Final update

Well it turned out to be a great day albeit eighteen months late and a little sunnier than we would have liked.

We started together at 10.15 from a rather chilly Greenwich Park but within an hour or so the sun was shining and it was becoming rather warm and sweaty! At mile six I told my little girls that the pace was a bit quick for their old dad so I would drift back and they should run on together. For those of you who have never run London (there's always next year?!) the first few miles are great and the crowds are amazing, at seven miles you run around the Cutty Sark which is always something to help the motivation as you tick off the miles. At around 12.5 miles you crossover Tower Bridge where the support is incredible, the bridge is just one big mass of people shouting. Once over the bridge it's a right turn into docklands and that's one half of it done - unfortunately the halfway point in a marathon isn't the 13.1 mile distance, effort wise the halfway point is around 20-miles because that's where the brain tells the body I have had enough of this, time to shut down!. It's a 10-mile loop around docklands and that is a really tough part of the run. At 18-miles I see Charlotte just ahead of me and she's struggling a bit so being a good dad I catchup with her, give her a cuddle, check she's okay and then run off saying "see you at the  finish!" She tells me that Melissa is a little way in front and she still has a big smile on her face (unlike us). At around 22-miles you run past Tower Bridge where hundreds of runners are just crossing and it's rather humbling to think that they are some ten miles behind. At mile-23 the one thing I've been dreading happens, bang the cramp kicks in and I'm in agony. I manage to run it off for a little while by running rather funnily with my right leg locked straight to try and ease the        pain, at which point Charlotte has caught me up and we hobble      together for a little while until she jogs slowly on. By then the cramp has got worse and hits both legs so for a few minutes I'm hanging onto the barriers unable to move, thank you to all those wonderful people who shouted words of encouragement - and especially to those who kept shouting "you can do this you're nearly there", let me tell you for future reference that when every muscle below the waist is cramping up and you are in agony a mile is a very long way to run and you're not nearly there! Slowly I manage to start moving again and I find I can walk as fast as I can run so I do that until I can see the finish and then I jog over the line with a big smile on my face for the        cameras in a very respectable time of 4.35. Charlotte is there        waiting for me having crossed the line in 4.32 and a little later we see Melissa who has finished in 4.15, she is still smiling having run over the line with Chris Evans and been on the TV with him! 

All in all it was a day to remember and one that was made even more special by your wonderful and generous support for us and for Mencap, once again thank you.     

Best wishes,    

Mike, Charlotte and Melissa

2nd update

Well we ran the virtual london Marathon on what must have been the wettest weekend of 2020, not only did we have to do a quick reroute after 15-miles due to a flooded tunnel under the M25 but then we had to wade through a couple of hundred metres of knee high flood water. We finally arrived at the finishing line in a very respectable time of 4h.45m, rather wet, rather tired and rather pleased with ourselves! But that's not the end of our marathon story because we have some unfinished business, so this year we'll be running the "actual" London Marathon on October the 3rd and hopefully finally completing our adventure which began back in early January 2020 when we started training  to run the London Marathon on Dad's 70th birthday (he's way passed 71 now!).

1st Update

We wanted to update you on the situation with the London Marathon and assure you that we will fulfil our commitment to drag ourselves round 26.2 miles!

Back in March the marathon was postponed until 4^th October. However that began to look less and less likely to happen and last week we received an update to explain that only the “elites” would be able to race on 4^th October (we have trained hard but are not quite in the elite category…yet!). For everyone else there is now the opportunity to run a virtual marathon, as well as have a place in the event in 2021, 2022 or 2023 depending upon availability.

So, we will be running the virtual marathon on the 4^th October. This means we pick our own route and have 24-hours to run and upload our time. We will be running as a threesome from North London to Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, to be cheered over the line by family and our best cheerleader, Sam. It is going to be tough as without the crowds 26.2 miles can be very long and very lonely but we will motivated on by all of the support we have received from you and the funds that you have helped us raise for Mencap.  

We will keep you posted on whether we get an “actual” place in 2021, 2022 or 2023 – if they postpone us much longer though we might be pushing dad around!

If you fancy cheering us along on the 4^th October let us know and we will email you a copy of our route plan.

Thank you once again for supporting us and helping us raise funds for Mencap.

Mike, Charlotte and Melissa

ORIGINAL TEXT

It's Dad's 70th Birthday on the 26th April, which is also London Marathon Day. So rather than buy him a present, or give him a party, we thought it would be a great idea to run the London Marathon with him - well not necessarily with him as he's no doubt going to be hobbling along behind somewhere! We've all run London before, Dad six times, Melissa twice and Charlotte just the once, so we know how much pain and mental torture we are letting ourselves in for but that said not many people get the chance to run the London Marathon with their Dad on his 70th Birthday!

Deciding to run was the easy part, we then had to secure places which isn't easy given that around half a million people apply for entries. Not wanting to leave it to the ballot we decided to try for charity places, so we approached Mencap who welcomed us into their team with open arms. As you know our wonderfully amazing brother Sam has Williams Syndrome and our Dad has been a Trustee of the Williams Syndrome Foundation for over 25 years and throughout this time Mencap have been a tremendous source of support and advice, both to the family and to the Foundation so what better charity could we choose? 

We have set a total target for the three of us of £6000, which is the minimum we needed to raise to secure our places in the run. It might sound like a lot of money but between us when running the marathon, we will make 150,000 footsteps, meaning it's just 4p for every footstep we take.

So there you have it, we are running the London Marathon with Dad on his 70th Birthday in aid of Mencap and we humbly ask you to support our efforts to smash our target of £6000 and give Dad a Birthday to remember (that's if he remembers anything by then!).

Charlotte,
Melissa (and Dad) x