Some of my favorite marathon memories come from the majors (New York City, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo). It is a wonderful way of sightseeing. In London, you’ll get to see Tower Bridge, Cutty Sark and Docklands, and you’ll see them on foot rather than on an open-top tour bus. In New York City, you go through the city’s five boroughs, which I would never have done without the marathon. And the atmosphere is everything. I remember in Dublin in the early 1990s women making cups of tea by the side of the road, ready for you to drink. The last time I was in Belfast, children came out with their sweets and jellies; it makes them feel good when you come over and take them with you.
However, not everyone is like that. In Tokyo, there were tightly regulated cut-off points: if you were a few seconds late, you were gone. In Beijing, the roads were manned by Chinese soldiers rather than cheering crowds. When I run I like to joke with people and smile, but that’s not the case there. They want you to complete the trail, keep going, and then get off the road. That’s not really my style.
What’s next? My goal is to run 1000 marathons before I’m 75. There will be times when I run marathons on consecutive days: I just ran 10 marathons in 10 days at the Great Barrow Challenge in Bury St Edmunds. People say, “How can you run a marathon day in and day out?” but the body adapts. The key is to keep going. Even when I had Covid, I regularly ran a mile to keep my running streak going.
I feel so privileged to have seen so many places around the world, and I can’t describe how grateful I am to be able to run. I want other people my age to see that they can run too. If you have the wish, I would say forget your age and start slowly and build up gradually. Start with a short run, then a 5km run and then continue with a 10km. If you’re in your 60s, give yourself a few years to build up to a marathon. Even if you’re in your 80s, you can still start running – you’re never too old.
The secret to marathon running is all in the head: believe it and you will achieve it. There will be times when the weather really sucks and you feel freezing, and these are the times when you need to distract yourself. Do another mile. Cross that bridge, go over it and continue. Because you’re done. If you’re mentally strong, you’ll get through a lot.
As told to Greg Dickinson