Running the London Marathon

London Marathon 2014 - Your chance to run it and help people with scleroderma!

If you would like to be considered for one of our five Gold Bond places in the Virgin London Marathon 2014 please contact us with your story of why you want to raise funds for the Scleroderma Society. Five runners will then be chosen to repesent us. But have a look at the information below first!

Thank you for your interest in running the London Marathon on our behalf; we are delighted that you are considering undertaking this event and raising funds for us! The London Marathon is a major athletic and fundraising event. Runners can enter the race either through the public ballot, or through a charity. Many people don’t get a place through the ballot since it is extremely oversubscribed; there are around 35,000 places every year with as many as 125,000 runners applying! The marathon organisers sell a proportion of these places to charities who then offer the places to runners who, in return, pledge to raise a minimum amount of sponsorship money for the charity.
The reason runners are able to raise large amounts of money is that most people appreciate the significant achievement of running the 26.2 miles in a marathon. It’s not just the effort required to complete the distance on the day. It’s also the months of training and preparation that go into it beforehand. Training starts at least four months before the marathon and, although weeks will differ, on average people need to run 25-45 miles per week.

The elite athletes will complete the course in a little over two hours. Good club runners will be looking to get under four hours. The slower athletes will take six or seven hours. The average is around five hours which is a very long time to be running! But, as well as the funds you raise to help people with scleroderma, the overwhelming sense of achievement you will feel when crossing the finish line will be immense! You will be able to say “I’m a marathon runner” and you will be on a high for weeks!

Participating in the London marathon is an exciting challenge, a wonderful adventure and a rewarding experience.

The Scleroderma Society holds five Gold Bond (guaranteed) places for the 2014 Virgin London Marathon which the charity has to purchase from the organisers at a cost of £300 each (+VAT). If you are successful in your application with us, we will provide you with a Scleroderma Society running vest, training plans, fundraising support, free entry to a ‘Meet the Experts’ weekend in London (arranged by the organisers) and coverage in our newsletter, website and facebook page.

Running the marathon is a very demanding physical task, as is the training needed in advance. We recommend that, if you are not a regular runner already, you start your training well in advance, ideally in the autumn. But certainly no later than four months prior to the event – which would be the middle of December. We are happy to guide you with training suggestions and tips if you feel you need some support in this area.

We ask that each of our runners pledges to raise a minimum of £1,700 (excluding Gift Aid) for the Scleroderma Society.

If you are interested in running the London Marathon 2014 for the Scleroderma Society, either via your own place in the public ballot or by applying for one of our Gold Bond places, please contact tony@sclerodermasociety.co.uk or contact the office

London Marathon 2013 - Huge congratulations to our runners!

They all did tremendously well on what was quite a warm day in London. As a marathon runner myself I know exactly how they felt at the finish. A mixture of a real sense of achievement, relief and pain! For the record, their times were as follows:

James Pepe 5:57:48
Vikki Roberts 6:02:44
Jen Zielinska 4:44:40
Kevin Morton 3:57:27
Greg Meacham 5:16:46

Heroes all of them!

London Marathon 2013 - runners looking forward to the big day!

We are pleased to announce we have allocated all our Gold Bond places for the 2013 London marathon to five enthusiastic, and proud supporters of the Society - they are all looking forward to the challenge of fundraising and training for the big day, 21st April 2013.

If you have your own place in the race and would like to run on our behalf, we'd love to hear from you! Please contact susie@sclerodermasociety.co.uk.

One of our 2013 runners, Vikki Roberts, has set herself a year-long challenge. Read more here:

London Marathon 2012 - congratulations to all our runners!

The Society's team of nine runners spent the winter months knuckling down to the task of preparing to race 26.2 miles in what turned out be the most iconic London marathon of recent years, with 2012 being the year London is playing host to the Olympics.

We send our congratulations and thanks to Society’s gold bond team, Ally, Gary, Matthew, Rob, Kevin and Jim. Special thanks also go to our team of ballot place runners who also raised funds and awareness for scleroderma and the Society, Amy, Jane and Jo. They were accompanied in spirit by Lee who ran the Brighton marathon instead, one week prior to the London marathon, this April.

Tough, deep-spirited, and very determined!

They spent the last six months, from the end of autumn, through the darkness of winter and into early spring, heading out the front door in their running shoes, pounding their way through 4-6 training sessions per week, hours on hours, gradually increasing the distance they could run from a few miles up to around 20-22 miles, in preparation for the full 26.2 miles they had to traverse on race day. They ran through wind, rain, sunshine, and hopefully not too much hail or snow! All with the same goal in mind; raise as much awareness and funds for scleroderma as they can; each of the runners has a personal connection with scleroderma, and it is therefore a cause close to their hearts. They all took immense pride in crossing the finish line and receiving their finisher’s medal; just award for the time and effort they and their families dedicated to not only their training, but also their fundraising campaign.

Raising awareness as well as funds

All ten donned a Scleroderma Society running vest, blue in colour with the Society logo on the front, and the Society’s aims printed on the back. Their names were written across the top, so the many crowds could cheer them on by name, which came as a great morale boost as the going gets gradually tougher.

We are very proud of their efforts and know they ran with pride! A stupendous thank you from everyone at the Society to these brave (mad) nine for your commitment to our cause; we are very appreciative of all the time and effort you, your friends and families invested into the event and hope you will be proud of the money and awareness you raised for scleroderma along the way.

Run for us!

If you have your own place in the London marathon, or any other, and would like to join our team, raise funds for us and wear one of our race vests, please contact tony@sclerodermasociety.co.uk and we’d love to hear from you.

For some general Scleroderma Society and marathon background info, click here: Download PDF

Read our runners' stories races by clicking on the names or photos below.

2012

Kevin, Amy

2011

Amy, Chris, Gareth, Rob, Steve, Sue

2009

Susie