London Marathon: 'I don’t think disability sport gets enough recognition'
Every year over 37,000 professional and amateur runners tackle the 26 mile and 385 yard course that makes up the London Marathon.
Most people taking part are raising money for a huge variety of good causes, and on Sunday morning 25 runners will be lining up to fundraise for the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS).
This week, EFDS tells the story of just some of those pulling on the Federation’s branded vests to run through London, raising money to support more disabled people to be active.
Today, Jayne Greensill discusses running with a training partner, fundraising for EFDS and looking forward to London.
Jayne’s Marathon story:
The reason I’m doing this year’s London Marathon is that I’ve helped to coach a lady to be able to run from zero to the whole 26 miles.
She’s called Jo Martino, and I’ll be running with her for the English Federation for Disability Sport (EFDS). Jo won a place through the ballot, and as I began to coach her it became evident that she wouldn't be able to complete the Marathon without some support. So I approached EFDS, got a place and will be fundraising.
We started to train in the week before Christmas, although I have been working with her in total for the last 18 months. Jo got injured at Christmas, turning her ankle in a pothole. She was unable to run for three weeks, so she had to catch up in the New Year.
Jo’s daughter has mild cerebral palsy, and when she was at school she had very little support and felt left out. As an athletics coach, I’ve seen the good work of EFDS on many occasions. Youngsters don’t always get the support they deserve, so that’s why we’ve both picked EFDS.
I’ve coached Jo up from zero miles. The motivation will be hard for her, as she’s never run this distance before. She’ll have to stay positive, and I will keep her motivated by encouraging her, smiling at her. And I have done extra training, more training, just to be able to both finish the run and help Jo.
She will be very emotional when she finishes – she has already told me she will hug me for an hour. It has been a massive goal for her, because when she started she was very overweight. She was unable even to run 100 yards when we started, so she has travelled so far in the last 18 months. Together, we want to finish in five-and-a-half hours.
I’ve completed marathons before, but I’ve never run London. I can’t wait for that famous atmosphere, plus every single charitable organisation will be there. There will be an awful lot of emotion on the day.
I’m looking forward to the whole race, seeing all the sights, running along all those closed roads and being able to go with the flow of the crowd.
I don’t think disability sport gets enough recognition in the community. I work around West Yorkshire and we want to raise the charity's profile for the money it raises and work it delivers.
I have coached runners for eight years, and when I have run marathons in the past it gets very hard from the 20th mile onwards. To get through that I count, I think positive, I visualise the finish line, the family and all the money I’m raising for a worthy cause.
