Start line at Salisbury, Sunday 1 October 2023
JJ, Di, Andy, Fran, Alice
I didn’t like running at school. Team sports were my thing: netball, hockey and, later, rowing. I loved that team spirit! But as I got older, work and family life got in the way and made it harder to commit, so I headed to the gym and ran infrequently to keep fit.
Fast forward a few years, and with my 40th birthday looming I was looking for a challenge. Walking through Salisbury one day I saw a poster in the Barnado’s shop window inviting people to sign up for the London Marathon. I got a charity place for the 2003 race, asked friends and family to sponsor me rather than buying birthday gifts, and got training!
This was going well until, six weeks before the marathon, I developed a groin strain. I lined up with a niggling ache that quickly descended into acute pain. I was devastated. I struggled on and came in just before the cut-off in 6:59. I couldn’t walk for three days after that, and it was nine months before I ran again!
Life took a downturn. My marriage failed, I had to move house and I lost my job. Running became a lifeline. Being out on the trails provided some much-needed headspace and helped me cope with the stress – also, it’s something you can do whenever you get half an hour spare – just stick on your trainers and head out! I was advised to join a running club, and signed up to Romsey Road Runners (and, later, to Salisbury AC & RC). The best move ever! It gave my training some structure and I met a wonderful community of people. Who would ever have thought heading out on a wet, cold Monday evening in January would be something to look forward to?!
Two years or so later, and my running was improving. I started to overtake some of my club idols! I decided to have another crack at a marathon. In May 2012, nearly a decade after my first marathon, I lined up for my second in Prague. As ever the master of the positive split, I got carried away by the atmosphere and went off much too fast – but kept running and came in at 03:45:38. Looking back, I still can’t quite believe I did that. It was, and remains, my lifetime’s best and one of the achievements I am proudest of.
That time earned me a ‘Good for Age’ place at London 2013. Life, however, got in the way again and, recovering from a rotated pelvis (dog to thank for that!) I came in at 04:14.
I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder shortly after, and running again became a lifeline. When I felt my pulse racing, I would stick on my shoes and RUN - sometimes at night, as my daughters were young, it would be a 400-metre circuit around the house, which I could do in under three minutes (good hill training). When they were older, I would head out on to the trails, once surprising the local constabulary at 3am when a head torch and large black dog in a hi-vis bandana appeared out of the dark! Running didn’t solve life’s problems, but it calmed the panic and made things manageable. I never went anywhere without my trainers!
But my times were continuing to head in the wrong direction, and running started to become another stress. Then, in the ubiquitous loo queue at a race one day, I found myself behind a couple of women in colourful tops and tutus, clearly there to enjoy the day. We got talking and I heard, for the first time, of the 100 Marathon Club. A game-changer! I could do this. Stop looking at the time and start enjoying the scenery and company.
Since then, I have run on the Great Wall of China, up the Las Vegas strip at night, in Budapest and all around the UK. I have fallen in bogs on Exmoor and climbed mountains in Wales, run to Avebury at night and through tidal rivers by day. I have made many friends and had some great adventures. I am so grateful to the race organisers who make these trail runs possible – Endurancelife, Big Feat, Second Wind, Crooked Tracks, White Star, And-Over Trail, the LDWA... – and all the amazing volunteers who are the life-blood of these runs.
At last year’s Clarendon I finally completed the challenge and joined the 100MC (100 Marathon Club). What a wonderful day! I ran with friends, my daughters and their partners chased us down as a relay team, and a couple of non-running friends who were desperate to join in walked the 5-mile race, so it was quite a party at the finish! Huge thanks to JJ and all the Clarendon team for providing a perfect ending to this adventure.