On Sunday 26 April 2015 we ran the Virgin London Marathon, something that both of us had always wanted to do albeit knowing that the 26.2 miles would be an enormous challenge, both physically and mentally.We began training towards the end of 2014 and the training was by far the hardest part of the Marathon experience, not least because it meant dragging ourselves out of bed for 7am runs on cold Sunday mornings! Nevertheless, by February we had gone from running what seemed like a never ending 1 or 2 miles to managing a very respectable 15 miles.

Unfortunately, however, all fledgling sportspeople must experience their share of injuries and it wasn’t long before both of us were diagnosed with having injured our Iliotibial Band (commonly known as Runner’s knee). The advice of “no running” from our respective physiotherapists set us back numerous weeks during which we questioned whether we were absolutely bonkers to sign up for a Marathon with no running experience…

After a frustrating few weeks of injury and subsequent rest and recovery, the big day couldn’t have hit us sooner. We taped up our injured legs and applied enough tiger balm to smell like a medicine cabinet. As we waited in our respective start groups amongst thousands of other runners in various shapes, sizes and outfits, the nerves, excitement and adrenaline all began to kick in. During the race, the support and lift that the crowd gave us was an experience that we will cherish forever and something you can only ever appreciate if you take part…any thoughts of the pains or struggles we had during training had suddenly vanished. With our friends, family and complete strangers cheering us on, coupled with the thought of what a great cause we were running for, we found in us incredible strength and motivation. We both ran the entire distance at a consistent pace with Sunil making it to the finish line in 4 hours 5 minutes and Aasha not too far behind in 4 hours 39 minutes.

So were we bonkers? If you call going for runs in the freezing cold, missing out on Saturday evening social events because you need to eat a kilo of pasta and get an early night, and spending Mondays and Tuesdays hobbling around work bonkers, then yes we were…Would we have foregone the feeling of having completed a marathon to avoid the above? Absolutely not! It lived up to everything we thought it would be and more; physically and mentally brutal, but without doubt the best experience of our lives; one we cannot recommend highly enough. If you would like to run the marathon and would like to hear more about our journey, please do get in touch with us..