As 2027 is the 20 year anniversary of my first marathon (London 2007), I had to get a place in the London Marathon one way or another. The number of people that apply for the ballot each year has increased massively over the years, and it is now very difficult to get into it via this method. I had a 4 point plan to try to get a place.
In the order of how I aimed to attempt getting a place =
- Qualify with a Good For Age place
- Ballot place
- Work charity place (1/2 the amount needed to be raised)
- Charity place
I entered the Newport Marathon on Christmas Day 2025, with the aim of 16 weeks of training from January to try and qualify (sub-3 hours) at this marathon in the April of 2026 and gain a GFA place. This is something I had achieved on 7 occasions over the years, although the last time I managed a sub-3 hour was 2017. I chose Newport because it is a flat road marathon.
The key be able to hit a sub-3 hour marathon is consistent injury free training. You could say that about any target time, but the quicker you aim for the more stress you are putting on your body, and this becomes harder with age (for me anyway).
Training started well in Jan, with a sub-20 minute 5k and a 40:49 10k event, followed by a 41:17 10k in Feb as part of a longer training run and then a 1:25:13 at the Lisbon Half Marathon on 8th March. All in all, as well as those events, the training was just about going to plan and my body holding up. Then on 21st March at one of my local parkruns, I started to run after standing for a while following a warmup run, and both calfs were extremely tight, and then pop, I felt a sharp pain in my right calf and had to pull up.
It was a soleus muscle strain. The soleus is a muscle located beneath the gastrocnemius muscle in the calf. I knew this due to the fact I’d experienced a similar issue in the April of 2025 at the Berlin Half Marathon.
I saw my physiotherapist Sean from https://www.kamileanssportstherapy.com (who I thoroughly recommend) and built a rehab plan, but ultimately the Newport Marathon was out the Window, I may have been able to complete it, but a qualifying time wasn’t going to happen.
I started to apply for charity places after I was unsuccessful in the 2027 London Marathon ballot draw. Infact in July while having a week off work, I spent half a day applying for places. This paid off, and I was contacted by Lila from Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Charity and was offered one of three places they had on offer.
So long story short, I am in the London Marathon 2027!
