After 15 years (first marathon 2007) I have completed my A-Z in memory of my brother Ian who died in 2006, I finished in Zagreb. I was emotional at the end

Me at the start a few hours before the run. It was due to be on Sunday morning but due to a cycle event, the marathon was moved to Saturday at 3 in the afternoon. First time for Jo & I (Jo is doing the half which sets off at the same time) to set off late afternoon.

                                                  

Working out what to eat was a challenge, I decided on a seafood risotto, which was massive (I had eaten half when photo was taken), the meal was really tasty.  

                                                    

Jo and I at the start, our apartment was so close to the start, we took this photo then went back to the apartment to drop off the phone. We were able to run the first half together Jo said she felt really good, I think I felt worse than Jo, then she finished and I had to do another lap or 13.1 miles to be precise. Jo ran 1h51min, it was a real pleasure running the first half with Jo, since having children going for a run together is something that does not happen very often.

That is me, Jo saw me (she was able to go back to or apartment for a shower) but I did not see her at this point, it was getting dark as you can see, it was a different experience finishing in the early evening.

At the finish, I finished in 3h 46min I was chuffed to bits, I got a bit emotional at 18/19 miles as I was tired but I was thinking about Ian and how finishing this challenge has been about raising money in his memory, Ian would have been 48 years old and I miss not been able to ask for advice from my older brother

A-Z complete 

 

Final marathon Zagreb

 WOW I have finally got there I am booked to do the Zagreb marathon, annoyingly the marthon has been moved from Sunday morning, to Saturday 1st October at 3pm, a late afternoon marathon that is a first for my final marthon 🙂

Letter J finally completed YEAH

 My letter J marathon has been one I thought I might never do. originally it was going to be Jersey but that is when I had a slipped disc and at one point I thought I would never run again. So J marathon was put on hold but I wanted to finish on Z so I needed to run my letter J, I decided on Jurassic coast marathon, it is a very hard 3 day event with a marathon each day along the Jurassic coast  from Charmouth to Shell Bay Swanage. You can run all three days or just do one. I decided to do day 2 Portland ferry Road to lulworth cove. I trained then covid stopped the event, then it was planned again so I trained and covid stopped the event again so I trained again and this time it went ahead on 24th July. I was very nervous, the training had not gone well, plus I live in a very flat area. on the day it could not have gone any better, it started out very grey and a bit wet but ended out being very hot. I ended up running most of the way with an amazing lady called Shelley. It was self navigating and on Portland we kept taking wrong turns, we had trackers so people could log on and see where we were, her husband kept ringing her phone when we took a wrong turn, at one point she said over the phone with a smile 'can you just let us get lost' Below are some photos taken on the day.

I did mot manage to get a photo at the end, It was such a lovely run I was very lucky with the weather as it got out hot I had not taken any sun tan lotion at one point I ran past a lady who was giving out sun lotion to her family, I asked if I could have some and then put my hand under the bottle and got some much needed sun lotion, Shelley who I was running with said 'She did not want to give you any did she' we both smiled as we ran away. We finished in 7 hours which I was really chuffed with. Now only Z left, most likely Zagreb in 2022

X Marathon completed

I was amazed to find an x marathon in Reading very near where I live. The only issue was a family wedding on the same day, which meant I had to run a 3:30 marathon and get changed quickly to make it in time for the marriage of my cousin. I ran the first half quickly as I was worried about time, and managed to hang on, slowing down but managed to finish in just over 3:30,  get changed and make the wedding. It was a lovely wedding. I now have 2 marathons left. Nearly there 🏃‍♂️🙂

August 2019 update

As you can see from above I completed my Ironman challenge. It was defiantly  an experience, I was particularly pleased with my marathon time. The bike course was tough with 9000FT of climbing with technical descents. Just to get around the course is an achievement. It is defiantly a one off experience.

My next marathon is my X it has been a challenge to find an event that I can afford, South China,  Florida, and Australia all had X marathons but out of my price range. There is an X-Ray marathon in Germany but it is a small event and I was struggling to enter event, I was beginning to think I was not going to be able to do X one last search and I found an X Run in Reading about 4 miles from my front door, it is a lap run I will need to do 8 laps to complete marathon distance but I will take that so all being well I will have completed 24 marathons by Oct this year

Q marathon completed YEAH

23rd Marathon completed the Queen Elizabeth Park marathon near Portsmouth. I have been training really hard partly as I have an iron-man triathlon on 14th July, hence I ran a time I am really chuffed with 4 hours and 3 minutes for a hilly marathon total climb equivalent of climbing Snowdon.

The marathon was really well organised and I was very lucky with the weather. My parents came to support, they said that went to the country park when I was younger, when we lived in Southampton where I was born, we moved to Yorkshire when I was three so I do not remember visiting the park. My parents took the photos below

At 16 miles 

Finish YEAH

Me and my Mum I am wearing my medal but it is hard to make out

I can not believe I have run 23 marathons. while running I sometimes do simple maths and I worked out while running that 26.2 miles x 4 is 104.8 miles so I really wanted to get to 5 miles so that I was under 100 miles to go on my A-Z challenge. 3 more marathons to go.

V marathon completed

My Mum and Dad travelled to Birchington on Sea to see me set off at 7am for the Viking Trail marathon

 

The run was flat along the coast, hot and 6 mile loops

My dad and I at the finish

As you can probably see it was a hot day, when I arrived home I felt terrible and am sure I had heat stroke. I finished in  just under 4 1/2 hours. The final lap of 6 miles I used as recovery I could have kept pushing but would have finished and felt terrible and probably not been able to walk and been in all sorts of pain. It was a mentally hard run. beautiful scenery but running out to a gate and turning round and running back 4 times was very tough, but I finished YEAH marathon 22, 4 more to do.