Hello!

So, here we are, marathon number three.

And how did it all begin? Well, it really is a story not about me at all.

My first marathon, Dubai 2016,  was borne out of pure sibling rivalry. My wonderful sister had completed the London Marathon in 2015 and I wanted to prove that I could do it too. Training had gone well. Then, two weeks before the big day, Pip was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Back in Dubai, questioning whether I could be bothered to run it at all in light of such devastating news, the memory of her determination to walk barely ten meters down the hospital corridor having recently left the high dependency unit was inspiration enough to make that 42k relatively painless. I did it. It wasn't record breaking, but it was ticked off.

And then she goes and makes me do it again. Incredibly determined, with stage 4 cancer, Pip signs up for the 2017 London Marathon for Beating Bowel Cancer. She casually tells me she has to have a back up runner in case she can't do it after all. She's in not too bad shape at this point so I happily agree, proud as anything that she's even taken the steps to sign up, and fairly certain I'll be cheering her on from the roadside. Then almost a year exactly after her original diagnosis we learn that the cancer has spread to her hip. That girl ain't running no marathon. With scanty training I drag myself around it, of course, for her.

And now we're at number three. In a time of cloudy thinking shortly after she passed away in December last year, one of her close friends persuaded me to sign up. The going's been tough. To be honest, I haven't really enjoyed it all that much; but, when I have little moments of struggle there's something right there that pushes me on. It hasn't been perfect training. It won't be a stunner of a race. And it will almost definitely be my last. Whatever else it is, though, this one really is Pip's marathon, every last step.

Please do give generously to Dorothy House. They are incredible human beings who did everything in their power to make the final few days of Pip's life as filled with happiness as they possible could. We would've been even more lost without their help.

See you at the finish line!

Georgie 

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