Andrea Fox on the Brighton Marathon

Juice FM’s Andrea Fox prepares for Brighton Marathon 2012

Some celebrities will definitely do it. Many will do it in fancy dress. One bloke is doing it eight times, one after the other. Another guy is making it more difficult for himself, moon-walking the whole thing, which will make it take at least two days. What am I talking about? The third Brighton Marathon of course. What else?

I hope you had a good vantage point to watch the Brighton Marathon from last year. I was staying out of the unseasonable April glare eating a bagel and a coffee on Church Road watching the runners. Some shops were blaring music to keep up the runners’ moral and people cheered. How lovely to see! What a brilliant achievement for them! I would never do that in a million years. Apparently, 12 months was what I meant to say.

On Sunday 15 April I shall be running my first, and last, marathon. Good luck to you too if you’re running, especially if, like me, it’s your first time. Be nice when you overtake me. Everyone has probably been giving you advice, in the office, down the pub, even if you’ve never seen them run to answer a ringing phone, never mind a bus. My friend, who has recently got a dog, has become a bit of a ‘dog-owner-bore’ (you know who you are) so it’s been a comfort to get her back by turning into a running bore. I talk about carb loading, talk about PBs at Withdean track with Brighton and Hove Athletics, sports massage at Studio57, energy gels and minutes and miles and new exciting stretches. Some days reader, I don’t recognise myself. But I have found love through this new running obsession: I’ve totally fallen for my foam roller! It helps relieve my stressed calf muscles.

As part of training I completed the Brighton Half Marathon, my second ever; I got a time, exactly the same time as last year. I wanted to cry. I couldn’t. I had to take the medal, silver blanket and banana a volunteer handed me. Thankfully, the route was a bit longer than planned so with my adjusted time I got my personal best of 1:59. It may only have only been 20 seconds under two hours but it was a victory nonetheless. And so my target is to finish the Brighton Marathon in under four hours. If one half marathon takes two hours, I should be able to finish the full one in four hours, right? Maths has never been my strong point but I’m pretty sure that’s the way in works. In theory. We’ll find out the reality next month.
Giving to charity is always a good thing, and no charity is more worthy than another but I really wanted to run the Marathon for a local charity. One who maybe you don’t hear as much about. That’s why I decided to run the Brighton Marathon for The Whitehawk Inn, a community centre which, as the name suggests, is in Whitehawk. It’s there for anyone who needs it for advice, support and even training.

So far the furthest I’ve run is 13.1 miles. The Marathon is 26 and a bit miles. Before I started on the running I thought it was all about miles, running all the way to Saltdean and back every weekend and up and down Wilson Avenue every Wednesday. I’ve found there’s more to being a strong runner, strength and core training, track trails at the Withdean, the Hove Park 5K run on a Saturday morning. I started off a blog called Running Is Like, Well Boring, because that’s how I found it, but according to my friend I now ‘look like a runner’. Whatever that means. I hope I really, really look like a runner during the Brighton Marathon, and more importantly that I run like one.

I may not be running backwards in a chicken suit for 20 laps of the Marathon course, but I hope you come out to cheer me on anyway.
If you sponsor me, I will give you a Jelly Baby.

Sponsor Andrea at: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/andreafox

Listen to The Guy & Andrea Breakfast Show on Brighton’s Juice 107.2 every Monday to Friday from 7am