George Runs the London Marathon
Last year I received an email that stopped me in my tracks. “Congratulations, you have been selected to represent The Stroke Association to run the London Marathon!”
The thing is, I never signed up for it…
Cue a sweary barrage of messages to friends to applaud them on a prank well played, and a panicked conversation with my wife. Only after a couple of hours did I then receive an apologetic email again from The Stroke Association explaining that computer gremlins had sent everyone in their systems that email.
Phew.
Although… to my own surprise I was actually a little disappointed. I’ve never been a raving fan of running but Parkrun and the occasional 10k had slowly been creeping into my life. So after a pint or two that night and without thinking about it too much, I entered the open ballot with a 50:1 chance. People try to get in this way for years, decades; I surely wasn’t going to get through anyway.
Ah. Turns out that I am going to be running London Marathon in 2024 after all!
To close the circle, I’m running it for The Stroke Association (they got me into all of this after all). It’s not an organisation I’ve had any direct interaction with, but since telling others about them I’ve heard fantastic stories about how they’ve helped friends, colleagues, and neighbours. They do incredible work in researching preventions and treatments, they provide fantastic educational resources, advocate for those affected, as well as deliver support and advice for families and carers.
Thank you for your donations, they are going to an extremely worthy cause. Please pray for my legs.
