The marathon that went wrong in every way!

I recently completed my seventh marathon (Brighton Marathon 2026) and, as part of my preparation for this, I reflected on my previous experiences. It was 13 years since my previous marathon and it’s fair to say that my previous marathons had been challenging for a variety of reasons. After gradually getting back into running after a long break a few years ago, I decided that it was time to let go of past marathon memories and re-write how I feel about the experience of doing one (up to now, it generally made me shake my head and come out in cold sweats!) so I gave myself a year to prepare.

When reflecting on my last marathon, Barcelona in 2013, there was so much that happened that it is no surprise to have had the reaction I did when someone said the word “marathon”. Both the day itself and lead up had lots of moments that could have been so different, yet they unfolded the way they did. When looking back, it is scary to think that what now feels like small moments have felt like huge moments and potentially stopped me from doing more or doing things differently. But they did and they have.

On the day of the race, I woke up and felt fine, having my breakfast and making my way to the start line of the Barcelona Marathon. When standing at the start line, I felt fine and was just patiently waiting for the start, as I often did. I remember thinking that it was different because all previous runs had been in England or France, so the general chat was different as it was in Spanish. There were a few English people there and I remember picking out a young English couple who were chatting, but I didn’t speak to them (although, at this time, it was rare for me to chat to people while waiting for runs to start).

During the first few kilometres, I felt fine running along and was running at a decent enough pace, but was starting to feel tired from fairly early on. Then it happened, at 14km (a third of the way through the run). My calf pinged and I found it hard to put meaningful pressure on the leg. I was able to walk and do a form of power walking, but normal running form went out the window from that moment on.

After my leg went, I kept moving with some form and went into a form of power walking, reducing the impact on the leg and stretching it out. For the next few kilometres, I found a way to carry on going. THEN… as I hit 20 kilometres, I realised, at a point where you turn back on yourself on the route, I was very close to the hotel where I was staying. Around this point, I also saw mum and dad, who had come to support me at the marathon. 

On seeing mum and dad, what I should have done was pull out at this point, gone back to the hotel, got changed then gone to the start line and picked up my bags. However, because of having travelled all that way and paid out for this adventure, I felt that I couldn't get back on the plane to fly home without the medal. I was also thinking about having to go to the start line to get my stuff and the faff of doing all of this, all without having a medal to show for it. So I carried on, through the immense pain, to find some way of getting to the end and completing the marathon. People passed me perpetually, up to the point where there was no-one to pass me anymore. I was even passed by a group of three people that had power walked the marathon.

I don’t remember too much about the course and where I was running. I can’t remember the districts that I ran through or the support that I received along the route. That is all a blur (apart from when I was overtaken by the power walkers, where I remember there were palm trees lining the road). I do remember the finish area (helped by seeing photos afterwards to jog my memory!) There were no real crowds at the finish line as I was finishing and I just remember the fact that they were already starting to take down the hoardings and the sponsorship banners. I also remember feeling the pain but also being a bit surprised and disbelieving because, even with the bad leg and with the course finish line being disassembled, I still completed the marathon in under five hours and thirty minutes. That was only ten minutes slower than the London Marathon the year before and it was a really challenging experience to go through.

The period in the lead up to the Barcelona Marathon was quietly chaotic. At this point, I had been managing my own project (an online platform to inspire children to be more active and discover different sports) for 18 months and was starting to become fatigued by the pressure and challenges of the project. It was around this time that I was thinking about changing the direction of the project and was trying new things. I was also trying to compete and challenge against other projects doing similar things and it was taking a toll on me as I was inexperienced and overwhelmed by all that was going on with it. I was also struggling with dealing with family loss in the previous years but found it difficult to talk to anyone about it.

Because of the many things all happening at the same time, it meant that I didn’t do very much training for the marathon, with 13 miles (a half marathon) being the longest training run that I completed. This meant that I was very under-prepared and didn’t feel very fit. I also felt tired on a regular basis. I was able to capitalise on this being my 6th marathon and using the muscle endurance gained from previous marathons, although the physical capabilities stopped there and it was a marathon too far when profiting from previous experience.

When I was out in Barcelona, I also had difficulty with food in the lead up to the event taking place on the Sunday. As I didn’t know the city very well and hadn’t done the research on the city, it meant that the search for good food to eat in the lead up was really hard. On the Saturday before the event, we went into the centre to find a restaurant to eat dinner and found it challenging to find somewhere to eat. In the end, we found a restaurant that did pasta, which was OK but didn’t stand out as an amazing meal. The search for the restaurant had been tiresome and the benefits of the meal probably got outweighed by the difficulty in finding it in the end.

The effect of the experience in Barcelona was profound. The recovery from the bad knee took weeks and it took a while to start running again. I have also been very cautious about doing another marathon, signing up for one in 2019 but deciding very quickly that I wasn’t going to do it and not deciding to do another one until 2026 (a gap of 13 years). I also vowed after Barcelona that I would only do another marathon if I did the right training. 

Fast forward to 2026 and, although I got very nervous in the weeks leading up to the marathon, the sense of pride, satisfaction and relief when I crossed the finish line were massive. The tears flooded out and 13 years of carrying the memories of Barcelona melted away. It felt amazing and made me realise that, although we have difficult experiences in life, there can be many reasons for this and it is important, if you really want to, to have another attempt at completing a challenge. I have learnt that it is worth doing it and the joy when you succeed is immense!

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