18 months ago, after achieving my goal of earning a Good For Age time for the London Marathon, I set myself a new long-term challenge of one day representing England in a marathon or, as I put it, “getting to wear an England vest”.
To achieve that, I’d need to finish in the top three of competing runners in my age group in one of four qualifying races held each year. My plan was to maintain fitness (by optimizing my exercise, diet, sleep, and stress) whilst hoping others lost theirs.
In the meantime, the plan was to enter some of the qualifying races to see where I was at (there is a minimum qualifying time of 3:40:00) and to measure my progress (if any). To that end, last Bank Holiday Monday, I ran the Milton Keynes Marathon.
The good news is I finished it in 3:28:07 but the truly fantastic news is that, of those competing in my age group, I came 2nd and have just been officially notified that I’ve qualified to represent England at the 2027 International Marathon in Manchester.
I’ll get to wear an England vest!
