It's not about how fast you do it
If you want to break speed records get in a rocket car (or a rocket). Or run a 100m race. Marathons are not about these sort of records. Marathons are not even races, they are events. In what other "race" can you come in two hours and 20 minutes after the winner and still be stupidly, eternally thrilled. In what other "race" simply keeping going in your advanced years, where most people are pulling away from you and finishing in 5 hours, is more celabrated than finishing in under 4 hours. Being horribly slow is missing the point. Don't weigh up the speed; simply admire the endurance. Admire the human will to overcome obstacles.
Your training helps you understand, control and change the things you can. Especially your level of fitness. What you wear, your ability to drink water and take energy gels, what running form, shoes or temperature is best for you, how you breathe and so it goes. But primarily it helps you overcome the things you cannot control or change. Be it the weather, a cold on the race day or a disability. It gives you the ability to turn your disability into something that people can talk about and get inspired.
Last night the National Osteoporosis Society invited the 50 of us, running the London Marathon as a team, for a pub dinner and mainly to get to know each other. Considering there are other charities with 500+ runners, NOS is a very small, very unknown and very young charity. 10 of us turned up and boy what a night. We might not have the numbers of bigger and more well known and respected charities, but we have an inspiration among us. John was diagnosed with cancer 9 years ago (at his early 40s) and as a result of chemo couldn't walk. He set a target of walking for 3 mins at his back garden and then walked 3 miles. Since then he ran 100miles in under 24 hours in full military uniform for charity, lost both his cousins and wife, runs ultramarathons for charity, broke thye world record by running 400miles in 6 days and he will run with us on 21st of April at the Virgin London Marathon. Only, after we all finish he will continue for another 140 miles to Somerset and finish at his hometown in under two days. With a break of 15 mins per day for a sleep. I didn't believe it at first and neither did Nike or Garmin when he called them a few years back and asked for their kind sponshorsip for charity. They thought he couldn't do any of these distances. John uses running as a way to honour his lost family and fight cancer. He does it because it makes him feel alive.
There will always be reasons not to run. But there is no bigger reason to run than when somebody says you CANNOT walk. My dad used to tell me "there is no i cannot - only i will not". John repeated that to me last night. Below I have his story as he wishes to share it with people like you and me:
I n December 2003 while in Baths Royal United hospital I can remember feeling really worried and in a way slightly sorry for my-self after receiving radiotherapy for a thyroid condition after being told that the treatment was essential for my future well being.
Looking around trying not to think of the treatment I noticed some very young children who were receiving far more severe treatment and medication than myself and at such a very young age, this suddenly made me feel almost selfish for worrying about my condition .
In February 2004 I found myself virtually a prisoner in my own body after the body went into constant painful muscle spasms, swapping medication for determination, I managed to walk up the garden, a simple task that normally only takes a few minutes – now took hours, but I had achieved my goal.
A month later I could walk a mile, then 4 months on, through true determination and the will to fight so strongly for my future, I jogged / walked my first half marathon.
Thinking that I was fit and ok again I stopped the training, but the body started to shut down, by using running as my training source I managed to bring myself back to a comfortable level again.
With the close support of my two cousins, Stephen & Phil, I continued to run but after suddenly loosing Steve one evening in June 2006 to heart failure, I remembered a promise to him that I made, of one day running a full marathon.
On 29th October which would have been Steve’s next birthday I ran my first marathon, the only one that I could find for that that special date - the Snowdonia Marathon!
In 2006 Phil was diagnosed as having cancer, but during ongoing treatment trained with the will to run his first half marathon as part of his courageous fight, I promised him if he completed the half marathon I would run 100 miles because that would be the equivalent of what he was trying to achieve.
Sadly two weeks before the event we lost Phil to the cancer very suddenly. Carrying his race number over the finish line I felt that with all the training he had indeed more than ran the half, so I kept my promise and in April 2009 I ran 110 miles nonstop between 2 Children’s Hospices in 27 hours from Barnstaple to Bristol.
In May 2010 I pushed the boundaries even further by running 140 miles nonstop from Saltash in Cornwall to my home town of Radstock.
December 2010 I ran 225 miles over three days around Somerset.
May 2011 saw me run 300 miles from lands End to Bath in just under four days.
December 2011 I ran 370 miles in five days, again in circuits around Somerset.
In May 2012 I ran 440 miles in just over six days to break the world record. And then I had the great honour of carrying the Olympic torch through Frome later in the same month.
In November 2012 I managed to run 100 miles non - stop on Remembrance Sunday, from 40 commando unit at Taunton to Royal Wootton Bassett, in under 24 hours wearing full military gear including a 30lbs backpack.
My inspiration - remembering what it was like to turn my whole life around and experiencing so many people like the children in hospital that I saw and Phil who don’t give in but courageously fight so hard to try and achieve their goals.
My goal – to motivate people to join in some form of sport, both young and old and to show them that sometimes - impossible dreams can come true if you truly believe in them.
http://www.championrun.org.uk/
