In 2016, like thousands of others, I failed to get a London marathon place in the ballot. I re-entered the ballot for 2017 full of optimism that this would be my year.
Unfortunately, I was rejected again.... but just like last year, I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Last year, my London rejection led me to sign up for the Paris marathon, but this year I wanted to do something special. I knew it would be my last chance for a marathon before my kidney donation, and having run four marathons this year I wanted to do something bigger and better!
I came up with the plan of running the London marathon twice. I would run it backwards, at 3am, from the finish line to the start, with the same group of people I did it with in 2016. Then I would apply for a charity place, and run it forwards as well. On the same day. Sounds like a great plan, eh?
I looked into getting a charity place and discovered I could run for Guy's and St Thomas' Kidney Patients' Association. This is a perfect fit as that's where I'm donating my kidney and their purpose is to support kidney patients and their families and kidney research. They had a fundraising target of £1500, which whilst daunting, is far less than some of the bigger charities ask you to raise.
So far all seems good. But just in case, I figured I'd better apply for a place in the Brighton marathon as well, two weeks prior. London marathon charity places are not always that easy to come by and small charities only have a few places to offer - perhaps somebody better would come along. I applied and waited.
Today I found out that I'd got my place in the Brighton marathon.
Two hours later, I found out that I'd got my place in the London marathon too.
Plus the backwards one... that makes three marathons in two weeks. Eeek!
I've changed the name of my blog to reflect this.... come back to read about my training progress and also how things are going with my kidney donation work-up...
