My story starts in 1993 when I completed a hard, amazing, difficult, life-changing year as an Oasis Frontliner in Essex. It was during that year that God gave me a passion for building the church and seeing it effective in proclaiming and demonstrating God's heart. Fourteen years later, I am now leading a church in mid-Sussex because of what was birthed in me during that year.
Why am I running the London Marathon? I always had this idea in the back of my head that I would like to run a marathon one day and in 2005 a good friend asked if I'd consider running the Edinburgh Marathon with him - I thought, why not! So having no previous running experience, I set out with 6 months to get read for my first marathon, which I completed in 4hrs, 37mins. It was the most painful thing I have ever done and as I crossed the finishing line I shouted at my friend that I couldn't believe I allowed him to persuade me into it. But within about 10 minutes I knew I wanted to do another...!
There begins my tale of injury woe. Having pulled out of the 2006 Edinburgh Marathon 2 months before because of a persistent ankle injury, I got a place with Oasis to run the 2007 London Marathon. I was particularly chuffed about this because of my strong links with Oasis, and the London Marathon is a special event.
My build up was perfect: my preparation went well, my last long runs felt great, I was achieving good times and I had reached my fundraising target. Then 7 days before the race......I fell off a ladder! Yep, absolutely true. I was doing DIY and landed awkwardly on a concrete floor from about 5 foot and badly bruised my heel and damaged ankle ligaments. By the Thursday before the race I still couldn't walk without shooting pains in both my foot and leg and had to pull out of the race. I was absolutely gutted! Words cannot describe how soul destroying it was after 5 months of running 4 times a week in the dark, rain, snow, ice and wind!
However, I was determined that I would run the London Marathon one day. So here I am again - ready to run London for Oasis in 2008 and I cannot wait to complete what I started all those months ago!!