My journey from South West Coast Path towards London Marathon 2025
Jenna Lakaniemi is raising money for South West Coast Path Association
Story
Happy hiking everyone,
My name is Jenna, a 30-something-year-old Finn, who moved to England 7½ years ago. I've been living a bit of here and there over the years, finally settling down to Devon just over three years ago. Throughout the years I found the love for hiking and what a better place for that to live than South West Coast of England!
I recently started running and things with this new hobby of mine escalated quite rapidly after one of my beloved colleagues supportively pushed me to enter for the ballot to secure my place for the London Marathon 2025. "Luckily no one ever gets a spot through the ballot anyway so I have nothing to worry about", I thought. Few months later I'm staring at an email bellowing "YOU'RE IN!" and all of the sudden I was training for my first marathon.
I decided straight away that I wanted to do something good with my marathon spot and started to look for a charity to support. It wasn't until I heard about South West Coast Path Association that my heart really leaped - this was it!
"Research shows, spending time outdoors in nature has huge potential to improve our physical and mental health, reducing stress and anxiety, lowering blood pressure, increasing cardio-vascular health and improving mood. It was Hippocrates who coined the phrase ‘Walking is the best medicine’ well over two thousand years ago, yet it's as true today as it was back then. For the majority of people, walking is the most accessible physical activity there is, it’s free, convenient and requires no special training or equipment. Research also shows there are many physical and mental health benefits that come from walking, spending time in green spaces and next to water – three things the South West Coast Path offers." - South West Coast Path Association
South West Coast Path Association combines both a personal love for the outdoors and maintaining this amazing coast whilst also having a very strong link to my job as a Haematology Research Nurse, supporting people through their cancer journeys and promoting good overall health of my patients.
My plan is to keep hiking whilst training for the London Marathon and I'm also planning to start my personal challenge to officially hike through the whole of SWCP, though I'm probably not going to be able to finish it before the marathon!
Join me on my journey from South West Coast Path towards London Marathon 2025!
Every Mile Matters!
With Love,
Jenna