The April Member of the Month Award is presented to Anna Smith-James.
Anna has been a member of the club for a while now, and we were (quite frankly) surprised that she hadn’t been member of the month before given her marathon pedigree.
Anna was recently heard to say “I’m not a PB hunter. I love getting PBs of course, but realistically I’m not running every race for a time. It kills the fun for me. I find enjoyment in other ways, like collecting different parkruns, doing different marathons and basically just having a doss about.”
Whilst she may currently working on other challenges, such as the parkrun Alphabet Challenge and completing all of the Marathon Majors, Anna took part in the Brighton marathon at the beginning of April and stormed round to finish in a time of 3:16:29, taking nearly 8 minutes off her previous PB, a massive improvement given how quick her PB already was. She was also the first Hedgie (male or female) to finish.
Despite claiming not to be a PB hunter, she also recently ran her first sub-20 minute parkrun.
Many congratulations Anna on your fantastic marathon and parkrun performances.

I never thought that I would ever run...... Let alone do the famous London Marathon.

A surprise club ballot place came round really quickly... Training (slowly) seemed to work for a change and running twice a week was also part of a sensible plan. With runs to Ashurst, Lyndhurst and Gosport,.. mainly in Rain, Dark and Snow... I was ready for "The Big One".

Thunderstorms the night before ruined any chance of an early night, and a 4.00am alarm for a 5.30am coach was a shock to the system!!!. Arriving at the start line around 8.30, was a great feeling, It was very warm by the time I entered my pen at 9.30, very compact and busy... the Elite went off and we followed around 10.40. My training and plan was to run 25 minutes, then walk 5. Feeling fresh but boiling, I somehow went off with the crowd and ran the first 8 miles, I stopped for a foot issue and applied some Vaseline, kindly supplied by my amazing support team (Girlfriend).

The crowds were amazing, and wearing my charity shirt, I had so many shouts... Not sure if I had drank too little or too much, but by mile 11, I saw lots of people doing the same. I started to feel faint and drifted left towards the barriers... by Tower Bridge, I felt sick to go with the dizzy spell and was unsure what was going on. The Bridge indicates that you have made half-way point. I saw a friend shortly after, he too was struggling and so we walk/ran for a bit, I left him thinking "How will I find the guts to find another 12 miles".

I had the goal to get to Mile 17 as the GF would hopefully be there, The crowds seemed to roar, and even my walk breaks were quick, The heat was immense and even the showers didn't cool us down. By the time I reached the girlfriend at the 17 Mile marker, I was totally broken and did think of calling it a day. "No way" she said... "You can do this. Dont give up!!!", I didn't want to let my friends/family/training buddies/running club/gang down, so stuck at it and carried on...

At Mile 20, the sickness whilst running had eased, and although the dizziness remained, I was loving the whole experience... I had only ever dreamed of this. My plan now was to run 600m and walk 400m,....and by sticking to this, I thought "I can do this".