I Ran the London Marathon…and It Changed Me More Than I Expected

I can’t believe another year has come around and the London Marathon 2026 is happening this Sunday, the 26^th of April!

I was reflecting on my experiences of doing the London Marathon in 2023 and 2024. I was lucky enough to get a ballot spot both years and they were the most amazing experiences! Running over Tower Bridge, and seeing the sights of London, I worked in Canary Wharf at the time and it was so fun to see it in a different light and run past my office.

So, if you are doing the London Marathon for the first time, I’m so excited for you, it will be epic. I wanted to share my experience in case it helps you as you prepare.

I imagine there may be some nerves, as well as excitement, thinking about your meal the night before, will I get enough sleep, and what you’ll have before the start of the race, how much water, gels, chews, and electrolytes you’ll have along the route, and a sense that you need to get it done in the perfect time.

I want to remind you though that doing a marathon in itself, is a huge achievement. You’ve done the training, you’ve committed to something most people won’t, so you are ready and you have absolutely got this.

When I told a friend that I was doing the London Marathon the first time, she informed me that only 1% of people completed one in their lifetime, which I didn’t appreciate at all, and thought that couldn’t be right. It seemed that everyone I spoke to was a runner and had run a marathon or were training for a marathon, all the Instagram posts seemed to talk about running, and all I seemed to hear was about running or marathons. That’s the power of our reticular activating system. When we consciously think of something, our subconscious mind goes to work. It’s like when we are looking to buy a car and suddenly you see that car everywhere!

Anyway, I’m not sure where the stat comes from but it’s widely shared that about 1.1m people globally finish a marathon each year, which is 0.01% of the global population. Fewer than 1% of people will ever complete one in their lifetime, so when you cross the London Marathon finish line, no matter how sore you are and what time you did it in, remind yourself, you’ve done something that 99% of humans never will.

Savour that feeling and enjoy the medal, you’ve earned it!

I’d always liked the thought of running the London Marathon, it seemed like it was something to tick off and I remember in 2019, thinking it would be good to do something epic in 2020, as it was a big birthday for me. I had not run since school, so it seemed a bit far fetched but I definitely considered it. It so happened that an opportunity came up for me to climb Mount Kilimanjaro instead, which, by some miracle, I managed to summit on the 5^th of March 2020, as we all know what happened next.

Anyway, I discovered vision boards in December 2020, and in my 2021 vision board, under “Health”, the three goals I’d written were:

• To run the London Marathon

• To exercise 6 days a week

• To practice Pilates and Yoga

Reading these back now, it’s very strange, as the only thing I was doing at that point in time was exercising six days a week and dabbling in Pilates. I hadn’t started running or doing yoga yet but for some reason, I’d written these.

I started to do yoga in January 2021 and then began running in February 2021. There was no way I was ready to take on a marathon, but it was on my vision board. However, by taking the first step of saying, this is what you’d like to happen, even if it does sound impossible, it puts something in your subconscious, which makes you want to act on it.

By beginning these two things, I had no idea where they would lead. As you can probably guess, I didn’t do a marathon in 2021, but I did complete a few 10Ks, which were achievements in themselves. However, later that year, I got a ballot place for the London Landmarks Half Marathon in April 2022. This was after entering because a friend said I should try, not really knowing anything about it! Ironically, I got a place, but unfortunately, my friend didn’t!

I then went on to do the Oxford Half Marathon in October 2022, following some health issues that I’d had for the majority of the year, so not really being able to train anywhere near as much, as I had done the previous Half Marathon. I was extremely proud of myself and again, it was amazing to see this city from a different perspective.

I had entered the London Marathon ballot at the beginning of October 2022 thinking, wouldn’t it be great to do, having done two half marathons this year? I thought, at least I now had some experience of running, but I knew a marathon was another level, a completely different ball game, and I wondered if I was actually ready for that.

I knew the chances of getting a ballot slot were fairly slim but applied anyway, after thinking you needed to be in it to win it, and about a week after doing the Oxford Half, I found out I’d got in!!! I was going to do the London Marathon in April 2023! What?!!!

The cynic in you may say the vision board didn’t work because it was on my 2021 board, and this wasn’t until 2023, but it goes to show, that things tend to happen when you are ready and prepared for them and not necessarily in our own timing. I probably would have struggled to do a marathon in 2021, as I hadn’t even started running, in hindsight, it was a bit of a pipe dream but it set the wheels in motion.

If you would indulge me here, I want to tell you a bit about the experience of running a marathon, as I think it shows the commitment, focus, clarity and awareness that you get from being alcohol free and understanding what you’re capable of that helps you to achieve anything.

As I’ve described, my marathon journey started way before I even got a ballot slot. I had been running regularly for a year and a half or so, which had become a great way to relax. It made me feel good, gave me time to think, and just started to become a habit, which I missed if I didn’t do it, but the real training started 18 weeks before the big day.

I had committed to doing a marathon training plan, which was five days of running a week, including three recovery runs, one speed run and a long run. At the start, I thought I’d do something similar to the London Landmarks Half Marathon training, I’d run five days a week for the first month or so and then go down to three days.

However, as the weeks went by, I committed to doing all five runs each week and stuck to this, which looking back, I’m not sure how I managed it. I started training in mid-December, so as you can imagine, I ran in the snow, the rain, the wind and all other weather in between. I ran when I was feeling under the weather. I even ran on a treadmill for a few times when I was travelling for work in India, which I never did, just to ensure I got my five runs in that week. Having flown back, I then did a 75-minute run and a 30k run that weekend!

I’ve always been determined and through the work I do now, I now know there are many parts of my Human Design that show this. I’ve also achieved quite a lot in my life, so this is a trait of mine. However, since becoming alcohol free in November 2020, I have found it’s so much easier to commit and dedicate myself to something and really go after it.

Over the course of the plan, I completed 90 runs, including the London Marathon and covered a distance of 738km!!! When I see this written down on paper, that is a lot of runs, but with anything, I just took each day at a time and trusted the process. The first run was 10 mins, and it built up from there, so being present in the moment and focusing on what I needed to do now, as opposed to thinking about running a marathon in 18 weeks was helpful.

By the end, the longest runs I had completed were two 30km and one 32km runs. Although, one of those weeks, I only needed to do a 26.2km run instead of a 30km run, but a friend of mine who is a marathoner and Iron Man finisher encouraged me to do 30km, so I did!

All in all, I learned a lot about myself through this experience. I am so grateful, as it helped me truly appreciate my body and health. I realised I could run quite happily in the rain, and in a strange way, it was quite enjoyable. I learnt about fuelling properly with gels and chews, plus using electrolytes effectively to replenish the salt you lose from sweating, and then the big day arrived.

There was a lot of hanging around, and my Husband and Daughter escorted me to the start, which was much appreciated. I was feeling nervous but excited. After all the work, I knew I was ready and thought I’d be able to do it, but the unknown, having never done a marathon before, made me wonder if I truly could.

As we were waiting for me to eventually head to my wave, it started to rain, but it was fairly light, so I thought it would stop. Anyway, I said goodbye to my family, headed to the wave, then the heavens opened, and it poured. To say we were drenched in heavy rain before we even started was an understatement, but as I mentioned earlier, I’d trained in the rain, which was a blessing, so it didn’t bother me, although I hoped it would stop soon.

I crossed the starting line and was off! It didn’t really sink in that I was running the London Marathon. It felt very surreal. As I ran, the rain kept coming, and there was no let up, but what amazed me was the number of people that came out to support us despite the weather. It was astonishing.

At around 10K, I got to Cutty Sark, and this was the first place where the crowds and sounds were epic, but as I turned right and saw Tower Bridge in front of me, I remember just saying, “Wow!” to myself. To run across Tower Bridge with all the crowds cheering us on was just amazing and once you crossed the bridge you reached the halfway mark, but there was a lot to go.

As the miles went on, my legs started to feel heavy, but I was determined to keep running, and so I did. The rain subsided a little but then came down again at Canary Wharf. Knowing I was three quarters of the way through, I just kept going. I tried to keep up with my carb, sodium and fluid intake, but at one point felt a bit like I’d had too much, so I backed off and just kept running. I backed off when I needed to, then picked it up again, tried to focus ahead, and just breathed while trying to use my arms as efficiently as possible to help me run. These were all things I’d learnt during my training.

When I had about 2km to go, my legs felt extremely heavy, but when I saw the Houses of Parliament ahead, I knew I was nearly done. I have to say, seeing 600m to go, then getting to Buckingham Palace and turning right seeing 395 yards to go and the finish line, was the most epic and relieving feeling! Crossing that line was an incredible feeling and completely surreal. Having the medal placed around my neck was fantastic, and I felt incredibly proud of myself. I finished the London Marathon, which people say is the best in the world and my first marathon, in 4:34:17, which wasn’t too shabby! Later I would find out that this was also the largest London Marathon, in terms of the number of runners (48,000), since it started in 1981. I was also part of history!

The second time, I struggled to do the complete training plan in the way I had before. I found I didn’t feel as motivated and fell ill about half way through, so then found it a challenge to train in the same way, as the year before.

What changed instead though, is I found I put less pressure on myself to do it in a specific time, so this time it was all about enjoying it and taking it in.

Thankfully, the weather was better, again the crowds were amazing, and I found I took a lot more footage, including running over Tower Bridge and past Buckingham Palace, and I paused more to truly take it all in at different moments of the run. The memories of my second London Marathon, seem to be more ingrained. Interestingly, I wonder if that is part of me being a Manifesting Generator. Because I had done it the year before, I wonder if maybe I wasn't as excited, as I was the first time to train...but that’s another story!

So, if you’re running the London Marathon this weekend, or have another dream, no matter how big or impossible it may seem, I’d say write it somewhere and go after it. You could also work with a Coach to keep you accountable and give you tools to work on your mindset and success. Even though the first step may seem too small or you don’t know when you will achieve the dream, I promise you, it will happen at some point.

Best of luck to all the runners who are doing the London Marathon this weekend, I’m cheering you on!