London Marathon 2026 - PB, raising money for charity and more...

As part of my challenge to run the marathon I'd thought I'd keep a weekly diary/newsletter of ups and downs, obstacles overcome and progress. 

You can DONATE HERE thank you!

This weekend I entered a charity 5km race in my wife's home village. I ran it last year as well, getting a time of 33 mins. This year I was hoping after my record in the half at Gdańsk a week earlier I could break my 5km record, even though I'd shown zero sign of it in training. Lovely weather and event around a hotel lake. Around 300 runners, which made for a bit of chaos at the start as I was right at the back and had forgotten that this wasn't an ideal place to start on a narrow path and spent the first 500m overtaking people (although, this was a bit of a pleasant surprise, that I was able to at all). This burnt up some energy too, and it started to hurt from there onwards! However I knew I had to keep at a 5:00/km pace at the least and then if I tired I could still get around 25:30, which I'd be happy with. 

A mostly flat course, I concentated on my technique and breathing... I had to dig deep in kilometres 4 and 5 to maintain this and saw it slip a bit in the 4th. However I managed to feel better for kilometre 5 and strolled to the finish...checking my watch, to see I got 25:37. I was REALLY happy with this, and my wife was there to see it. The hotel is called 'Molo' which is Seaside Pier in Polish. Hopefully I can get below that 25 min barrier in the next event!

My first ever half marathon was a very long and painful experience in 2018. It took a fraction below three hours. And I mean a fraction. I was very out of shape, a poor runner, with little technique and I was very out of shape...on top of that I had a bad Achilles injury that I would just ignore and try to overcome.

When I started running again I managed to get myself to a better state of fitness with help from my running friend, and my first half back at it in 2024 was 2h 28m, a considerable improvement. Running the race again in March 25 I was amazed to get it down to 2:08. I then entered the half in Czechia below and got it to 2:04. 

I've just finished the Gdańsk Half marathon, a brilliant event that starts and finishes in the Lechia Gdańsk/Polish Women's team stadium built for Euro 2012. 

My time was 1:58:53! Knowing I had to keep to a pace of 5:45/km I was very pleased to hit the splits and get a good 5k time of 27mins, a decent 10k time of 56 mins, a 15k time of 1:24 and 20km in 1:52!.

I was having to fight hard in the last 3km - I'm sure it was entirely uphill? But the final straight was downhill and then into the stadium. A really excellent event that was well organised and had good support. Definitely one I'll do each year if I can! Makes me wonder if I can hit my 5k record next...

100 000 exercises reached. Today I hit the target I have been working towards since November 2023. In batches of 300, I do various bodyweight, calisthenic, gym and other!) exercises and make a record of them. My ultimate target was 333 300s with an extra 100 to make 100 000 (the 5 Olympic rings). I've hit it. Although I could reel off a lot of data (kg lost, chin ups, run times) it's more been how I feel and what I can do. Plus a constant drive to have to be willing to do what is necessary to achieve my goal. I've made the hints of the site a gold colour, in celebration, and my next target is what I call Irish Green (432, for St Patrick). I have a few items to tick off for the full gold target, but when I make the obvious comparison of where I was to where I am now, it's pretty remarkable.

On top of that I reached a new level in my monkey bars technique, being able to straddle 4 (four!) bars at a time. Considering I could barely do one this is something I'm sort of amazed by and very happy about...

A short trip away gave me an opportunity to get a lot more calisthenics done, with quite a few in parks wherever we seemed to go! This improved my monkey bars and chin ups to new levels, as well as toughen up my hands. I found I was much more flowing in the monkey bars and managed to get to a new record of 30 consecutive chin ups.

Running wise, had the chance to run up more steps then I normally encounter which was a really enjoyable workout, and also did a long run of 16km this week. Again, can really feel how much fitter I am now, and some comprehensive massage with a gun really dialled down the Achilles pain so I was able to run again today.

Getting closer to that level of 333 as now at 314.

More pounding of pavements and treadmills this week with a mix of longer work, sprints, stair work and treadmill sprints to 19km/h. Good work all round with some weight work.

Over this week I also reached a personal landmark. Since November 2023 I have been doing exercise sessions of 300 exercises at a time. These are usually bodyweight, but as time has gone on I have incorporated a wide mix. My initial goal was to do 300 300s = 90 000 exercises, and I have just hit that original target!

I can certainly tell the difference in my overall health, cardio, strength, endurance and energy.

My target shifted to 100 000 exercises (5 rings, as inspired by the Olympics) and then goes to more personal number targets. I am planning to write a book about this journey for others to follow - Working Title:

From Dad Bod to G(r)eek God in 100000 Exercises.

More details to follow!

A week's break from running after this half effort in Czechia, as I seemed to awaken the old Achilles injury. However after 8/9 days of this it reduced enough to be able to run again and now it is gone completely, which is LOVELY.

Over the last week I have done a 5km run, a 9km in between a 600 exercise session (which was a very tough day) and some 1km sprints. My predicted times have started to come down a bit on Strava which is very motivating.

I've just entered a marathon in October in Katowice, Poland, and since I'm in the area, I'm doing a half in Kraków the week after. This is a huge challenge and probably not hugely advisable, but I won't be going for any world records in Kraków!

Good sprints, better technique, combined with decent weight loss is really helping. See below for current predicted times for 5k, 10k, half and marathon and a video of what Olomouc was like which gives a good sense of the atmosphere there!

A few runs of varying quality in this week, with some good training on stairs (love this) and some attempts at longer distances. This was hard work, and I only managed some moderate pace runs with a few niggles. However at the same time as this I have been looking at my running technique and felt it could do with a considerable upgrade, so I incorporated 3 things I learnt from Youtube. 

1. Lifting my legs higher, specifically almost kicking my bum, and making sure my knee is high. This takes, counter-intuitively, less energy. 

2. Trying to reduce lateral forces by stepping on my centre line. Wow, this was a huge difference.

3. Conciously using my hips to move my legs forward.

I got the opportunity to try all these out in a half-marathon in Czechia, in a place, that in all honesty, I'd never heard of, called Olomouc. I was hoping to at least equal my personal record for halfs (2:09) and I had a fantasy I might get below 2 hours. On the day it was very warm. 25 degrees is quite hard work and even though it was in the evening, this was definitely an issue for hour 1.

It was a great event. Wonderful atmosphere and well organised. Really felt safe and friendly.

So... I went off way too fast, but I thought it wasn’t. I knew to beat my time I’d have to stay below 6:10 pace so I got comfortable, thinking it was about 7 to start off, and my watch said 5:15 pace! Tried to slow down, but couldn’t get to even 6:20 so decided to go with it.

Started behind 2:10 pacers but found myself in front of the 2h pacers as they overtook me. Tried to keep them in sight at least but 14-16km I needed a break and did go to about 7min pace. 16-21 I felt ok again and decided to push.

Decent 5k and 10k times as well.

Photo below!

My time?

2:04:34.

Amazing considering my preparation hasn't been ideal. Can definitely put down to my running technique. 

Now for some serious rest! See you next week.

So immediately after my first run last week I became ill (apparently quite common!) which was a bit disappointing, but back to it now. This gave me even more opportunity to research the latest news on running and I discovered a 75 year old lady who holds world records for her age which are faster than some of my fittest friends. For example, 10k time of 43 mins. And she started running only 5 years ago. Insanely impressive. Link below. I also a follow a great guy who is very smart and hardworking called Jake Barraclough on Youtube who is the embodiment of 'To attain your goals you have to be willing to do what's necessary' and is quite prepared to almost kill himself I think to get better. He's moved to Japan, trains with pro runners, follows their methods (using a book from the 1970s, from his Japanese running hero, and is, of course, entirely in Japanese). This year he is the 5th fastest British marathoner and he's not professional... Worth a view.

Fundraising is now at £858 which is incredible. Please do support this cause. I am also hoping to get a good time as well. My Garmin watch is currently predicting the following:

5k 22:40

10k 47:01

Half: 1:44

Marathon: 3:36.

Not sure what year it expect this...My marathon PB is currently 5:20!

World's Fastest 75 year old Woman.

Jake Barraclough/Ran to Japan.

After a fantastic response from friends, clients, students and colleagues we are now on £763 which is phenomenal support. I've got the go-ahead to start running again from my surgeon, but had a few days extra while I tried to figure out why I was always tired - turns out, it was an iron deficiency, possible due to loss of blood during surgery and the resulting recovery/inflammation. Excited to get started today and posted 2.59km on the board. This can be tracked on the donate page for how much training I have done. (Spoiler, it will be very high!). Looking forward to getting deep into the training with a half marathon on the horizon in a few weeks...

As life is life, the first thing that happened on my marathon record journey is that I had surgery a week ago which has stopped my exercise in its tracks. I've spent the recovery time researching how to get faster, devise training plans, lose some weight and reach out to friends, clients and students for donations. A great start already! Remember you can donate above at the link. Thank you!

That didn't take long! A few days after my application I got a lovely email! We are marath-ON!

To make sure I will definitely have a place for my challenge, I stumbled across a charity place via Crimestoppers and made out the application (I was actually reporting a crime at the time) so hopefully I will hear soon.

What is the fastest time I can achieve in a marathon? And what better place to do it in one of the most famous marathons in the world... London. But getting into London is notoriously difficult by ballot, with some people waiting years and the odds around 0.1%. This year 1.1million people have entered.