An Incredible Personal Achievement
In March 2022, I got my London Marathon ballot entry result in the form of an email which I viewed on my smart phone whilst I was in my brother’s car on the way to the Emergency Services in our city. It was my brother driving me to A&E that is! Yes, I was rather unwell for a few weeks coming out of winter into spring of 2022.
The year of 2022 was such a fulfilling year for me in so many ways. So many aspects of my life were changed, tweaked, enhanced, or outright transformed that year! 2022 marked many events related to my family, friends, health, wealth, location, education, work, personal and professional development, and so much more. It was, I must say, a transformational year in very good way praise be to the Lord of heavens and Earth. It was not without its turbulences though: indeed, that was part of the plan. I would love to reflect openly about the various transformations of 2022 in this written piece, but I could not do them enough justice. I aim to reflect on just one aspect in this piece: health.
About three months ago, I did something incredible. I ran the London Marathon. I ran the entire full London Marathon! It may have been the best thing I have done in 2022, in that decade of my life_ would I be going too far if I said it was perhaps one of the more incredible things I have done in my entire life? Now, months later in retrospect, I am seriously thinking that I would love to run a marathon again, and to do other city marathons around the world too in sha Allah (God willingly).
It was my first full marathon to run. The furthest I had ever run in one go. Twenty-six point two miles. In fact, in my training, the furthest I had ever run in one go was 18.25 miles. To think that I was able to run the marathon, enjoy it, and be buzzing afterwards and wanting to run it again and again is an immensely incredible achievement, Alhamdulellah (praise be to Allah)! I am ever so grateful and humbled to have been able to have had such an experience.
It was about a whole year since getting the news from the humanitarian charity, Penny Appeal, that I had a place to partake in the London marathon 2022, given that I fundraised to build a water well in Africa. Alhamdulellah, I reached and surpassed the fundraising target required for the charity place. May Allah accept from each and every single donor, Ameen. Ma sha Allah, the donations doubled in the month of Ramadan 2022. The same amount was donated to the cause in that one month as was donated in the previous six months of fundraising! Generous donors gave between the range of £1 to £150, and wrote the most beautiful messages filled with words of encouragement, motivation and supplications. I appreciate and thank -from the bottom of my heart- every single one of them.
I was faced by many challenges over the year of training and fundraising. Getting two nasty viruses within the space of a few months; having moved locations and then moving back; starting and settling into a new job; training in extreme weather conditions over the winter and summer of that academic year; finding out dampening insider information about fundraising; and having many uncertainties on the logistics of actually making it on the day. Overcoming these challenges, amongst other highlights, provided me with many features of relief along the way thankfully.
When living in a busy city, my average steps per day were above the usual town-living daily steps. I would walk to work and back some days: up to three days a week that would reach at times. Therefore, there were weeks when I only managed to get out for two runs: one short run, and a long run. In fact, that was the case for a lot of weeks, even when I moved back to my town, especially when my long runs were covering 12 miles and over.
I pride myself that I have been running since I was 14. I remember that first time I ran for a continuous 5 minutes in our back garden and getting completely out of breath from doing so. There have been numerous health conditions which meant that there were periods -that went up to years on some occasions- of me not running. For some years now, I have been running in a small fairly-new town. That has its own challenges. Rarely would one find another pedestrian on the roads I choose to run, let alone a runner, let alone a Hijabi runner. Being a visibly Muslim female runner should not be an issue_ theoretically speaking that is. I had previously heard of and seen Muslim Runners and Active Inclusion Network from afar. However, I managed to join them literally the eve of the marathon. I joined their ‘Pasta Party’ that evening in East London. Since then, it has been an absolute pleasure to be part of the Muslim Runners group.
On the actual day of the London Marathon 2022, I woke up with so much nerves. I had no appetite for breakfast, but I knew better than to skip it. I was at the venue no earlier or later than two hours before my start time. The atmosphere was from a movie. The support from the crowds was magnificent. I was lucky to have received support from friends and family on the day from the side lines. When I finished and got my medal, I got really emotional and called my mum: “Mama, I ran a marathon!”. I know I don’t have enough space here to capture all the precious memories and emotions that occurred over that day. The run that day perhaps requires an article by itself!
Nowadays when I am going for short runs over the winter months, I remind myself that I know I have got a lot more in me than this. I have not yet signed up for a race for several reasons, but I know that I will not let this be my only marathon in sha Allah.
Running over London Bridge on 2nd October 2022.
