Marathon Man

I did it, I have signed up to do a marathon. Now for the interesting work

Published by Steve Foreman on Oct 21, 2021

After writing a recent article entitled ‘Inspired to run a marathon?’, I have decided that, yes, I am. Now is the time and I have signed up for the Brighton Marathon. Regular readers will know that I have been living with cancer for the last nine years, and as my latest scan has shown that everything is stable, there is no reason I can’t run a marathon, other than it being 26.2 miles long!

As Boldie’s we always preach that we should be making the most of life and age should not stop us from doing anything. On a personal level, running a marathon has been on my to do list for years, I have just been waiting for the right time. Training for a marathon is a big commitment, you can’t just arrive on the day and hope for the best. A minimum of 16 weeks is required to train, longer if your fitness levels are relatively low, that’s a lot of running. I have realised, that as with so many things, waiting until ‘the time is right’, just means I’ll be waiting forever. So, after a deep breath, the time is now. I want to prove to myself that I can run a marathon.

The furthest I have ever run is a half marathon and that was many, many years ago. I recently completed a 10k charity fun run, but that’s only ¼ of a marathon. To keep me accountable, I am telling everyone I know. My personality means that I couldn’t cope with having to tell everyone that I didn’t complete it or indeed gave up halfway through my training. I am also running with my eldest son, who is 26 years younger than me. Hopefully, we can motivate each other, when we have to run during the cold and dark winter months.

I am also raising money for a local cancer charity. Whilst receiving immunotherapy treatment every three weeks, this charity helped me a great deal. They were able to come to my place of work to take blood samples, saving me a minimum of a 3 hour round trip to the Oncology department. They were also there as a friendly face and support network. It my only sound like a small thing, but when you are at your lowest anything that makes life more bearable is a big deal. The charity relies solely on donations, so I hope to be able to repay them in an exceedingly small way by raising so much needed funds.

Now everyone knows my plan, I can’t back out! Keep an eye out for related articles, I may not be the only Boldie that has signed up for a marathon! We’ll keep you up to date with how the training goes……..