and everything else in between. There have been occasions in the past where I have run a marathon for a time, and maybe that is something I will look at doing again in the future. For the past couple of years though running a marathon has taken on a different meaning for me. It has been about the community aspect that has really driven me on.
There is nothing like travelling to a city and rocking up for a marathon to then bump into someone unexpectedly. That is the great thing about marathons and the running community – you’re never alone. A great example of this is when I ran Newport Marathon. After finishing the race I had a quick turnaround before getting a train to meet up with Caz and the boys for a holiday. Needing a bit of salt after the marathon, off to McDonalds I went for a quick bite before heading to the station. And who should I bump into but none other than podium finisher Melissah! It was great seeing a friendly face after the race and Melissah was loving her Red McDonalds looking T shirt we got as you can clearly see
The community aspect of the marathon running community is something that cannot be underestimated. There are times when you might not feel like running or maybe being injured and not able to run, but that doesn’t matter. Everyone is welcome regardless of speed, background etc and everyone comes together as one. A great example of this is the huge flock of people that went to Seville last year to celebrate Pete Mizzi’s 100th marathon. It was a great example of how running can bring everyone together and be a great support network for many people. We all had a lot of fun that weekend, with one of the highlights of everyone donning masks for Pete’s face to surprise him around the 40km mark.
People often ask me what my favourite marathon is. It is hard to select just one as each one holds different memories and all have a special place in my heart. I guess though my favourite marathon would have to have been Copenhagen in 2019. It wasn’t a great run by me, in fact it was my slowest marathon as I wasn’t feeling well. But what made it so memorable was the fact that it was Caz’s first marathon! Caz had only joined the beginners a couple of years earlier and if you had told her then that she would be running a marathon a couple of years later I’m sure she would have laughed so hard she’d had peed herself. But run it she did. She pushed her boundaries of what she thought was possible and had an amazing time and did incredible. I was (and am) very proud of her. There were several highlights for Caz that day, with one being during the race when Sweet Caroline came on around the 8 mile mark. She started dancing along and singing without a care in the world.
Another was after the finish and going and putting her feet in the water afterwards to cool down.
So there are just a few thoughts of what makes a marathon so special to me. It is something that I hope to be able to continue doing in the years ahead, I’ll just have to hope that my body holds together long enough.
In terms of training, I have slowly started to up my distances and reached double figures for miles run in a week for the first time in over a year. I ran to Northala parkrun and then ran with Alan and Alix, who both helped get me around. Oliver lowered his pb to just over 20 minutes and no doubt it will be under in no time at all. Harry got a pb and continues to keep on lowering his times. Caz ran her fastest 5k in years despite not having run much recently, so I am sure if she runs a little more her times will continue to drop quickly also. All in all a great morning for us.
Prior to London I am hoping to get a double digits run or two in, but if I don’t I am not too worried as I know that the atmosphere and support and the community of runners will get me around.