I have always considered myself to be unlucky in ballots having entered the Wimbledon ballot every year for 20 years and never having won tickets. I've also had a number of rejections from London Marathon to date. I should have known my luck was turning when I won a £30 Bob's Cafe voucher at the Eagles Birthday quiz (which will now be used to buy a slap up brunch after a long training run). I can't begin to say how delighted I am to have won the ballot place and am so thankful to the club for giving me this amazing opportunity!
For those of you who don't know me I have been with the club for about 4 years, joining the beginners group in January 2014. My husband Daniel joined the club first and I found myself socialising with runners as he made friends. He decided to join a group of Eagles on a trip to Amsterdam and I went along to support. I found myself feeling a bit left out as all these people really seemed to love running whilst my experiences were bad memories of school cross country runs in North Yorkshire. I decided I needed to give this running lark another chance and signed up for beginners.
I amazed myself by actually enjoying it and have now completed a few half marathons which I really didn't think I'd ever do. Since then I've been volunteering with the beginners as often as I can to try and help inspire others to do things they never thought possible. And that's how I find myself here today.
Having been at mile 23 every year to cheer on various Eagles friends I have become more and more inspired to run a marathon and, being a slow runner, London stands out as the best option with the generous cut-off as well as being my home for the last 10 years. There were other options in the mix too as I really wanted 2018 to be my marathon year, but London was the stand out favourite.
I had planned to spend 2017 preparing myself for a 2018 marathon by training hard for Ealing Half and then building up from there so I was in a good place for starting marathon training in January. Unfortunately, things rarely go to plan, and after a really strong start with some great long runs with my training buddy Che and some seriously early starts in the hot weather, I injured my back in August.
I had to pull out of all my races in September and have been on limited mileage for the last few months while I attempt to recuperate. The problem is still with me but the pain is far more manageable now (most days). So after some debate with myself as to whether this was the right time for me to begin marathon training, I decided there would never be a perfect time and I should stick with my aspirations and enter the ballot. After all, I'm never lucky in ballots anyway....
So I was both shocked and delighted to hear my name called out at the Christmas party and promptly celebrated with a few too many glasses of prosecco. I woke up the next day a little worse for wear and with a 6 mile run in my schedule. Looking out of the window it appeared to be sleeting and pretty miserable outside and the temptation was to stay warm and cosy in front of the TV. Knowing I was about to embark on a serious training I decided I could not allow myself to start slacking on my training so I dragged myself out for one of the wettest, hardest runs of my life. I'm hoping that not all my training runs will be that hard!
I've been overwhelmed by the support and advice I've received so far from my lovely Eagle friends including offers to run with me even though I'm slower than most. I'm particularly delighted to have Wei-Hei on board as my coach as she has been part of my journey from the start, having been one of the runners on the Amsterdam trip who inspired me to take up running in the first place.
I finished up 2017 by completing my running goal of getting to 50 parkruns by the end of the year on 30th Dec (just made it!), so now it's time to focus on my 2018 goal of completing the London marathon.
This is not going to be an easy journey given my mileage drop in the last few months but I am determined to get to the finish line and can't wait to be on the other side of the fence at mile 23! Thank you so much for the opportunity!
