The Joy of the London Marathon

It was with some trepidation that I entered Greenwich Park to run my first London Marathon on the weekend after Easter. I had been training for a long time, beginning in September of 2024. However, an IT band injury in the last three months had seriously slowed my speed and made me worry whether I would complete it. I’m lucky that in my church there is someone who has the gift of healing and she had laid hands on my knee a few weeks before which seemed to aid my recovery a lot. I also have someone who has trained many marathoners and was willing to share knowledge with me and I had a good physio who I’d been seeing for the two months before. However, as I entered the pen ready to go out and race, I was nervous. I had run a 20-mile race six weeks before which was a disaster with lots of pain involved and so my prayer that day was for me to find ways to enjoy this often once in a lifetime experience.

I needn’t have worried. God, the crowds, the spirit of London – all of it came together to create what is one of the happiest days of my life. I learnt a really valuable life lesson on the race about choosing joy over anything else and it is something I am still reflecting on. I entered the race a year ago with the hope of a set time which due to lots of factors never came to pass. It was something I had been wrestling with and only a few weeks before the race I had said how disappointed I would be if I didn’t achieve that time. Well, how wrong I was!

I managed a ‘slow’ pace of 5 hours 37 mins but came off the course with so much energy to spare and so much joy. It truly was a golden running experience. The crowds were lined up over the whole 26.2-mile course and deep too! On the course I was offered sweets, beer, oranges, high fives and some very funny signs were held up for motivation. My favourites did include: ‘Therapy is also an option’, ‘Slow down I’m trying to count you all’, ‘How’s your mid-life crisis going’ and the classic ‘Pain is just the French word for bread’.

Did I go slower than I wanted? Absolutely, but I chose to when after a few miles into the race my watch died and I realised in that moment that I just wanted to enjoy the whole thing. Seasoned Marathon runners share a lot on social media about how the London Marathon really was the best marathon for crowd support and I knew in that moment, at around 5 miles in that I was experiencing exactly this. I didn’t need to worry about finishing times today. The crowd were phenomenal, and it truly felt as a runner as if you got a glimpse into the best of humanity that day for hours and hours on end. What a blessing!

It was wonderful to see my family at miles 16 and miles 18 – with their banners prepared and flying high. I first heard them when our good friend Jimmy screamed out my name and then I saw them all. To their amusement I was bouncing along smiling. This was a great relief to all of them as only moments before they’d witnessed a man crying (presumably in some sort of pain at this stage) and I was surrounded by a lot of people struggling. I, on the other hand, was just enjoying life – taking all the sweets and high fives. Admiring all the runners around me and how epic this event is to experience.

I distinctly remember at around mile 20 someone with a loudspeaker shouting out ‘you should be all proud of yourselves as you are ahead of Joe Wicks!’ It made me smile as mile 20-23 were the hardest miles of the marathon by far as I definitely had hit something of a wall. I managed though to rarely walk, partly as I worried my injury would really get bad with a change in pace, and partly because I did have reserve energy as I didn’t run at my maximum that day. And it was blissful. When I think about the London Marathon, I only feel happiness.

I was running to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and at this stage must thank all those who have supported and sponsored me as together we raised a massive £3,507 to date. I have to say a big thank you to everyone who has gifted me their time and skills to be able to raise this amount. GOSH means such a lot to us as a family but they do such lifechanging work for children and it’s been a real motivation to keep running on the long winter runs.

The marathon taught me to really choose joy and chase it! I hope to continue and not forget this lesson learnt.

Sr Claire Maxwell

Minister of Horton and Lower Wyke Moravian Congregations

Editors note: if you would like to donate to Great Ormond Street Hospital you can make a card payment through Church House by calling 020 8883 3409.