I wanted to write to you alll with a proper account of Sunday and to pass on my enormous gratitude to everyone who donated, shared and messaged me to cheer me on. 

The response from the club was overwhelming and I am genuinely moved by the generosity of so many members. We smashed our fundraising target of £500 and have £533 to spend!

A special thank you to Roy, who inspired me to turn what was already a last minute, slightly chaotic marathon decision into a fundraiser for the club. It was entirely his idea, and I am so glad he suggested it.

As for the race itself, it was without doubt one of the best and worst days of my life all rolled into one.

I had a big debate with the 4:45 pacemakers at the start, and anyone who knows me also knows that I can talk! They reassured me that the first five miles are downhill so if I was aiming for less than 5 hours, staying with them as long as possible might be a good plan. My running app also said that my expected time based on my training would be 4:41 to 4:56, but what does AI know about pain thresholds? I came to the conclusion that whether I was with slightly faster or slightly slower pacers, I was going to be hobbling by the end. As it turned out, I stayed with the 4:45 pacers all the way to mile 15, and I was really proud of that.

Mile 15 to mile 25 was really tough. My whole body screaming at me to pack the whole thing in, what was I thinking of? But the crowds were incredible, shouting my name every step of the way and so many kind words. “Claire, you’ve got this.” “Keep going, Claire.” “Claire, you’re amazing.” Complete strangers, who had given up their day to help make it a successful one for each of those thousands of runners. I saw my kids at mile 18 but I was so delirious by then that I barely remember it.

Then at mile 25 my kids were there again, and my son told me I was actually going to finish sub 5 hours! That was all I needed. I found something from somewhere and ran that last mile on pure adrenaline.

Final time: 4 hours 56 minutes and 51 seconds. £533 raised out of nowhere. Running target achieved! Fundraising target achieved!

Thank you all so much. This club has become my happy place and Sunday reminded me exactly why I joined. And I promise I'll never ever enter the London Marathon ballot again!