This year’s London Marathon took place on Sunday 3rd October and we had 5 people signed up to run for Providence Row and support our work. With the marathon format split between an in-person race and a virtual format we had 2 runners on the marathon track race and a further 3 more running the virtual race on a route of their choosing. All of our runners were first time marathon runners and all of them completed their courses, a huge well done to all John, Amanda, Lisa, Abbie and Jamie!
John and Amanda were running the in-person race, both work for Tower Hamlets council working closely with Providence Row frontline teams to support our work with rough sleepers in the borough. Amanda told us about why she decided to run for Providence Row: ‘Working for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets I have been able to see first-hand the fantastic work that Providence Row do to help the homeless in the East End of London. They take a person-centred approach, are very caring and have some great projects up and running'.
And John describes how the marathon experience was for him. ‘Running through London was fantastic, the crowds were amazing and spurred me on, I have total admiration for those who ran virtual marathons or in less crowded places, I don’t know if I could have managed what they have done! I would definitely recommend this experience to everyone'.
Abbey and Jamie both work for Providence Row and both ran the marathon virtually. Abbey ran a route to local to her and says ‘I’ve always wanted to run the marathon but never had the courage to do so until now. I think it helps that I’ll be running to raise awareness and funds for something that I’m truly passionate about and support on a daily basis through my work activities’.
Jamie describes how well how the virtual format worked for him, ‘I chose a route near Sudbury, in Suffolk. It’s not too far from London, there is some beautiful scenery there and I have some friends who live nearby who came to cheer me on. I enjoyed the opportunity to make the event a bit more personal to me; it was just me and my friends there and not all the thousands of people that attend the London event’.
Thank you also goes to Lisa, a long standing Providence Row volunteer turned marathon runner and fundraiser with some words of wisdom for future marathon runners ‘I was a bit daunted by the fundraising at first but it was so nice to see the donations and messages of support and encouragement appear. My advice to anyone considering it is to go for it, receiving physiotherapy while training us important too, don’t put too much pressure on yourself and enjoy it as much as possible, you can only do your best’!
We’ll leave the final word to Abbey ‘The ballot for 2022 opened yesterday afternoon so maybe I’ll give it another shot next year...we’ll see!’
Well done John, Amanda, Abbey, Jamie & Lisa and we hope your legs are recovering!
See more about getting involved with our work or fundraise for us.
