Billy’s route to London

Where it all started

I guess how my running journey would be described is it’s always been there but never in the conventional way. As anyone does I partook in cross country in school and even enjoyed it enough to join the track run club for a brief period when I was a kid. I have always been sporty and to my parents detriment/wallets, I wanted to try everything, tennis, running, football, swimming and basketball. One stuck out though, more than the others.

Basketball, I fell in love with the game and trained for hours on end, week in week out until I made the Guernsey team. I eventually fell out of love with the game as my interests changed but as my sporty intentions stuck with me. I jumped right into the addiction of football ending up playing every week multiple times a week. If you don’t know both of these sports involved a lot of running and I pride myself on being one of the quicker players in the team so would dart up and down the court or pitch endlessly. Then Covid hit and you’d expect me to say this is where I found running, like all the other people my age did but no not me I relished the fact I could do nothing but play video games till the early hours of the morning with no responsibilities.

Almost a year after Covid, my mate got into running and made it his entire personality and went through a massive body shape transformation. He wouldn’t stop talking about how fast he was getting and how much work he was putting in. I loved how much he was thriving and pushing himself, but I have to be honest I’m competitive and thought I could go out without any training and beat his 5k, I can’t let this kid be faster than me! So I did, I bought some running shoes over Christmas and eventually got out for a run. Obviously going out and just pushing a 5k at my max without any knowledge of what I am actually meant to do but I loved it too. I got the bug and kept going out for runs to try and get faster and faster.

After that we get to where we are now. Over the two years since finding running I have stopped playing any other sport and once again got addicted to something. I’ve taken part in as many races I could get my hands on and kept thriving with my own goals I set myself in this sport. Moving to Farnham has kept my spark even more lit as it has allowed me to do all these events I wouldn’t have had the opportunity of doing back home. My running journey in a sense has only just begun and I haven’t even done the big distance yet! So when the ballot was drawn in the most dramatic and intense way possible (never again please) I couldn’t believe that I was the last name remaining and that London 2026 will be my first Full Marathon.

I am beyond excited to start my first marathon training and get my first marathon experience the way I am. I want to thank everyone for welcoming me into FTRC with open arms and becoming a great social and supportive community for me to enjoy every week.

I hope people can get down to the marathon and support me as I take on a giant in the world or running and celebrate the sport of running together.