Pep talk for London Marathon Peoples.

Dear London Marathoner Person,

Tomorrow you will be completing your first… your second… your fifteenth… your thirty first… marathon.  I write ‘will be’ because that is what you will be doing.  You might be doing it quickly, with the wind at your back and a song in your heart.  You might be doing it slowly, with a heavy costume and a goal to raise awareness for a cause dear to your heart.

But that is what you will be doing.

You may go through all the emotions, you might get a runner’s high.  You might find yourself singing, crying, taking photos or in a severe state of focus that would make any gangster rapper flee in terror. But you will be going – doing – achieving – and crossing the line.

You will be finishing the London Marathon.

Me?  I’m super stoked that I finished a 5k today.  You know the 5k, right?  The ‘little run’ that you look back on wistfully?  That one.  I did it.  I’ve been down, I’ve been sick, but I got on the treadmill thinking about my time training for London and thought if you’re going to be finishing a marathon tomorrow then my happy rear end can go 5k.  And I did.  I took the step – just like you did when you started training for that marathon you will be finishing tomorrow.

You took the step.  You put one foot in front of the other.  You did the time.  You put in the mileage.

Tomorrow, when you start, you start to celebrate.  You celebrate all that hard work you put into this.  Every time you pass a mile marker, a party, a gel stand, a handstand, a steel drum band – you can celebrate.  Because you’re getting closer to the goal, the time you put in, the positive choices you made – it’s right there and it’s calling you.

You got this.  I know you’ve got this.  I’ve been there, done that, I have two rather oversized t-shirts because I’m crazy slow and they run out of my size by the time I finish – but if I can do it I know you can do it.

Go make me proud.