I was very fortunate to get a place in London Marathon this year. It just happened that this coincided with the Romania trip, so I decided to help out with the sponsorship for the pupils. I trained for 20 weeks beforehand, through rain, hail and snow, running 5 days a week. I had previously done 2 marathons before in Belfast and Dublin, so I kind of knew what to expect. When the day arrived, I was very nervous but the atmosphere running around London soon alleviated any nervousness. It was an amazing experience with so much support round the 26.22 miles and I even managed to knock 40 minutes of my Personal Best to finish in a time of 4hrs 01min 13secs and run a little bit extra too! I would to thank everyone in school for all the messages of support and to pupils and staff alike who tracked me along the course and of course my coach Declan who had a lot to listen to over the 20 weeks. In spite of telling people that this was my last marathon, I’ve signed up again for London again next year!
Mrs. Smyth
