Joe Derrett, 41, is a moderate, rational, well-rounded human being, except when it comes to the London Marathon. He ran the capital’s great race for the first time in 2003, and describes it as “the toughest five hours of my life.” This did not put him off: “It was exhilarating, running past all the famous sights I’d seen runners go past on TV - the Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge then down the Embankment to the finish.” Craving further punishment, Joe now has a personal best for the event of three hours and 31 minutes. But that is not his greatest London Marathon achievement.
That came in 2013 when Joe, clearly under-exerted by covering the 26.2 mile course from Blackheath to The Mall on most people’s day of rest, decided he would run the entire thing again in the opposite direction the following day. He was raising money for the London Community Foundation, but even so. He paid for his ambition, too: “It was rough.” As he re-traced his route on the Monday people helpfully yelled: “It finished yesterday, mate.” Joe got back to Blackheath though and, naturally enough, decided that the following year, rather than covering the course twice in two days, he’d do it three times in three days instead. What could be more obvious than that?
Joe trained harder than ever and this time put in his extra miles in advance of the Sunday morning big race itself. The first part of this tri-marathon, completed on the Friday, was so easy (Joe’s word) that he went out in the evening to see Manic Street Preachers at the Brixton Academy. Saturday’s second leg was a different story. Joe was so tired he had to give his tickets for a second Manics night out to someone else. And yet, strangely: “On the third day, with another 34,999 runners, I felt great. I ran the first half slowly, chatting with another guy who was running for the same charity, Diabetes UK, and just enjoying the day. After the 18th mile, I felt even better and ended up storming down the Embankment.”
Joe has run in other marathons too, but the London one is special for him: “London is my town. Through my running I’ve discovered so many historic parts of the best city in the world.” London-born and a resident of Crouch Hill, Joe works in the world of London government. Currently he’s head of external communications at Haringey Council. Before that, he handled media matters for, among others, Lambeth Council and Ken Livingstone when he was London mayor and also during his unsuccessful bid to recapture City Hall in 2012. This year, Joe will be a spectator. He wishes he wasn’t: “There’s no other day of the year when you can run down the middle of Tower Bridge being cheered on like you are Mo Farah.” But he’ll be there in the crowd, urging others on.
Those others will include me, taking part for the fourth time, and many debutantes including 30 year-old Christina Panayiotou, who’s raising money for her employer, the disability charity Scope. Christina has previously run five half marathons, including three autumnal Royal Parks ones, which go gloriously through four of Central London’s most famous green spaces: Hyde Park, St James’s Park, Green Park and Kensington Gardens.
Christina was a spectator at last year’s London Marathon - the Virgin Money London Marathon, to give its full title - and the experience convinced her that it would be her natural step up to the longer distance. “The atmosphere was electric, and there’s such a nice vibe. There were Londoners, tourists, previous competitors and all the charity cheering stations. It brought out the best in the city.”
She watched from two points on the course: the first at around 13 miles as the runners made their Tower Bridge Thames crossing before heading east toward the Isle of Dogs, and the second near the 23 mile point on Lower Thames Street, where participant’s minds are focussed yearningly on when the agony stops. A friend was running, and Christina managed to spot her both times: “At 13 miles she was looking amazing, but not quite so good at 23!”
Christina, who is hoping to finish in 4.5 hours, has split her training between Hampstead Heath, which is close to her home in Kentish Town, and, for longer runs, routes taking in the Embankment, thereby tracing part of the course. She hopes this familiarity will help her. “I’ve found with other runs that familiarity with the course helps. Being able to picture it helps with your preparation.” Readers can sponsor Christina here.
Grace Haughton, 28, is another marathon debutante. Like Christina, she was drawn in after being a spectator, watching three London marathons before at last becoming a participant having down one half marathon, in Richmond, before. “The first time I was quite inspired and thought ‘maybe one day’. The second time I thought, ‘I can do that,’ but I didn’t get a place in the draw.” So this year she’s entered as a charity runner for housing charity Shelter, for whom she also works. “That is great because as well as working for them I’ve supported them since I was 18.”
Grace lives in Greenwich, handily close to where the race starts. She describes the race day atmosphere among spectators round her way as “fantastic – everybody really goes for it. I’m quite a quiet person, but in that crowd I was shouting, cheering people on. Or ‘Come on dog! Come on camel!’ to the ones in costumes. You meet people who live near you but don’t usually talk to. Some watch it sitting in their front gardens. There’s a sense of occasion and a feeling that people in London really care.”
She’s done most of her her training on Blackheath and Greenwich Park, her treasured neighbourhood south London open spaces, and beyond them along the bank of the famous loop of the Thames and where the restored Cutty Sark is displayed in Greenwich dry dock. “I visualise the people cheering,” she says. “It keeps me going on the way back from longer runs when I begin to ask myself, ‘why did I leave the uphill part until the end?’” Lately, her knees have “taken a pounding” and she’s suffered with “three separate colds,” all of which have affected her training. “I still think I can finish, though, and I’ll be happy enough now if I break five hours.” Grace’s shared fundraising page is here.
Lovers of London’s transport networks and associated lore will warm to the training regime of 19 year-old William Stein, who is raising money for Unicef. Currently doing a gap year at Vintage Wealth Management, who he says have been very supportive of his fitness drive, William will begin a geography and economics course at the London School of Economics in the autumn. He lives in the north London suburb of Mill Hill where he grew up, and has taken his local Tube station, Mill Hill East, as a starting point for his endurance work, following the pathways of the Northern Line, yea, even unto distant Morden, its southern terminus.
Mill Hill East is classic London pub quiz material, being for historic reasons the one and only stop on a single-track spur connecting it with Finchley Central on the forked line’s High Barnet branch. “I’m very proud of that station,” William says. He measures mileages by other Northern Line stops: “It’s six miles to Camden and 23 to Morden, via Bank.” He emphasises that he has also, and very properly, run the other section of the line after it divides southward of Camden before joining up again at Kennington, not wishing to by pass such august locations as Leicester Square, Waterloo and Charing Cross.
It might seem that traversing some of the very busiest parts of metropolis, even at quieter times of day, would render sustained long distance running difficult. But William makes light of this. “It’s really not that bad. Even the full distance involves only three or four streets really, and they are straight for a lot of the way.” He agrees that slaloming round commuters and other pedestrians might also be good practice for the subtle art of weaving among the droves of fellow runners during the race.
William is aiming for a time of around 4.5 hours and wonders how long it might take him to recover, as he has plans to go travelling soon. I explained that in my case, being 58 years old, getting over the marathon entails walking in the style of Widow Twanky for two days but that a teenager such as him might avoid this. And, after all, he went trampolining with friends in Acton after returning from his excursion to Morden. “My mother thought that was bizarre,” he says. Others might simply think it must be nice to be 19. You can sponsor William here.
Good luck to Christina, Grace and William on Sunday and to everyone else taking part in the Virgin Money London Marathon. And happy spectating to Joe.
