Soooo as the title suggests I decided to run a marathon during lockdown! Why? Because I wanted to help my sister raise money for Coppa Feel which is an incredible breast cancer awareness charity. This marathon however was slightly different as I decided to make it even more challenging and run up and down my street 262 times. Don’t worry I did question my sanity several times before and during!
Before the marathon I measured out my street and found out that luckily it was exactly 0.10 of a mile which made calculating the distance pretty easy and I knew straight away that I would need to run up and down my street 262 to take me to 26.2 miles!
I didn’t plan to do this weeks ahead I literally decided a couple of days before that I was going to do it on Friday 8th May. That may sound mad and pretty stupid but I run almost everyday and I knew I could cover the distance. The once thing I wasn’t too sure about was whether or not my mind was going to stay focused with the same scenery for over 4 hours!
Friday 8th May was VE Day and it was set to be a very hot day. Leading up to the 8th it did say it was going to be cloudy which I was chuffed about. but this was not the case at all! Seeing as the 8th May was a bank holiday I decided to post a note through my neighbours doors letting them know that this was my plan and I would very much appreciate it if they gave me a cheer!
I started running at 8am in the morning as I figured that it wouldn’t be too hot at this time and it also meant I would finish just after midday (hopefully). As I started running up the road I noticed a huge sign on the floor and at first I assumed it was a VE Day sign but it wasn’t it was a sign for me that my lovely neighbours had written in chalk! I was completely taken aback and that gave me even more determination!
My dad was out the entire time counting my laps making sure I was on track! He was also handing me water, gels and my sweat towel when I needed them all laid out on a table hah!
By the time 10 o’clock came round I had ran just over 13 miles and lots of our lovely neighbours were hanging out there windows or in their front gardens cheering me on! We then had the 2 minutes silence at 11 o’clock and I was up to 18 miles but I sat on the side of the road out of respect before carrying on again.
I am not going to lie the last 6 miles were tough, it was super hot and I was getting tired. I knew I could do it though and for the last 62 laps I plugged my music in (throwback of course) and just got my head down!
Crossing the finish line was just amazing, on my last couple of laps ALL the neighbours were out cheering me, clapping and we even had a horn going it was just amazing!!! During the race we had neighbours from adjacent roads pop by and donate money which was just so sweet of them, so many people wondered what I was doing running backwards and forwards!
I felt so proud of myself after finishing and raising over £800 for my sister and Coppa Feel! If you have a challenge in mind but you aren’t sure about it you should honestly just go for it! You won’t regret it and you will feel incredible afterwards! After the race we had a street social distancing tea party in our front gardens with scones, pimms and champagne, which was just delightful!
