Diary of a London Marathon runner: This is why I am raising money for St Catherine's Hospice

Chris will be raising money for St Catherine’s Hospice as he runs the 26.2 mile course around the capital. Chris will chart his training on SussexWorld.co.uk with a diary. This is the first entry of his diary.

“Hi, my name’s Chris, and I’ll be running the London Marathon in April 2023, in aid of St Catherine’s Hospice!

Since a young age, I’ve loved playing sports and going to the gym, and so naturally, running the London Marathon has always been on my bucket list. That said, I’m a treadmill dodger, preferring to lift weights rather than do any sort of endurance activity.

Why have I chosen to run the 2023 London Marathon in aid of St Catherine’s Hospice?

After a 6 year battle with prostate cancer, my Dad was admitted to Guildford Hospital in July 2021. A potentially fatal blood clot had formed in his body. Very early one morning we were told to come to the hospital to say our goodbyes to Dad, but were not able to stay with him in what we thought were his final hours, due to COVID-19 restrictions. It was by far and away the toughest moment of my life.

Later that day, Dad was given the option to take a blood clot busting drug, which from memory had a less than 50% chance of working. Fortunately for him, it did work, and he went on to survive another 3/4 weeks. We potentially had the chance to say hello to him again!

As mentioned though, COVID-19 restrictions meant that now only Mum could visit him for limited hours, and no one else.

A shortage of homecare nurses meant that he couldn't be released from hospital either. It was torture not being able to see him again, with him essentially being in a ward, with the occasional visit from doctors, nurses & Mum. This went on for 10 days.

Luckily for us and Dad, St Catherine's Hospice came to the rescue! They provided Dad with homecare nurses, which allowed him to be at home for his remaining time on earth.

He took full advantage of this, with a constant stream of visitors stopping by the family home to say hello (and goodbye) to him. He got to watch a shed load of sport on tv too!

It also meant my Mum, Brother, Sister, and I got to be by his side for his final breaths, something that would not have otherwise been possible.

I will be eternally grateful for what St Catherine's Hospice did for our family, for making Dad as comfortable as possible in his final few weeks, allowing him to say his final goodbyes to his huge network of friends and family, and pass away peacefully where he wanted to.

This gave me all the motivation I needed, to know that one day, I’d want to run the London Marathon in aid of this amazing charity.

I’d already signed up to the July 2023 Jurassic Walk, and around the middle of November 2022 whilst talking to Emma, who was organising the walk, I loosely enquired about how I could go about running the marathon for the charity. She mentioned that the London Marathon was reverting back to April, but that it was possible to train for it in as little as 16 weeks, and that there were still spaces available!

Knowing that it was less than a year until I turned 40, could do with improving my fitness/losing some weight, and that I really wanted to run the London Marathon for St Catherine’s, I filled out the London Marathon application form. On Monday 21st November 2022, my application was accepted!!!

My marathon training to date

Although I’d already played a couple of games of rugby in October/November, my aerobic fitness was pretty poor. I’d previously suffered from quite a few calf/Achilles issues too, and so was unable to run 5k in one go at the end of November. To start the 16 week training plan from January 2, it’s recommended that you’re able to run 5 miles without stopping, and so I gradually built up to being able to do so over December.

The 16-week training plan required me to do 4 runs a week, which I managed to do for the first 2 weeks of January. Severe tension in my calf muscles stopped me from running at all in weeks 3 and 4. However, I was able to cycle, and one of best mate’s needed somewhere to store his watt bike for 9 months, whilst his house was being renovated, so I replaced running for cycling from my living room for 2 weeks using my mate’s watt bike to cycle for the equivalent amount of time I’d have been running. I’m sure this bike is going to be a massive help to me over the next 3 months, so thanks Dan for lending it to me!

This week, I managed to run twice in the week, and next week I hope to up this again to 3 running sessions in the week. This week ended with me running half marathon distance in 2 hours 9 minutes, and in 3 weeks time I’ll be flying the flag for St Catherine’s Hospice as I take on the Brighton Half Marathon, which will be great race day prep for the London Marathon.

Fundraising to date: Most importantly, so far I’ve managed to raise just over £1,000 for St Catherine’s Hospice, with friends, family and work colleagues being extremely generous in donating to this amazing charity.

I’ve managed to do this mainly through social media, by doing a weekly blog of my training on Facebook and Instagram, which has been well received by friends and family. You can follow me and my marathon blog on Instagram via account @golf.wod.frans.

I’ve also added my sponsorship page link to my work’s email footer, which has been a good way for colleagues to donate too. If you’d like to sponsor me, you can do so on the following link: https://2023tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/chris-francis

Over the next few months I’ll be providing Sussex World with updates of my training progress, all things associated with marathon training and raising money for St Catherine’s Hospice. I’ll report back again in a few weeks!

Thanks for listening, Chris.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​