London Marathon 2022

London marathon.  We do I start?  I have never experienced anything like it.

There are few people who will ever know or understand what it took for me to make it to the start line of my first marathon.  It’s no secret I have previously battled a lot of injuries in the past from chronic tendonopathy in my achilles to stress fractures.  At 16 weeks out from London Marathon when I was sitting on my physios table being told it was looking like I had bone stress in my tibia and if something didn’t change in my training I wasn’t going to make it to the start line, I decided changed everything.  I changed who I was coached by both, running and strength, and how I fuelled my training week to week.  Risky? Yes.  But I didn’t jump in completely blind, I was guided by people that I trust in particular the physiotherapist I work with who I checked in with regularly in the build up to London.

Many people ask how I was lucky enough to get a place in a world major marathon, especially considering this was my first marathon.  I got my place through Parkinson’s UK.  As most people know I did a charity ride in 2019 fundraising for Shake It Up Australia after my dad was diagnosed with the disease in 2016.  It was this previous fundraising effort that helped me gain a place on the Parkinson’s UK team for the marathon.

London Marathon is like no event I’ve attended before, as you would expect at world major marathon it is a well oiled machine, and there was a calmness in the starting area that I’ve never experience before on race morning.  Despite there being 50,000 runners on the course there was enough space to run your own race, even at the start line, thanks to the predicted times runners enter when they pay their entry fee.  You run in a wave of runners who are running the same predicted race time as you so you don’t get stuck behind slower runners.

At one of the Tracksmith Running events in the days prior to the marathon I was talking to someone who gave me some great advice, they told me to decide what I wanted from the day, did I want to chase a time goal or did I want to soak up the experience of being at a world major marathon?  I chose to experience it.  I attended pre marathon events in the days leading up to the marathon and I ran slower than I had trained so I could high-fived the kids on the side of the road, soak up the energy of the crowds and enjoy the landmarks of London as I weaved my way through the streets from Greenwich to The Mall.  Running slower than I had trained also meant that I truly enjoyed the entire run, I kept waiting for the part where you’re supposed to feel terrible in those last 10kms to kick in but it didn’t happen for me, I felt strong the entire 42.2kms and had enough energy to wander the streets of London afterwards and enjoy all the post marathon celebrations.  There are plenty of other marathons to chase a time goal but having travelled across the globe to run the London Marathon I wanted to make sure I finished my first marathon and felt good doing it.

I have been lucky enough to find some incredible people to work with to get me to the start line of this marathon healthy and be in a position to feel good running it.  Thank you to Todd Anderson (physiotherapist), Lydia O’Donnell (run coach), Jess Rothwell (sports dietitian), Ryan Mc Laughlin (strength coach), Toby Glennon (myotherapist) and my incredible husband Jason Heidrich (photographer) who’s support is always unwavering.

My mum rang me when I crossed the finish line and asked if I’d do it again, my answer; ABSOLUTLEY!

Total money raised for Parkinson’s UK from my London marathon campaign – $4025.  Thank you to everyone who generously donated.