Alex’s Story

In October, Alex will be joining Team Young Lives on the start line of the London Marathon. Here he talks about what's been keeping him motivated during lockdown.

Alex Marsh in his paddling pool after running a marathon in his garden.

“Although I’ve been running for over 20 years this was due to be my first London Marathon – running as part of Team Young Lives for CLIC Sargent in memory of our friend’s daughter who sadly died of cancer.

“After the initial disappointment of the marathon being postponed (and a few weeks laid up in bed with virus symptoms) my first instinct was to stop my marathon training and plan for 2021.

“But having read about the funding crisis that CLIC Sargent was facing due to COVID-19, I was determined to get back out there.

“So as part of the 2.6 Challenge I decided to run a marathon in our (very small) back garden on Sunday 26 April, the same day the London Marathon was due to take place. This ended up being over 2,600 laps of our garden and I snuck in just under 4 hours – and yes I felt very dizzy at the end! The great news was this caught the attention of lots of family, friends, neighbours and colleagues at Klarna – and amazingly helped me raise an extra £2,000 for CLIC Sargent.”

Since then I’ve been running lots of virtual races as part of my training - from 5km up to half marathons. I’ve built up quite a medal collection and its helped keep me in shape should the London Marathon go ahead in October.

“This year I decided to run 100 miles of races for CLIC Sargent which started on the muddy slopes of the South Downs back in December 2019 with a 10 mile Santa Dash and will hopefully finish on The Mall for the London Marathon. I’m up to over 70 miles so far and for all the races I’ve proudly worn my CLIC Sargent running vest.

“Having settled on the challenge, I’ve tried a number of different channels to reach as many different potential supporters – posting regular progress updates to my Just Giving page and social media – but also using WhatsApp and emails for friends & families, the company intranet for my work colleagues at Klarna and even handwritten notes through the doors of our neighbours.

“But what seemed to work best was live streaming the garden marathon on Instagram which brought to life how unbelievably tedious running in small circles for 4 hours is!!!

“One of the best parts of fundraising for CLIC Sargent has been following the progress of all the Team Young Lives runners in our private group on Strava. I’ve got to know many of them virtually as friends and do hope that we get to meet in person at the London Marathon to celebrate our achievements and the wonderful work of CLIC Sargent together.”

Thank you Alex!

Your suppport  in this really difficult time has been incredible. Your enthusiasm and energy have really been an inspiration.

If you’d like to learn more about Alex’s journey you can check out his updates on Just Giving or Instagram (@alexdgmarsh).

Thank you for being a super star supporter Alex!