My First Marathon (2025)

Following my half marathon in 2021, I decided that I wasn’t too interested in ever running a marathon, as running became much less enjoyable to me due to the increased time commitment and I had a lot of stomach aches when running longer distances. That said, I hadn’t ruled out walking a marathon. 

When I learnt of the Shine the Night Walk for Cancer Research, I was intrigued as it sounded very fun and seemed to have a supportive atmosphere, whilst also being for a good cause. The idea is to walk across London overnight, either as a 10k, a half marathon, or a full marathon, and fairy lights, glow sticks and neon face paint is very much encouraged. I’d heard of it a couple of years ago, but had missed the registration for 2024 so was signed up in September of last year and it had been in the diary for a full year. It also became a New Year’s Resolution of mine, since I had never done a marathon and it would be an exciting challenge to set myself. Due to my timeliness in registering, I got an early bird discount and I believe I paid under £30 to sign up for the walk, which also took the pressure off. 

On top of this, I had only completed two organised races in my life: the Race for Life 5k whilst I was at school, and a Park Run earlier in the year. Although my half marathon was an official race, I did it during covid so it was virtual and each person chose their own route. Therefore, I was intrigued to see what an organised “in-person” race would be like, including how the aid stations would work and how well signposted the course would be. 

3 weeks to go

With my half marathon, I had been very diligent and stuck to the training plan almost to a T. However, when I got sent the 16-week marathon training plan, I was much less enthused. This was partly due to the fact that it was over summer, so many of my weekends were too busy to fit in a long walk, but also because in my mind I was thinking of the walks as hikes in the countryside, which I didn’t have much enthusiasm to do every single weekend for 16 weeks. 

Therefore, other than walking slightly more in my day-to-day life, I didn’t stick to the training plan at all. Once September hit and I realised that I wasn’t in the least bit prepared, I decided that at the very least it would be worth walking a couple of half marathons in order to wear in my walking boots, prevent blisters on the big day, and get my muscles used to the motions. 

On 1st September, my best mate and I walked a half marathon - my first since 2021! We started at 9:30am, walking from Clapham Common to Battersea Park, then along the riverside all the way to London Bridge, and back on the A3. We started feeling our legs about halfway in, and although it took just over four hours, it absolutely flew by as we hadn’t seen each other in a couple of months so had a lot to catch up on. It helped that we grabbed pastries and coffee in London Bridge, and that we lucked out with the weather (despite a short downpour). I had been most nervous about my back or tummy hurting, and both were completely fine on this walk, which was reassuring. I enjoyed the route a lot, as we passed MI5, Big Ben, the London Eye, Southbank, the Globe Theatre, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Shard, among other landmarks.

The walk was much better than expected and made me realise how little I actually needed on my person, as I’d simply taken a small cross-body bag with water and blister blasters, and that the marathon was actually more achievable than I’d previously imagined. I was slightly achey the following day, but all-in-all, it was a very positive experience! 

2 weeks to go

Just three days after the first long walk I did, I set off on a solo half-marathon walk after work. This was because I was going on holiday that weekend and wanted to remain consistent with my triweekly 5k runs so wouldn’t have time for a long walk at any other point that week. I knew that sunset was around 8:30pm and I wanted to be walking alone in the dark for as little time as possible, so as soon as work finished at 5:30pm, I left the house and paced it in order to be home as soon as possible. 

I took the same route as I’d done the previous week, and whilst I still found that it was enjoyable and flew by, the entire front of the sole of my left boot detached as I approached Borough. For context, I still had about one-and-a-half hours left of my walk, but I was determined to finish it as this was my only opportunity for a long walk until the following week, which would be too close to the marathon, so I persisted with it and ended up doing the half in only three-and-a-half-hours!

Once again, I didn’t bring much with me and had no back or tummy pain, nor blisters, so I was feeling pretty positive. So much so, that the following morning I woke up and ran a 5k with minimal discomfort! The main issue now was which shoes I was going to wear for the marathon; I’d had these walking boots for over a decade and absolutely loved them as they were extremely comfortable and had seen me through everything from DofE to Rainbow Mountain. I wanted to simply glue them back but they were a lost cause, so I was now having to decide whether to do the marathon in brand new walking boots, with minimal wearing in, or in my running trainers. I wasn’t confident in either, but decided that I’d do a final long training walk the following week in my running trainers, once I was back from Mallorca, and that would determine whether my trainers were up to the job. 

1 week to go

With only one week to go until the big day, I was meant to be winding down my training, however given I’d only completed two long walks, each only half the distance of the real thing, I wanted to challenge myself to walk three quarters of the total distance. The first reason for this was to test out whether my trainers were comfy enough to walk long distances in, and the second was so that if I were struggling during the real thing, I’d know that I had walked over 31km beforehand and so could definitely do it again. 

This time, however, I decided to change up the route, and instead of turning back down to Clapham after reaching London Bridge, I instead carried on to Tower Bridge, then crossed over towards Limehouse, and along the Regent’s Canal and various other canals until I eventually reached Stamford Hill, then finally turned west towards Harringay, where my boyfriend lived. 

Although the canals provided a lovely, peaceful route, I definitely struggled with the lack of variety and I found this walk much tougher than either of the previous ones. Even before reaching the halfway mark, I was mentally struggling with the boredom, and this wasn’t helped when a man washing his canal boat accidentally angled the hose towards the pavement (and more specifically, my trainers) as I walked passed, leaving me walking the last 10k in wet trainers and socks.

I left the house at 9am and arrived in Harringay five-and-a-half hours later, so was pretty happy with my pace. That said, I definitely felt my muscles and feet the rest of the day and even up to two days later, but it didn’t matter to me as I now knew that I could definitely do the distance and finish the marathon. Furthermore, I had no blisters and no tummy or back pain, and once again, I realised how little I needed to bring with me. Within the 31.6km walk, I didn’t feel thirsty or hungry at all, and only had a quick pitstop at Victoria Park as my boyfriend recommended going to the loo there as they are often clean, and grabbing a snack from the café. Therefore, I ate a pain-au-chocolate as a tardy breakfast treat, but I was growing in confidence by the hour. 

One thing I did find very interesting on this route was the concentration of traditional Jews within Stamford Hill - despite being born and raised in London and having lived in the city for the majority of my life, I’d never ventured over this far and I was surprised by the community here; it was very interesting to see so many people dressed in the same fashion, as it’s a fairly uncommon sight, and I was fascinated by it. 

Now that I knew that I would be able to physically walk a marathon, my main concern was the mental battle around the 30km mark, especially as the walk would be overnight, so I’d likely be battling tiredness as well, however my aim was to keep a reasonably fast pace for the first half and aim to have walked over half of it before midnight, which would hopefully provide enough motivation to finish the race.

The Big Day

Finally, the big day was upon us. As far as I was aware, the race start time was at 7:45pm so I had the entire day to mess around and I had no clue how I was going to spend so many hours. My boyfriend, who had also signed up for the race, came over and after a very relaxing morning, we had a late lunch and meal-prepped for the following couple of days, and then napped until 5pm, with the aim of reducing our tiredness during the walk. We planned on making a quick burrito bowl for dinner and then getting ready and going, however neither of us were hungry due to our late lunch so we instead had some rice, corn salsa, and avocado, in order to fuel us for the walk. Spoiler: this was where I went wrong. 

As my boyfriend was making dinner, I tried to figure out at what time we aim to leave, and after reading the most recent email from the organisers, which stated my start time as 7pm and advised arriving an hour before the start, we realised that we had to hurry in order to arrive even for 6:30pm. Therefore, we chowed down our dinner and then quickly got ready and left the house. Conveniently, the race started (and finished) in Battersea Park, and so it was only a 30-minute bus journey from my house in Clapham and by 6:30pm we’d arrived. 

I wore cycling shorts, my Shine the Night t-shirt (which glowed in the dark!), running socks, trainers, and a waterproof jacket. I brought my Uniqlo crossbody bag (which was a lifesaver in South America), filling it with my running number, safety pins, a water bottle, snacks (namely Jelly Babies, Mars bars and a Kit Kat), blister plasters, AirPods, lip balm, and hand cream. 

My boyfriend had forgotten to bring his physical number, so had to get a new one, and after a quick loo run, we then were called straight to the starting line. It was all a bit rushed (our fault for being late) but once we arrived, we had some entertainment, including messages from previous walkers and those impacted by cancer, and an aquaerobics-style warm-up. It was much more inspiring (and fun!) than I expected it to be and I was close to tears as we neared the actual start line. It was very emotional to see how many people had been impacted by cancer, and reading who each person was doing it for. 

We crossed the start line to the song “Let It Shine” and tried to maintain a good pace (which meant overtaking a fair few people, which was tricky), and people spread out much sooner than expected so after a while it didn’t feel crowded at all. There was also a choir near the start line, which was lovely to see. As soon as I started the walk, I could feel slight discomfort in my tummy, which is fairly common for me when I walk right after a meal, and always worsens with walking, so I was feeling very apprehensive. Nonetheless, I had made it through a whole day’s worth of tummy discomfort in Santiago, Chile, and a few hour’s worth in Havana, Cuba, so all hope was not yet lost. At the same time, my boyfriend’s back had been playing up over the past few weeks, and he was likewise in discomfort. It’s fair to say this wasn’t an ideal start. 

Nonetheless, we persevered, and my discomfort was remaining manageable, whilst my boyfriend’s was worsening by the minute. He didn’t want to leave me to walk it alone, but by the time we got to Westminster around four miles in, he realised there was no way he could walk a marathon with his back as it was, so we said our goodbyes and I kept putting one foot in front of the other. One positive was that I could now pick up the pace further as I knew that my tummy was only going to worsen so the quicker I could get through it, the quicker the pain would be over. 

Despite the walkers being spread out, for the most part I could always see at least one walker ahead of me, which was very handy, especially if they had bright lights. The route was also very well sign-posted, often with volunteers providing directions at any confusing junctions, so there were very few points where I was unsure if I was going in the right direction. There were also boards along the way, either with encouraging statements, information about the landmarks we were passing, or facts about what Cancer Research does - all of which kept me entertained and I looked forward to reading these a lot! 

There were also more than enough aid stations along the route, all with plenty of portaloos (with toilet roll and sanitiser!) and snacks. My only qualm is that the snacks were almost entirely comprised of cereal bars and sweet foods, whereas all I was wanting was fruit. At around the halfway mark, I also saw another walker with a Lucozade sport, and I craved nothing more in that moment. 

I found the first half of the marathon to be fairly enjoyable, despite the mild discomfort in my tummy, however, as expected, as I approached the 30km mark, I started to struggle mentally. My tummy was feeling worse by the minute and neither music nor podcasts were helping to distract me from the discomfort. I felt so frustrated at myself for eating so close to the start time, which had been my main worry when signing up for the marathon, and I had avoided for each of my training walks. Therefore, I spent the majority of the walk in silence, just thinking about life. My boyfriend has run various ultramarathons, so he was very supportive the entire time, however I tried to avoid being on my phone as I didn’t want to slow down at all. Instead, I kept thinking about the route and breaking it down in my head into smaller sections; I remember thinking over and over “okay it’s just Hyde Park, then straight to South Ken, which will lead to Sloane Street, then Kings Road, then I’ll cross the bridge and end up in Battersea, and I’m done!” which I found helpful.

I felt (and still feel!) very bad about one interaction however, as at one point I was walking alongside an older man, who struck up a conversation with me and I learnt that he’d recently finished cancer treatment and was in remission. He was chatting away and eventually another lady joined and did the same, however I found that the more I spoke, the sicker I felt, so I had to leave them to it and focus on deep breaths and just getting through it. I hadn’t touched any of my snacks but I picked up a cereal bar from a station aid stand to see if that would help, but one bite of that was more than enough for me to realise it would actually exacerbate the situation. As I approached Hyde Park Corner for the second time (around mile 22), I suddenly had the uncontrollable urge to throw up and before I could make it into a portaloo, I was vomiting in the street. Ironically, it was also at this point that the half marathoners joined our route, so I went from only seeing one or two walkers at a time, to being surrounded by hordes of them. I tried to take a couple of steps but that made me throw up again, so I took a minute to sort myself out. Luckily, I had water and a tissue, so once I felt able, I kept on going. 

Surprisingly, I felt much better after that, and so continued the walk in high spirits, however the elation was very short-lived, as I soon felt queasy once again, and by this point I was on a mission to just finish. I quickly realised that any time we were in a green space, I felt better, but as soon as we were on busy roads, the pollution immediately made me feel more nauseous, and as we approached Sloane Street around mile 24, I threw up once again. 

Soon thereafter, my boyfriend joined me and we walked the last mile together, which was very special and motivated me a lot. I crossed the finish line seven hours and 27 minutes after I’d started, which I was very pleased with, and I was so excited by the idea of finally being horizontal and feeling less queasy. But first, we had to get home. One thing they don’t tell you about with official races, is that you end up walking much more than just the race distance as the start and finish lines are often far from the park entrance points, and so by the time we left the park, I was very achey. Luckily, my boyfriend had kindly brought me a banana and Lucozade sport, as requested, which I devoured (although Lucozade has changed the recipe to now include aspartame, which also makes me feel queasy). 

I honestly could not believe that I’d finished the marathon, especially given my discomfort throughout, but between my determination and my boyfriend’s and all of the volunteers’ support, I made it. I’d aimed to do it in eight to nine hours (as the guide has stated nine hours as walking at a brisk pace, 11 hours at a normal pace and 14 hours at a slow pace), so I was very happy with my 7h 27m, and I was shocked that the tiredness hadn’t hit me, despite it being 3am by the time we got home. 

I felt that the event was very well organised; it was well signposted and there were lots of volunteers, whose support was very encouraging and really got me through. It also helped that the route was so lovely and varied, including through Victoria, Westminster, the City (which triggered me slightly), Buckingham Palace, Coal Drops Yard, South Kensington and Chelsea, just to name a few areas we passed. It was fascinating seeing the crowds change from tourists by Southbank, to drunk partygoers near London Bridge, to those dressed to the nines in the City. Funnily enough, it was the drunk people who were often the most supportive; I had one man run alongside me, another high five me, and various shout things such as “keep going, you’re better than we are, we’re drunk”, which provided a lot of entertainment. Various sober people were also intrigued by what was going on and why there were people lighting up the streets of London, many of whom were very supportive and congratulatory on finding out the cause behind the walk. 

Two unusual things about this walk were that I was more thirsty on it than I’d been in any of my three training walks, including at earlier distances, and also despite the weather being ideal for a long walk, it was incredibly windy on this evening, meaning lots of Lime bikes and branches were scattered on the pavements. That said, the cool breeze helped a lot with my queasiness and kept me awake. Plus, with the brisk pace I was walking at, I ended up walking the majority of the distance in just a t-shirt and cycling shorts, despite it being 12°C at points and having brought a windbreaker. I was also surprised by how much my fingers swelled, as although they often get swollen after long walks, I’d never seen it to this extent before.

Final Thoughts

I have had some time to reminisce on the marathon, and there are a few things that I’m glad I did and other things that I would do differently if I were to ever do another marathon. 

Firstly, I’m happy that I napped beforehand as I didn’t feel impacted by the fact that it was the early hours of the morning by the time I crossed the finish line. I was also very grateful in the following days that I’d meal prepped beforehand, as it made life so much easier and meant that I could rest my body more and thus, reduce the recovery time. I also felt that my training walks had really paid off, as I had no blisters at all and within a day or two I felt good as new!

If I were to do another marathon, I’d definitely triple check the start time, as being rushed was not very fun, and if I’d known the correct time in advance, I wouldn’t have eaten so close to us leaving, which impacted the walk hugely. I’d also accessorise much more, whether with fairy lights, glow sticks, or neon face paint, as those who were lit up were so helpful to see the route, and I'd definitely put more effort into fundraising. I’d put my hair in a plait, rather than a ponytail, especially as on this night it was so windy that I could feel my foot being pushed by the wind each time I lifted it, so as you can imagine, my hair was a complete state by the end. Lastly, I would consider doing a virtual marathon for two reasons: firstly, you can start it in the morning and make a day of it without impacting your meal times and sleep schedule; and secondly, to minimise the additional walking time getting to the start line and away from the finish line. It also means you can go faster as there are no crowds. 

Despite never having thought I'd complete a marathon, I feel very proud to have gotten one under my belt, especially as it was done in my own way, and it is very nice to end the summer with a personal achievement.