Hello everyone, 

So as a few of you already know myself, Lakes (aka Connor) and my Dad (Mark), decided to set ourselves the challenge of running a marathon this year! 

We have thought about how good it would be to run a marathon a number of times but we’ve never actually thought we would do it. But, with the pandemic and the fact that we would have more free time since the pubs and shops haven’t been open, we decided that this year would be the best time to set ourselves this challenge. 

So, on New Years Eve 2020 we decided that we would create the training program and the route.

The training programme lasted 13 weeks which was really tough, but luckily in the first few months of the year, I was working from home a number of days a week. This worked out quite well so I was able to go for our longer weekday runs mid afternoon! 

There were days where I thought what am I doing? Actually the very first ‘long’ run on a Wednesday was 6 miles!! I felt like crying because it was so tough and I couldn’t think of doing an extra step, never mind another 20 miles😂. It probably wasn’t helped by the fact that the run was up Ormerod Street!

Besides the actual marathon, the training was just so hard because I think what people don’t often see is the runs you do leading up to it. Before the marathon we had done a number of long runs (the longest being 22 miles) over the 13 weeks. And each of these runs were so different. Some days we felt amazing, I remember we did an 8 mile run and at the end we all felt that is was so quick and we just felt that all the training was noticeably paying off. But there were some runs that were just awful!! The worst run probably came at a dreadful time... the Sunday before the marathon we did a half marathon and no joke it was horrendous 😂! Five days before the marathon we ran the worst we had done throughout the whole training program and we all couldn’t wait for it to be over.  We thought at the end, we have to do double that next week! 

I think the training as a whole was very up and down. We all had our favourite runs and ones we never want to talk about again 😂. But at the end I don’t think we’d change a thing and we definitely got fitter and achieved something we never thought we could do. It feels amazing to say that we have all done a marathon 😄.

To be honest, I have loved taking part in the program, it has really helped us all stay focused and it has forced us to get out on our runs on days where I really couldn’t be bothered. We were running 4 days a week, with an additional ‘Lakes Training’ on a Saturday. The Saturdays were really good. Lakes came up with a high intensity workout and some strength and conditioning for us all to do (including Mum and Ellie) and we put the music on full blast and it felt like we were in a very sweaty club! 😂

As there were no organised marathons happening, Lakes and Dad came up with a route around Hyndburn. To make it feel even more like the real thing, we got some tops printed with the route on and Mum and Ellie (along with others) were stood at various points with water and jelly babies! 

We were so grateful for lots of fellow OJs coming round the route to give us some extra support. We really did appreciate it.  

The marathon was very difficult. For the first 16 miles it seemed to be going well, we were running at a decent pace and we were really enjoying it. But then, my left knee started to hurt and it was quite painful for about half a mile along the canal. Dad rang my mum to bring me some pain killers and some spray but it was quite hit and miss as to whether we would finish the marathon. All my mum was saying was “come on, you have to do it. You’ve only got 10 miles left!!” 🙄 We decided to carry on and luckily the paracetamol kicked in at the right time and it did definitely help. Whilst we were running up towards Burnley Road, Dad said that he didn’t mind calling it a day and we could complete the marathon on a different day in a couple of weeks. To be honest, I couldn’t think of anything worse than having to run the route again in a couple of weeks so I’m glad we completed it when we did!!😅 

Towards the end of the run, we (stupidly) had to run up The Coppice; this was really, really tough but we did it. 💪🏼Myself and Lakes were running quite well but Dad was really struggling at this point but we all managed to concur The Coppice. Once we had completed it, we only had about 5.5 miles left but these felt like the longest miles ever. 

The toughest stretch was certainly running along Hyndburn Road and Blackburn Road. Dad had no energy left at all and he nearly got run over on Hyndburn Road because he couldn’t be bothered checking if it was clear to go or not! Luckily, mum and Ellie were on hand again to give us some extra water and much needed jelly babies and encouragement. 

The very final stretch of the marathon was running through Foxhill Nature Reserve, up to White Ash Playing Fields and finally back to Ossy Mills Car Park. This was the best bit because in the distance we could see a number of people waiting (socially distanced) for us at the entrance to the car park. There was a finish line attached to the car wing mirror and a bollard which we had to run to to celebrate finishing the hardest run of our lives! 

We did it!!🏃🏼‍♂️🏃🏼‍♂️🏃🏽‍♀️

p.s. In case you are wondering, Brenoyd comes from a combination of our surnames: Brennan and Lloyd