2nd December 2012

In the six months leading up to my first marathon, I had changed jobs, moved to the other side of the world and therefore totally changed my life. However, running a marathon is something I have always wanted to do, and after years of trying to gain a place in the London Marathon, the opportunity to take part in a big marathon with a guaranteed place had finally come up.

For me, it was always a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ and I knew when the time came I would be running for CRY in memory of my friend Ollie, who passed away whilst at University. For all Ollie’s friends, CRY has since been at the heart of any form of fundraising effort and after some of Ollie’s other friends had completed huge physical feats it was my turn to step up to the big mark.

As an experienced runner, it wasn’t so much the distance that daunted me, but the temperature and climate conditions. With the temperature quickly soaring to 32° and the humidity levels at around 90% I knew it was never going to be easy, but I somewhat underestimated the full impact it would have. After a relatively easy first 29km, I came to a grinding halt at the 30km mark. At that point, just the sheer act of putting one foot in front of the other became a milestone with every step, and it took a rather tearful phone call to my Mum who was standing at the finish line to pull myself together and continue.

Reminding myself of the reasons I was doing the run also helped pull me along, and being the only runner wearing a charity top, I inwardly applauded myself on having surpassed my £1000 target that I had initially aimed for. Upon crossing the finishing line, I roared with delight that it was over and smiled to myself imagining what Ollie would have said, or more rightly, how hard he would have laughed at the daftness of me having run a marathon just for him.

Carly Peart