Running a marathon is tough. But I think trying to help a team of runners prepare for a marathon is possibly even more challenging. You might agree come the end of this post.

First of all let’s start by celebrating the amazing achievements this weekend.

Caz Hall and Louise Weatherly both completed their first marathons, thus recording PBs (naturally) in the process. Sarah Marzaioli bagged GFA for 2025 and Su Sparkes somehow broke the 5 hour barrier.

Caz first approached me way back in October or November, but when she injured her side getting dressed for a run (yes this happened apparently) the plan was put on hold.

Christmas and New Year passed and with her dressing skills (sorry Caz) improved it was time to get stuck into training. Despite the purchase of an ice bath, tired legs continued to provide problems during the preparation phase, but Caz battled on bravely.

She completed the Pier to Pier, Lydd 20, Hastings Half Marathon and then recorded a PB at London Landmarks 2 weeks prior to the big race. To ensure Caz was fit on race day there were some missed sessions along the way, but the ultimate goal was achieved with Caz crossing the line in 6:01:40, raising over £1600 for the Alzheimer’s Society in the process.

Su Sparkes was making great progress in her training until around 6 weeks prior to the race when an unfortunate incident at home saw her trip and crack her ribs on the stairs (I don’t believe it was whilst dressing).

After a trip to A&E and several weeks off training, Su and I decided to put the plan to one side and run more to feel. I’ll be honest, I had my doubts and questioned the sanity of running so soon after an injury. But if you know Su, she’s a pretty determined character and no matter what anyone said, there was no way she was missing the race.

To my astonishment, and I’m still amazed 24 hours on, Su got round the 26.2 miles in under 5 hours.  Given her preparation this is bonkers and proof of what is possible if you believe in yourself. Su was running in aid of Scope and has raised just shy of £1500.

I’m hoping Su will back on the Team soon with a new training plan and is able to avoid anymore unfortunate accidents in the home.

Sarah Marzaioli is a true gladiator and earlier in the year was close to her best form, when running under the hour at Chichester 10K. But the past few months have been a continual battle with injury and illness, one after the after that caused disruption to the training.

I think between us we ensured the training stayed on track and Sarah was able to complete some big races, that just a few days prior, she didn’t believe would be possible. On the day there were more issues with illness, but given her tenacity, combined with her experiencing of big marathons, Sarah crossed the line in an official time 5:00:09, but we are going with the Strava time of 4:57 thank you very much. That was good enough for 7th in her age category and also GFA entry into next years event.

Sarah has been running in aid of the RNLI and has currently raised over £1400.

The 4th and final member of the Team to complete London yesterday was Louise Weatherly. Obviously her path was smooth sailing right? Wrong! Completely wrong. It was just as Lou was running close to her peak, including a 19 minute improvement on her 2023 Pier to Pier time, that she had some devastating news.

After an MRI on a troublesome knee, she was told that long distances were off the cards, for good. Anything more than 60 mins of running was simply not an option going forward as it would cause complications with her knee.

This news came just a few weeks after winning a place in London in the Hastings Runners ballot. Pretty shit timing right? More positive news was to follow though as Lou sort a second opinion and this time the diagnosis was more forgiving, although running a marathon certainly wasn’t part of the advice.

But the opportunity to run such a prestigious event was too good to pass up and somehow Lou got round in 6:16:12 making some new celebrity friends along the route.

I’d also like to give Lindsey Jones a shout out. She’s been a regular at Tuesday efforts and the Sunday long run and I know a lot of the Team have become very fond of her positive attitude. She absolutely smashed it, with some excellent pacing throughout to cross the line in 4:28:40. Watch this space, but Lindsey may be an official part of the team soon. Lindsey has raised just shy of £2000 for Children with Cancer UK.

This just provides you some insight into the challenges that await runners (and coaches) when preparing for a marathon and if I’m totally honest, there’s a part of me that’s glad that part of the season is behind us, so we can focus on the shorter distances.

24 hours before London got underway Ellie Miller (33:29) and Matt Button (21:23) both ran PBs at Hastings parkrun. Matt recording his 4th PB in his last 6 attempts.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Cuckoo Trail on Sunday and Bedgebury parkrun on Saturday. You can check out my vlog here, like, subscribe and comment please, the idea being to get PB Runner and Team Orange known further afield.