Running - London Marathon / Great North Run

Every year many runners help our work by entering the London Marathon or Great North Run (in Newcastle). There may even be Fun Runs in your area, which you can enter.
For further information on how to enter the London Marathon or Great North Run, please contact peter@cwac.org

A supporter who ran the London Marathon wrote:

“I managed to run the first 10k in just over an hour. This was a damn fine performance for my little legs but as I reached the 10-mile mark, the ankle I had injured 2 weeks earlier started to object to the punishment and slowed me down. After the 13th mile, I had to start walking, but managed to keep up a good a good bum-waddling power walk as the crowd cheered us on! At some point after the 19-mile marker, I read on the back of a woman’s T-Shirt “If you’re going through hell, keep going” – a Churchill quote (not the dog). This gave me the inspiration I needed to start running again and I could finally see through the pain. I had one final stop at St John’s ambulance at mile 23 to put big plasters over the blisters emerging on the balls of my feet. At this pit stop, people were dropping like flies from heat exhaustion. There seemed to be about 15 disappointed faces in amongst a rapidly growing sea of silver foil. I knew then that I had to finish, but having put my shoes on I found I couldn’t actually get back up! I pulled myself up using a roadside railing and tried not to think what my legs would feel like the next day. Then I ran!! And it hurt….

The crowd was amazing all the way along the route. I got the most incredible boost from my friends at mile 24 and managed to walk and run the rest of the route after I had seen them. As I ran over the finishing line I felt like I wanted to cry, but managed to stifle that feeling as I congratulated the runner in front of me for wearing hot pants for the whole run.

I got my medal, put on my tracksuit, met my friends and somehow managed to walk over to the Ruby Lounge in Waterloo for a celebration. My fellow first-timers Nathan managed 4h 32.36 and Matt finished in 4h 45.22, faster than they both expected. Best of all – not one of us said “never again”. I think we were all secretly thinking about the next stupid challenge.”