So many of our club members and friends have participated in Marathons in Manchester and London in the last two weeks. Seeing the results of months of dedication and sacrifice, all the lonely hours, and self-questioning about why? can I ? and what the ifs? come to fruition with some amazing times run by club members has been amazing.
But the marathon is so much more than a time. It's patience, humility, and dedication. Whether you broke three or four hours or missed your time because you rolled the dice and came up short, you did it and put it out there for everyone to see, and we love you for it. You earned our respect and much admiration—not for what you did on the day but for everything you did to get there.
Sure, just like at Christmas, the marathon doesn’t always give back what you want or deserve. We all dream of personal glory, that special time, or finishing in front of our competitors ( I mean friends). We spend hours running in the dark and rain, imagining how well we will run and the glorious PB we will get.
But then we get slippers.
And you take it, swallow it up, and look forward to the next one. Because you know when it does give back what you want, it is more than worth the failures of the past. There is nothing sweeter.
You All deserve so much more than a thumbs-up kudos.
None more so than Gary Wilcox.
Gary foolishly set himself a challenge in which his chance of failure was far greater than his chance of success. He then foolishly told everyone what he would try and attempt.
"Gary's Park Run Ultra," where he wanted to run all 10 of Staffordshire's park runs in one day to raise money for the charity Mind.
His challenge, I imagine, took him way beyond his comfort zone not only on the day but also in his training and lead-up to the event. But he only went on and succeeded, running 31 miles in 12 hours, travelling 136 miles between locations along the way. And raised over £2700 in total.
So here's our roll call of heroes.
Tom Rowley, Danny Soltys, Jono Goodall, Amy Gamble, Kirsty Stephenson, Mark Williamson, Paul Glover, Aggi Pope, Jared Horn, Jo Edwards, Jo Bentley, Brian Simms, Gary Wilcox.
Kudo's to all.