Colin Shannon, a member of Bootle Pilgrim Lodge No 1473 of the Ormskirk and Bootle Group, did something he had never envisaged he would do. That was to take part in the London Marathon, with the fact Colin is not a runner and doesn’t like running. Colin for many years has volunteered for many large events including, 2016 Rio Olympics, 2018 usher for Stephen Hawking’s interment at Westminster Abbey, 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and 2022 The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant volunteer.
So why did he apply to participate? Over the years, he had been in London on the day of the marathon as a volunteer and noticed that there was a great atmosphere and at the time, he thought it would be good to be part of that for a fleeting second, and never thought anymore about it. As up to now he had only ever run the Bupa 10K run in London for Asthma UK in 2015.
Several years later, he had the opportunity to sign up with the charity Asthma + Lung UK to secure a marathon place and raise money for them. Which is a charity close to his heart as he lost his mother due to asthma many years ago and many friends that suffer with asthma.
Once committed it was time to do some research to see what he had let himself in for. Who knew that there were so many different types of running shorts. After his research he got kitted out professionally with the shoes, shorts and socks.
So, training started using the treadmill for a few weeks, which was a mistake and after trying it a couple of times, he found that training outside was much better. However, that had to stop due to health reasons. That meant there was zero training for several months.
When he could restart, Colin only had a couple of weeks to train for the marathon and he had to revisit his strategy. His aim was now just to complete it regardless of time. It would entail fast paced walking, running for short times and if need be, resting.
The day came and he travel to London to pick up his bib and number. Following a good night’s sleep, Colin headed to the starting area which was in Greenwich Park. The atmosphere there was electric with literally 1,000s of competitors waiting around and chatting to each other. Then the moment had come and we were lined up at various starting lines and set off in waves.
With people cheering everyone on, support was there for most of the marathon. Official water stations more or less every mile or so, the crowds were fantastic, they were offering sweets from tubs, melons, water and so on. Some people were making a party of it, some had BBQ’s set up in their gardens, others were playing music. If they saw your name on your running top, they would be calling out to you to encourage you. This was a great help as the heat was building up which was slowing a lot of people down. All runners were very supportive of each other, if they saw anyone slowing down or struggling, they would slow down or stop to make sure you were ok. The volunteers all along the route would do the same. Even hoses were set up quite frequently along the route that people could run through to cool down.
After a certain time, they begin to clean up the roads so that they can reopen them. This meant they moved the finish line to St James’s Park. That is where Colin finished after about nine and a half hours and crossed the finish line to cheers and was then presented with his finishers medal.
Colin realised that his time was not the best, but was proud of himself. This being his first marathon, virtually no training, the heat and recovering from health issues, Colin still managed to complete it. In doing so, Colin raised over £1,700 for his charity. Which was well worth the pain of the day and maybe to do it again one day. Colin gave a big thank you to everyone that had donated in person or online, it meant a lot to him.
Colin says: “It would be remiss of me if I did not mention the fantastic organisation of the event. Which was everything from the initial contact with the charity, the bib collection process, the actual run and the finish. The staff and volunteers were above and beyond the call of duty.”
If anybody still wants to donate to Colin’s fund-raising page, click here.